Sometimes we'd like to close the dialup connection to the ISP (e.g. so that a shared Internet/voice telephone line can be used for voice calls) -without- having to take down the server (which may be in use by a LAN workstation).
Rather than having to switch the modem's phone line between the phone & modem, I'd REALLY like a way to tell the e-smith box to "hangup and don't dial the ISP for a while," at -least- until I re-enable outgoing dialups to the ISP (e.g. later in the day).
I suppose a workaround -might- be to change the dialup policy, but wouldn't that require (to be safe) a reboot after each dialup policy change? If so, that -wouldn't- help, as server users would be disconnected.
(Not only that, isn't "freedom from the need to reboot after small config'n changes" one of the pleasures possible in the context of a Linux operating system?)
In light of recent talk of future Enable / Disable settings - hopefully, not all of which would require a reboot to make them effective (i.e. after a change to one or more of them) - it seems fitting that we get some -similar- Enable / Disable mechanism to free up a shared telephone line.
Since, in Australia, we pay for local calls to the ISP, it doesn't work for us to try to live with a shorter Internet connection-length policy (that would just increase the telephone bill, rather than facilitating our higher utilization of (ISP-imposed) 4-hour maximum connect-time per call).
We really need a manual Connect / Don't_Connect control, preferably accessible by LAN workstations via telnet.
TIA
3 Replies
2520 Views