Modem Lights Applet, shown in , monitors your modem while it is working. To add this applet to a Panel, right-click on the panel and choose Panel Add to panel Applet Network Modem Lights

Modem Lights Applet

This applet can be used to tell if your modem is working, and to track its behavior and performance. It can also be configured to call a separate script or program to have your modem connect and disconnect when you click on the button with the single green light. Right-clicking on the applet brings up a menu containing the following items: Properties— brings up Properties dialog Help — brings up this document. About — shows basic information about the Modem Lights Applet, including the applet's version and author's name. You can customize Modem Lights Applet by right-clicking on it and choosing Properties…. This will open the Modem Lights Settings dialog (shown in , which allows you to change various settings.

Preferences dialog

The properties are: Show connect time and throughput &mdash have Modem Lights Applet's graphic display expand to include two small text boxes showing the current data transfer rate (top) and connect time (bottom). Connect command: and Disconnect command: — To use Modem Lights Applet to initiate a connection, place the name of the startup command in the Connect command text box, and the disconnect command in the box beneath it labeled Disconnect command. When you click on the single button on the applet, it will connect or disconnect your modem. Confirm connection — Display a dialog box confirming your connection. Updates per second — Set the update rate of Modem Lights Applet's display. Show connect time and throughput — add two text windows to the applet showing the time you have been connected at the data transfer rate. This is a good way to monitor your modem's performance. After you have made all the changes you want, click on OK to apply the changes and close the Properties dialog. To cancel the changes and return to previous values, click the Cancel button.

Advanced preferences dialog

Modem Lights Applet's Advanced preferences window allows you to control advanced features of the applet. The properties are: Modem lock file: — specifies the file created by the computer when the modem is working, allowing other programs to know it is in operation. /var/lock/LCK..modem, the default setting, is the most common, if your computer uses a symbolic link from /dev/modem to the actual modem device. Check with your system administrator to see if a different device name and therefore lock file is in use. Modem Lights Applet needs this information to find and monitor your modem. Verify owner of lock file — verify that the lockfile really belongs to the currently running PPP daemon and is not left over from an older one. This is checked by default and shouldn't be changed. Device — Device, typically ppp0 on a Linux machine, is the name of the network interface being used by the modem. If ppp0 is not correct for your machine, check your system documentation for the correct designation. Other possible network interface names commonly used include ippp0 for Linux ISDN; isp0 for NetBSD ISDN and ipdptp0 for Solaris PPP. Use ISDN — If you use an ISDN modem, check the Use ISDN checkbox. Modem Lights Applet will then ignore all the settings above related to standard modems. After you have made all the changes you want, click on OK to apply the changes and close the Properties dialog. To cancel the changes and return to previous values, click the Cancel button. After you made all the choices you want, click on OK to make the changes and close the Properties dialog. To cancel the changes and return to previous values, click on Cancel button. The Verify lock file check box on the advanced preferences window should always be left true. It is likely to be removed from future versions of Modem Lights Applet. Modem Lights Applet was written by John Ellis (johne@bellatlantic.net) and Martin Baulig (martin@home-of-linux.org). Please send all comments, suggestions, and bug reports to the GNOME bug tracking database. (Instructions for submitting bug reports can be found on-line. If you are using GNOME 1.1 or later, you can also use Bug Report Tool (bug-buddy), available in the Utilities submenu of Main Menu, for submitting bug reports. This manual was written by John Fleck (jfleck@inkstain.net). Please send all comments and suggestions regarding this manual to the GNOME Documentation Project by sending an email to docs@gnome.org. You can also submit comments online by using the GNOME Documentation Status Table.