[Dxspider-support] Duffers corner!

[Mark Trotman]

Hi folks,

Question 1
As from yesterday, I have had the capability to link GB7GDX to the
network continuously (well almost!) over the Internet. This has meant
that I have had reason to change the crontab in /local_cmd. The old
crontab used to allow a connection to the ISP during weekday evenings
and weekends. Now of course I no longer need that cron and have
altered it so that it checks the connection to GB7BAA every minute
and if it isn't connected it sends a connect request.

The new crontab looks like this;

1-59 * * start_connect('gb7baa') unless connected('gb7baa')

but it doesn't appear to work! Help!! Please! 

Question 2!
During GDX's connections to BAA in the past few weeks it has been
noted that when a connection to the Internet has been stopped (by the
ISP) and restarted by the crontab, GDX often thought that BAA was
connected (much the same as a ghost connection we suffered on the old
AK1A only network). To stop this happening and delaying the flow of
data into GDX and beyond, I think I would like to have GDX disconnect
BAA, disconnect itself from the ISP then carry out the reverse to
restore the cluster link.... Any ideas about what I need to do to
achieve this aim?
 
Question 3
As GDX is connected to the ISP with a dynamic I/P address, every two
hours (or thereabouts) it is disconnected by the ISP. When GDX
rejoins the network, there is a great likelihood that it will have a
different address. What I am looking for is a way that I can remotely
sysop the box from another machine connected to the Internet via
another dynamic link. Does anyone have any ideas how this may be
possible? What if I wanted to connect in and remain connected (as a
user, for example) for periods longer than the ISP allocated 2
hours?? 

Sorry if some of this is basic to you and thanks in advance for any
replies.

73

Mark