Status
& Clients
This window displays status information about the in-progress connection, and those users who are logged-in to the server.
The window is tabbed and shows the info per link. Most systems only have one link, so there'll only be one tab, and the text in the tab is little more than decoration. The exact value of the text depends on the OS of the server:
Unix
The text is made up of one or two strings: the link name and the interface name.
For ISDN the link and the interface are the same, e.g. ippp0; and this is what the tab displays.
For other hardware the link (the port or adaptor) and the interface (a dynamically created device) are different. The link might be ttyS1 (a serial port), or eth1 (an ethernet interface used for ADSL). The interface will normally be ppp0.
There is no interface when the connection is closed. At other times it follows the link name after a forward-slash, as in ttyS0/ppp0 where the link is ttyS0 and the interface is ppp0
Windows
If the server is running Windows then the link name is the name of the modem, but with underscores instead of spaces; e.g. Sportster_28800_External
If the connection is open the dialog gives three pieces of information:
The name of the ISP or provider; handy in multiple provider system.
The time the link has been open, in minutes:seconds or hours:minutes:seconds.
When the connection isn't free its cost is shown.
Let me emphasize: the cost and time are for the connection as a whole; they are not your individual cost or time. (connectd doesn't report the individual cost)
When the connection starts, the Connection Status Window is displayed minimized---if it's not already open. It's then hidden when the connection closes, provided it's minimized. (You can restore it and minimize it again and it'll still be hidden.) I see no reason to want to change this behaviour so there are no checkboxes to disable it. But if this is more annoying than useful then edit the config file and remove the MinStatus and HideMinStatus commands from (respectively) the Netup.action and LastNetDown.action parameters
When the connection is free the time is displayed in the minimized title bar of the client list; for other connections the cost is displayed. The system menu allows you to force the time to be always displayed. e.g. if your the ISP drops the connection after an hour, the time may be more important than the cost.
By default the window is "always on top", that is it stays above other windows even when it hasn't got the focus. That can be unchecked from the system menu. (I see KDE2 does this; well I did it first.)
The client-list is the panel in the Status & Clients window full of coloured icons. It shows other users either with open connection or who are logged-in to th server.
Connectd considers the client name to be made from upto three components: the user, the machine, and session. Wconnect shows each in its own column. The machine is optional and not present by default on most servers.
The user part of the client name is the username you logged-onto connectd with. (See the Login Box for more details.)
The machine is the ip-address of the machine on the LAN from which the user is logged in. The machine is either present for everyone or missing for everyone, so WCONNECT only shows a machine column when the server is configured to use the machine as part of the client name.
The session name isn't much use from windows. It's a comment, an arbitary string to differentiate two indepedant connections
There's no editbox which will let you set your session name--I can't see why you'd want to. However if you do, pass it following a ':' wherever you send a username.
The icon at the left of each client shows its request: green if they want the connection open; red if they don't want the connection open.
As long as one icon is green, wconnect will try and open the connection.
If you're using a black white monitor, or are red-green colour-blind, wconnect can display an extra column showing the request state: right click and use the obvious option.
Each row can have zero, one or more physical clients. Wconnect doesn't display info about that.
Each client either has only one request state. If machines aren't turned on then run wconnect on two machines using the same user name: open the connection from one machine and the other will show your connection opening, as if it you'd opened it from that one. As far as the server is concerned they're both the same session. Which is where a session name comes in handy.
Right-click in the client-list and you'll get a context menu.
It is possible to close or abort other programs's connections.
If you have the abort power wconnect will let you abort every body's connection, or those for any group of selected users.
The menu-item appears if you have the abort power. It's greyed out when there are no open sessions (green icons); but its available at all other times.
The menu-item is available when you select one or more users with open connections; its grayed out if you haven't selected a user or none of the selected use have open sessions.
If you don't have the abort power then only your sessions (those with the same user name as you) can be closed.
Connectd allows popup messages to be sent to other users. The context menu opens a message box to do this if:
You have the say power.
The maximum message size is atleast 20×1 characters.
Servers before 2.5.3/4 only allow a single recipient to the message. Send message is a single option which will send a message to the selected clien, and it will be grayed out unless a single client is selected.
Servers after 2.5.3/4 allow multiple recipients. Send message opens onto a submenu which lets you send to the selected entries from the client list, or to everyone logged-in.