Copyright: Connect and Notify Help System


How is CaN useful to you?

   Connect and Notify is needed by the demanding Internet user, the person who wants not only to access FTP and WWW servers, but others to access his own. It is also needed by the user that does not only want to start his browser and go on surfing, but wants to perform many tasks quickly and easily. For example, Connect and Notify can do the following: As soon as it is started, it will create the HTML file with your dynamic IP address and the current time (if you want it can create and/or a text file which will be uploaded named .plan, a file used by the ‘finger’ so that others can not only go to your WWW page but also find you through finger services), it will upload it using the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) to a server the user defines, then start a ‘ping’ thread which will keep your connection to your ISP alive during periods of inactivity, launch any number of programs you want locally (for example a FTP or a WWW server, your browser, a telnet client, etc), start a timer which shows you for how long you have been connected, and totally hide right after, leaving only an icon in the system tray with the basic operations. Right after going online, it will check for change of the IP address (as in connection was closed and established again under a new IP address) and if such is detected, the HTML file is generated and post again. Of course, the above is not the default operation of CaN, but a combination of its features -  as we said, Connect and Notify is highly customizable. You can have CaN use any combination of its abilities, in a very easy way.


Local Servers window

   Using the “Local Servers” window you can let Connect and Notify know of programs you want to be launched as soon as uploading of the “online” HTML file has been accomplished. Such programs can be local TCP servers, like a FTP server (Serv-U, WarFTPd, etc) or some WWW server (ie. The server provided by Microsoft with FrontPage). They can also be any other program you are using to access the Internet, such as Netscape, Internet Explorer, FTP and telnet clients, news readers etc. Connect and Notify does not know what each program entry is supposed to do, it just starts them. You can use any number of programs, but only the ones that you want will load every time. This is to save time, since you may not want all the programs to start every time you go online.

   All you have to do, is click on the “Add” button. This brings up a dialog with which you can find the executable program you want to launch when going online. After you choose it, you will realize that beside its name in the Local Servers list there will be the word “On”. This means that the program will be loaded when you upload the “online” HTML file. In case you do not want that to happen, click on the “Toggle” button. This will change the word to “Off”, which means that Connect and Notify is aware of the program, will save it along with the others of the list, but it will not start it when it goes online. You can change any entry of the program list by clicking on it and then on the “Toggle” button. In case you want to delete an entry, click on it and then on the “Delete” button.

   Closing the window by clicking on “Okie” saves all the changes you made. If you made some mistake and don’t want changes to be saved, click on the “Cancel” button.

TODO: This program launcher does not yet accept arguments to programs that may need it. I hope I will fix this soon.


Name Server Lookup window

   This feature of Connect and Notify is used to find out a computer’s connected to the Internet hostname from its IP address, and vice-versa. It also provides any alias it can find for the host that is looked up.

   Consider this example: You have the IP address: 18.0.0.1 and you want to find out the hostname for it. You open the NSLookUp window by clicking on the respective button, and insert this IP address in the edit area at the top of the window. Then, you press the “Go On” button, and CaN tries to find out the hostname for the given IP address. After some time it returns in the area right below, the hostname mit.edu. Now, say that you have the hostname mit.edu but you want to find its IP address. You insert the hostname mit.edu, and click on the “Go on” button. After some seconds (this time depends on the name resolving provided by the ISP and the Internet, and can take from 1-2 seconds to 30-40) the results will be shown on the window’s big edit area.

   In case that a host is not found, the user is prompted. This can happen a few seconds after the request, or it could take until the call’s time out at 45 seconds.

   Please note that this lookup is totally based on your Dialup Networking settings. Connect and Notify has no way to decide where to ask for the resolving, the requests are always addressed to the first name server you have defined in Control Panel / Networks / TCPIP / Properties / DNS configuration / DNS server search order (for win95).


Online and Offline Notify buttons

   Clicking in these two buttons upload the “online” or the “offline” file that you have created beforehand, respectively. In case you click on a button and the respective HTML file has not been created, Connect and Notify will prompt you to create the file first. Since CaN will have to connect with FTP to a personal account, it will also have to know the parameters to be defined in the Settings window. If these information has not been provided by the user, CaN prompts for that too.

   If everything is set, CaN will start a new thread that will take care of the upload process. This will automatically generate the HTML file with the current IP address and time, according to the HTML files windows, connect to the FTP server, log in, change directory and upload the respective HTML file. If the user has clicked on the Online notify button, the “online” file will be uploaded, and if it’s the  Offline notify button that has been clicked on, then the “offline” file will be uploaded to the server.

   While the “online” file is uploaded, the Offline  notify  button is disabled, and vice-versa. This is because CaN is multithreaded, and trying to upload the two files simultaneously could cause miscellaneous conflicts.

   The “online” HTML file can be uploaded automatically at startup, if the user wants to. All you have to do is check the option in the main window, right under the online timer. In such case, as soon as CaN launches it will look for your IP address, and perform all the tasks it would if you had hit the Online notify button.

   Either automatically or manually, when “online” information is sent, Connect and Notify can start some programs locally and also start a “ping” thread. More about these features are in the Local Servers and the Ping  menu/window sections.


Registration Information

LISENCE AGREEMENT:

The unregistered version of CaN 1.3 has 2 features disabled: It will  not update the HTML file in case your IP address changes (as in you were disconnected and then connected again), and it will not get the network time (nor will it synchronize the clock, as obvious). As soon as you use your registration password these will all be functioning as desired.

You can use this piece of software without registering within an evaluation  period of 30 days.  If you want to continue using it after this period, you  have to register with CaN. To do this, send $15 US, to the address:

Constantinos Kotsokalis

Solomou 43

Galatsi 11147

Athens

GREECE

PLEASE send cash, NOT checks! I have to pay a little more than 15 $US to cash checks, which is no good. DO NOT FORGET TO WRITE CLEARLY YOUR FULL NAME AND EMAIL ADDRESS!!! One day after i receive your subscription i will email you a password which you can use to register CaN. Make sure that you make a note of the name to register,  because the password will be generated according to this name. Please allow some 2 weeks (or a little more) for the email reply, as snail-mail takes quite some time to come to Greece.

Registering with CaN entitles you to full support though email. This includes  serious effort to add features you would like CaN to have, in the next versions.

IF YOU REGISTER WITH CaN YOU WILL ALSO GET THE NEXT VERSIONS OF IT FOR FREE!

Unregistered users have no right to technical support, still i'm eager to hear  their comments, suggestions, bug reports. If you have any of the above, please  let me know - no matter if you have registered or not. My email address again is:

C.Kotsokalis@ece.ntua.gr

Keep in mind that, i have put some very serious effort in writing CaN. I really think that hard work must be rewarded, and apart from that, the more registrations i have coming in, the more productive i get :-) So if you want to see CaN getting better and more features being added in every new version, do register!

DISCLAIMER:

"Connect and Notify" is supplied as is.  The author disclaims all warranties,  expressed or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of  merchantability and of fitness for any purpose. The author assumes no  liability for damages, direct or consequential, which may result from the use  of "Connect and Notify". By using "Connect and Notify" you automatically  agree to the above conditions of use.


The Check Mail window

   In order to check for new mail, Connect and Notify connects to a POP3 server (as all winsock email clients do). In case you don’t know this server’s hostname or IP address, contact your ISP. This is the hostname / IP address you have declared in your email reader too. This information must be inserted in the first edit area.

   In the second area you will have to provide your login name in the server. This could be the first part of your email address, and it’s most possibly the login name you are using to upload the HTML file when going “online” or  “offline”. This login name must have been provided to you by your ISP, and it is the one you are using with your email client again (Netscape, Eudora, Pegasus, etc). The above applies to the password area too: This is the password you are using with your email client software.

   The third area defines how often (in minutes) Connect and Notify will have to automatically look for new mail. CaN does not simply look for the number of mails, and suppose there is new mail when it sees more than it knew. It retrieves the unique ID for each message, and compares them with the ones it knows. If it finds new ones it will bring up a window informing you that there is new mail waiting. In conjunction with your email client software, it is highly possible that the first time CaN checks it will prompt you for new mail although there will be no new mail found by your email client. This is because the automatic check performed by CaN takes place for the first time as many minutes as you have defined in this last area of Check Mail window, after it is started. In this amount of time, it is highly possible that you have already used your email reader, which has retrieved any new messages. Still, CaN will not know them until it checks for the first time.

   This check can also be done manually, if you click on the “Check” button of the window. A label shows you the progress of the check mail request.


The Finger window

   This window/feature uses the finger service provided on the Internet. Finger is again a client/server based protocol. To “finger” someone you must have a finger client, which connects to a finger server (not always present on a system, though).

   Using finger you can quickly find out information on the person you are interested in, like when he/she last logged in, if they have new mail waiting, etc, and read some information they have written to be their “Project” or “Plan”. Connect and Notify includes this integrated finger client, which is accessed through the “Finger” window. Fill in the edit area with the query you want to perform, and click on the “Go On” button. When a finger query starts, the “Go On” and the “Okie” button are disabled. If you want to interrupt the query, click on the “Cancel” button (which is also disabled while no query is performed). If you want to close the window, click on the “Okie” button. This also saves the last query you performed.

   A typical finger query has the format user@hostname. This differs from the email address, as the email address most possibly is of the format user@domain or user_alias@domain. In both cases, finger will not find them since all finger clients try to connect to a specific machine - connecting to a domain name doesn’t really make sense. You also need the user’s real login name to finger him/her, as their alias (used for the email address) cannot be resolved by any finger client.

   Finger can also be used to find out who is logged in some specific host. In such case, the format of the query is @hostname, which is as before without the user account name.

Take the following examples:

•	C.Kotsokalis@ece.ntua.gr is not a valid query because neither C.Kotsokalis is a true login, nor ece.ntua.gr is a hostname.

•	ckotso@ece.ntua.gr is not a valid query, because although ckotso is my true login name, ece.ntua.gr is not a true hostname.

•	ckotso@cc.ece.ntua.gr is a valid query, since ckotso is my login name and cc.ece.ntua.gr is a hostname.

•	@cc.ece.ntua.gr is a valid query too.

•	@ece.ntua.gr is not a valid query.


The HTML window

   This is the way to edit your HTML files, the ones that will contain the information if you are connected to the Internet, and what your current IP address is - since you obtain this address dynamically, it is most possibly changes every different time you connect with PPP or SLIP - that’s why CaN exists!

   When you click on the “HTML files” button, a pop-up menu appears:

•	Edit “Online” HTML file: Clicking on this item brings up a window where you will make settings and edit the file to inform your page’s visitors that you are connected and what your dynamic IP address is. Note that Connect and Notify inserts all the necessary HTML tags automatically, but a fair knowledge of the HyperText Markup Language (HTML) will help you. The tags CaN inserts are: HTML, HEAD, TITLE and BODY, and their closing tags. This leaves you with inserting the document’s title in the first edit area, some other HEAD tags in the second area (META information, tags to refresh your page, etc), background or background color (BGCOLOR) information in the third area, and the text of the BODY section in the last input area. The latter is what your friends will read when they go to the URL of the uploaded file. Normally, some tags like <CENTER>, <BR>, <HR>, <P> <H1> or <H2> etc will do the trick here. What you must notice, is proper use of the character sequences %I and %T . These are respectively converted by Connect and Notify to your current IP address and the current time. These are case-sensitive, so you cannot use %i or %t.

•	Edit “Offline” HTML file: The above apply here too, with only one difference: The file created by this dialog box, will be the one to inform that you are “offline”, as in not connected to the Internet any more. Note that the file uploaded, either it is at the beggining of your session (so it’s the online file) or at the end (which is probably the offline file), its name is always the one you have defined in the Settings window (or Xline.html if none is defined). This way, the people interested will only have to go to a unique URL and not two different that will say if you are connected or not.

In both cases, the “Okie” button saves any changes and closes the window, while the “Cancel” closes it without saving changes.


The main application window

The main window has the following buttons:

•	Settings

•	HTML files

•	Online notify

•	Offline Notify

•	Local Servers

•	Finger them

•	Ping it!

•	aero-PLAN-e!

•	NetTime

•	NSLookUp

•	Check Mail

There are also the following speedbuttons:

•	Hide window: Clicking on this button hides the application window. This is not simple minimizing, since there is also no entry in the windows taskbar. You can bring up the window again, by right-clicking on the system tray icon and choosing “Show Main Window”.

•	Find IP address: This finds your dynamic IP address, if any. In case you are connected and CaN finds an IP address, it is displayed in the caption (title) of the main window.

•	Refresh: Repaints the application window. Use this is for some reason your screen looks scrambled.

•	About: This open a window with information about the program, and your system too. It shows registration info, if there is one, and also info about your system’s CPU, Operating System, Owner Name, Organization, Total Memory and Swap Area that is used.

•	Exit: Self explanatory .

There is also system tray support: An icon has been added, so that you can perform the most common tasks with one right click - fast and easy. The functions supported are:

•	Show Main Window: Enabled only after application window has been hidden. Restores the window on the screen and its entry in the taskbar.

•	Upload online: It uploads the “online” file(s), either it is defined to be the HTML file, or the plan file, or both. This is equivalent to clicking on the “Online notify” application button.

•	Upload offline: As above, only for the “offline” button. This is equivalent to clicking on the Offline Notify button.

•	Synchronize clock: Finds the time by connecting to a remote time server, and synchronizes the PC’s clock. This happens no matter if the checkbox in the relevant window is checked or not. Available only to the registered users.

•	Check for new mail: Equivalent to clicking on Check mail / Check on the application main window. Can be avoided by setting automatic checking for new email messages.


The NetTime window

   Using this service you can find out the time as suggested by other servers worldwide, and if you want you can synchronize your PC’s clock. That would be very good if your computer’s clock misses or gains time, as it is in most cases.

   The first thing to define in the NetTime window is the server to contact. Almost all Unix servers (they are mainly used by the ISPs) provide time services. If you don’t know/have a server for this, you can use the atomic clock at the server time-A.timefreq.bldrdoc.gov (or tycho.usno.navy.mil  alternatively). The checkbox below this edit area, defines if your PC’s clock will be synchronized to the time returned by the remote time server. If it is checked, the clock is synchronized.

   IMPORTANT: Connect and Notify synchronizes the local clock to the hour / minute / second returned by the remote server, but it does not look at the day / month / year. This will have to be set by you, in the Control Panel, Date/Time (for Windows 95).

   The server response, either the clock is synchronized or not, is shown in the edit area at the end of the window. Right before there is the GMT control, which you have to set in order to find out the correct time. The GMT value (Greenwich Mean Time) is an integer added (as hours) to the time of Greenwich, UK, to find out the time in the other areas of the world. For example, the GMT value for Greece is +0200, which in CaN would be represented as ‘2’. Maximum and minimum values for GMT are +24 and -24 respectively.

   This feature of CaN is enabled only for the registered version.


The Ping menu/window

The Ping service, can be used to find out if a host on the Internet is up and running, what is the quality of your connection with your ISP, and also to keep you connected during periods of innactivity.

Clicking on the “Ping it” button, a popup menu comes up. It has three items, two of which are enabled (you can click on them) every time:

•	Ping Settings

•	Start a ping thread

•	Terminate ping thread

Ping settings brings up a window in which you can customize the way Ping works:

•	Host to ping: This is the hostname or IP address for the machine you will ‘ping’. What CaN will do is send a specific kind of data packets to this machine, and wait for an answer. If it gets on, the machine is working, if not the machine (host) is out. This could mean that it is disconnected from its network, or that it is shut down for some reason. If you just want to keep your connection alive this can be any host at all, and it is preferable that it is a host from your domain so that unnecessary traffic is avoided.

•	Packet size: This can vary from a few bytes to some Kbytes. The value of 56 bytes is the default in all ping clients, and here too. It is strongly recommended that you do not use a large packet size, as it will result in loss of bandwidth from your connection (this is also relevant with the interval between sending data packets). This is necessary an integer value.

•	Interval: This has to do with the case where you are interested in staying connected (or taking statistics for your connection’s quality). Interval number is the amount of time (in seconds) that Connect and Notify will wait between sending two different data packets. Since most ISPs use an inactivity time limit of 5 or more minutes, using the value of 60 seconds (one minute) should be all right here. This is necessary an integer value.

•	Maximum number of packets: This is the number of data packets each ping thread will send after it is started. If you only want to check a host’s connectivity, or your connection to your ISP, a value between 1 and 10 with a 5-10 seconds interval should be quite rational. If, on the other hand you are interested in keeping your connection alive while you are reading, for example, some big document, set this to 0. In this case CaN will send ping packets to the host you have defined, until it exits.

•	The following two check boxes have to do with starting and terminating ping service automatically. If the first box is checked, as soon as Connect and Notify sends the “online” HTML file, and start any local programs, it will start a ping thread that will keep you connected until you reach a time limit defined from your ISP, or you want to disconnect. Of course, in this case it will be logical enough to use ‘0’ as the value of maximum number of packets so that CaN pings indefinitely. If the second box is checked, when uploading the “offline” HTML file, if there is a ping thread working then it is terminated.

The other two items in the popup menu, are used to start a ping thread manually, or terminate one that already exists. When a ping thread is existent and working, the results are displayed in the main window right above the status bar. CaN displays there all the answers sent by the host it is pinging, and the round-trip time in miliseconds. This is the time (in msec) that it took for the packet to leave our computer, go to the other, and return to us.


The Plan window

   This window is used to set values relevant with the .plan file. This file, as well as the .project file, is used by the Unix hosts for the finger service. When you finger someone, if they have a .plan file in their home directory, finger returns along with other information the text of their plan file.

   Using this feature of CaN’s, you can either upload along with the HTML file a text file named .plan which will do the above, or upload only this one instead of the HTML file. This means that people who want to find out if you are connected to the Internet and what is your IP address, will not go to the URL of the HTML file but will finger your account to read your plan. This is simple text file, no tags or anything else. The only thing that you have to put inside the text is the %I and %T sequences, which are substituted by Connect and Notify as in the case of the HTML files.

   The plan (aero-PLAN-e) window has two edit areas that you must fill in with the text for the “online” plan file, and the “offline” plan file respectively. Right below there is a group of check buttons, with which you can define if there will be uploaded only the HTML file, only the plan file, or both of them each time. As in the other cases, “Okie” button saves changes and closes the window, while “Cancel” closes it without saving any changes made.


The settings window

Clicking on the “Settings” button brings up the settings dialog. This is where you define parameters that are necessary for Connect and Notify to run. Specifically, there are the following areas that you have to fill in:

•	Server to upload the files: This is the hostname or the IP address of the FTP server that CaN will connect to, and upload the HTML file. Keep in mind that this can be either an anonymous FTP server, or not. It really doesn’t matter, since CaN uses specific login and password different than the ones normally needed by anonymous FTP connections. The hostname or IP address of this server is normally where you log in to read your mail, or better yet where your Unix account exists - if any. In case you don’t know which this server is, contact your Internet Services Provider (ISP) and ask where you must connect with FTP to upload files. You should already know this, if you already have a web page for which you uploaded the HTML files you have created.

•	Login name: This is the name you are using to log in your ISP when you have a Unix shell. Normally the name of the account that you use to read mail, too. For example, it is highly possible that if your e-mail address is joe@this-isp.net, the name you must use here is “joe”.

•	Password: Again, the password used for verification in case of a Unix account. Normally, you are using it with your winsock E-Mail reader, to retrieve your messages from your ISP.

•	Remote filename: When you upload the HTML file created by Connect and Notify, the default name for it is Xline.html. This means that your friends must visit, for example, the URL http://www.this-isp.net/~joe/Xline.html to see if you are connected and what your current IP address is. Many people want a different name for this file, maybe something like “online.html”, so that the URL seems like: http://www.this-isp.net/~joe/online.html.

•	Remote directory: It is most possible that the directory where your web page resides in your ISP is not your home directory (meaning the directory where you are positioned by the system when logging in or connecting through FTP). Usually, this is a directory called “www”, or “web” or “public_html” under your home directory. In cases, this directory is somewhere else than your home directory, ie: /users/www/pages/joe . In this case, you must provide the whole path to this directory, not only its name. You should already know this, again, if you have a web page.

•	Hide window after going online: If this is checked, the application window hides (from the windows taskbar too!). The only way to bring it up again, is by right-clicking on the system tray icon and choosing “Show main window”.


What is Connect and Notify?

   Connect and Notify is a multi-threaded IP Poster. It is a progam that can find your dynamic IP (PPP) address, insert it in a HTML file created dynamically, and upload it to a server defined by the user. Connect and Notify includes more features than the usual IP Poster, though, to help you manage tasks you often perform when connected to the Internet. Such tasks are finding the IP address for some hostname, for which you can use CaN’s name server lookup feature, checking your account for new mail, finger another Internet user etc.

   Connect and Notify is highly customizable for each user’s needs. I have paid great attention to creating a nice interface, as I strongly believe that a program needs not only be useful, but also easy and pleasant to use. If you have any problem with CaN, my email address is C.Kotsokalis@ece.ntua.gr .