"Chris 'Bob' Odorjan" <bobnet@canada.com> wrote in message
news:fnn7m2-tjr.ln1@bobnet.odorjan.ca...

> On 05/20/05 6:58 PM, J. Graue wrote:
>
> > The users will turn on the firewall/gateway, say, in the morning, leave
it
> > on all day, use their Windows® systems, occasionally visiting the
Internet.
> > I'm not sure if the phone line for data will be exclusively used for
that;
> > it may also be needed for faxes. Of course, I know that while on the
> > Internet, the office will not be able to receive faxes. But, it means
that
> > I can't just hog the line... I need to let it go after, say, 10 minutes
of
> > idleness.
>
> I did something similar before I had DSL; see the manual for ppp
> (especially the section titled DIAL ON DEMAND) and
> /etc/ppp/ppp.conf.sample for the details, but
>
> set timeout 600
>
> (assuming 10 minutes -- 600 seconds) and running it as
>
> ppp -auto [system]
>
> will do the trick. The userspace ppp software will always be running,
> but will only dial the ISP when an outgoing packet is detected. It will
> shutdown after 10 minutes of inactivity.
>
> > I'd like to figure out how to allow someone on the network the ability
to
> > shutdown the firewall/gateway without having to login to the system (I'm
> > worried they'll freak out at having to look at a command-line), but that
can
> > wait, unless someone has a suggestion.
>
> The system I was using was on all the time, but someone else in this
> thread suggested using a CGI script. A cron job could shut it down, but
> might cause a problem for someone working overtime...
>
> --
> Chris Odorjan - bobnet@canada.com

Thank you, very much, for addressing this and giving a hint. I'll dive in
and see if I can make this system do my bidding!

Best regards,

Jim