DB> I want to make sure I'm connected to the internet when my program 
 DB> runs. If not, I want to callup the dialer and connect.

 JdBP> I'm convinced that many programmers don't read the
"user" echoes and 
 JdBP> newsgroups.  If they did, they wouldn't ask questions 
 JdBP> such as the one that you are asking, because they'd 
 JdBP> have seen the number of complaints from users who are 
 JdBP> having problems trying to *stop* their applications 
 JdBP> from "automatically" invoking diallers, or from being 
 JdBP> "clever" and "detecting" whether the Internet is 
 JdBP> accessible or not.  

How about those of us who want to be "clever" and do things
slightly differently depending on whether a 'net connection is available or
not?  One thing I know of offhand that *does* do this is the RC5/DES
cracker (plug: everyone join Team Warped by using YOUR spare CPU cycles to
help out!  See: www.distributed.net!).  From a purely theoretical point of
view, I'm curious how they do it...

A good example would be a decent browser which should realize that it is
offline, and automatically act that way.  :-)


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