home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Monster Media 1993 #2
/
Image.iso
/
comm
/
rblook13.zip
/
RBLOOK.DOC
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1993-05-08
|
9KB
|
227 lines
RBLOOK v1.3 - Another Five Minute Production.
(c) 1993, ComPAT Computer Services.
RBLOOK was written for personal use on my Bulletin Board System.
It will help track telephone expenses on a 'per HUB' basis without
it being necessary to analyze the monthly bill in excruciating detail.
With RBLOOK's output, you'll have a list to use to cross-check that
monthly phone bill .. to verify the calls that are listed in a much
easier manner ... it should help out, anyway.
Note that this program runs fine on my DTK 386/25 under DESQview,
AST Premium/286 and IBM 486/25 Model 90 machines .. I don't think there's
anything about this program that will cause you trouble .. if so, it's
certainly NOT intentional ... given that, I'm sorry, but this has to
happen, so we better get it over with ...
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ This is a FREE utility .... no charge, use it freely and of your own │
│ volition ... I WILL NOT be held responsible for ANY data loss or │
│ equipment damage that you may experience. You've read enough of that │
│ legalese stuff to know about the rest ... │
│ ... simply, if it breaks, it ain't _my_ problem! │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
[ Well, it took about twenty minutes, but big deal ;) ]
RBLOOK reads your ROBOCOMM.LOG file and looks for all calls that
Robocomm lists as " completed " to the 'system' (HUB) that you
specify on the command line. More specifically, RBLOOK examines
each line of ROBOCOMM.LOG and looks for " 'DISCONNECTED FROM ' +
the 'SystemID' ".
USAGE:
RBLOOK hubname [logfile.ext]
Where: hubname = the PACKET name of the system you're calling.
logfile.ext = Any ROBOCOMM.LOG which may have been renamed.
[ to read a .LOG other than one named ROBOCOMM.LOG, include the
log file name on the command line. IE - RBLOOK MUSTANG MAY.LOG ]
For Example .....
RBLOOK MUSTANG
... would list all calls to the system identified as 'MUSTANG'.
The listing will be named [hubname].USE' (MUSTANG.USE in the above case)
and that output will resemble the following listing, which can be
interpretted thusly [ MOST is obvious, but ...] ...
Each 'detail line' contains ...
Date Time Elapsed Min R C Cost
──────── ──────── ──────── ───────── ──────
04/30/93 04:28:55 00:01:49 2 N H 0.26
│ │ │ │ │ │ │
Date Time Duration │ │ │ Estimated
BILLable Time─┘ │ │ Cost
* RATE used─┘ │
** Protocol─┘
* This is the RATE that was used to calculate the cost of the call.
The call's 'time of day' is used to derive the rate. Rates
are either 'day time, evening or nite time' ( D, E or N ).
** The 'protocol' is the 'connection type' that was used to
recognize the 'fudge-factor' when incrementing the ELAPSED
time reported by Robocomm. This is to allow a bit of
'overhead' accounted for by the modem's traneing sequence.
These will ve reported as: H = HST, V = V32, U = V32BIS and
a " ? " for unidentified protocols. (remember that I set this
program up for my use .. it reads the log correctly. in this
regard, for _my_ modem .. a USR HST DS w/v42bis .. to 'older'
model with the round LEDs.)
Anyway .. the sample ..
----------------------------------------------
RBLOOK v1.31 - Another Five Minute Production.
Phone usage for HUB: MUSTANG
Date Time Elapsed Min R C Cost
──────── ──────── ──────── ───────── ──────
04/05/93 18:27:41 00:02:10 3 E V 0.45
04/06/93 10:46:39 00:01:13 2 D U 0.50
04/07/93 04:22:20 00:00:55 1 N H 0.13
...........................................
04/29/93 04:28:38 00:01:24 2 N H 0.26
" 18:48:51 00:01:33 2 E H 0.30
04/30/93 04:28:55 00:01:49 2 N H 0.26
──────── ──────── ──────── ───────── ──────
Calls counted: 28 Minutes: 59 8.41
Average time/≈cost per call: 2.1 0.30
MUSTANG.RAT: Rate file found and used.
Day - 0.25
Evening - 0.15
Night - 0.13
Total lines in ROBOCOMM.LOG: 6608
----------------------------------------------
Phone Rates.
There are three 'kinds' of rates: Daytime, Evening and Nighttime
(or Weekend) rates.
The program uses default values of .25, .15 and .13 respectively.
The defaults MAY BE OVERRIDDEN by creating an ASCII file named
[hubname].RAT in the default directory. This file should be three
lines long, each line terminated by a carriage return/line feed.
Very simple file ... for example ...
.22
.16
.11
.... could be one. The decimal point MUST be present to designate
'cents' and must be flush with the left margin [it is indented here
ONLY to stay in line with these modest docs].
Costs.
Costs are computed as follows:
The TIME OF DAY is considered to determine the RATE that is used.
08:00am - 16:59pm = Daytime Rate
17:00pm - 22:59pm = Evening Rate
23:00pm - 07:59am = Nighttime Rate
* No consideration is given to weekends! Weekends generally mean
that NIGHTTIME rates are in effect, between 11:00pm Friday and
17:00pm Sunday.
The ELAPSED TIME of the call is rounded to the next higher whole
number to conform to Ma Bell's billing structure. For example:
A call who's duration is 2 minutes and 25 seconds will be calculated
(and billed) as though the call had lasted 3 minutes.
The appropriate rate (decided by examining the time of day of the
connection) is multiplied by the call's duration giving a cost for
that call. This figure is also accumulated and reported at the end
of the report.
** A 'fudge factor' has been incorporated! When ANY comm.
program (that includes Robocomm<g>) reports a CONNECTion,
the actual phone call has been underway for a while - while
the modems did their handshake. Thusly, a default factor of
15 (fifteen) seconds is added to the call's duration.
NOTE: I have made the exception for HST connections (generally
faster) to be 8 (eight) seconds.
The 'fudge-factors' that RBLOOK uses are:
Connection type/trigger string Seconds added
────────────────────────────── ─────────────
HST / "HST/HST" 8
V32 / "HST/V" 14
V32BIS / "32BIS" 12
If none of the above are located, 15 seconds is added
to the connect time.
Totals.
Nothing fancy here ... the BILLED minutes and the total cost are
displayed, along with an average minutes per call and average
cost per call.
** A final note: I wrote this program to suit _my_ needs. I understand
what the program does and what it does NOT do ... it's
really pretty simple. It was written to tabulate the
expense associated with pulling echo mail from a HUB
system (therefore the 'HUBName' and 'HUB' references:
this is what Robocomm refers to as the 'System ID'.
If you find this program of use, cool! You can use it 'til the
cows come home BUT ... I operate an electronic bulletin board system
named " Ginger's Port Limited ". It's a somewhat expensive 'hobby' and
I'd REALLY appreciate you sending a few bucks in Ginger's direction.
If you don't like that idea, that's cool, too ... I mean ... afterall,
do you think a helicopter will drop a paddy wagon full of software cops
on your doorstep? ;)
Take care and don't feed Ma Bell too much ...
Phill Terry
PS - You may contact me through using one of the following ....
- Intelec(tm) : Net Chat conference.
- MSI SupportNET : Off-Topic conference.
- USNetMail : US_E-Mail conference.
- CompuLink(tm) : ChitChat conference.
- RaceNet(tm)/UnitedNet : Chit Chat conference.
- CompuServe <sigh> : User ID 73427,1427
OR ... you can call my board ...
┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Ginger's Port Limited │
│ Columbus, Ohio │
│ │
│ 24 Hours / 2400-38400 bps │
│ │
│ 614-268-9456 - USR HST DS (v32) │
│ 614-784-8555 - USR Sportster v32bis │
│ │
└─────────────────────────────────────┘