13.
kisdn's display
You will agree that kISDN is more
than an account configuration utility; if you don't, have a look at
the variety of displays available:
Docking display in
the panel
Especially on small screens, the
presence of a large monitor window is greatly disturbing; this is why
kisdn can be docked, the main window does not need to be open to
see transfer ratios or line states. You can achieve this by pressing the
'Hide' button in kisdn's main window. To have kisdn be docked
each time it starts up you will have to check the option 'Always dock
in panel' in the 'General' tab(press
'Customize').
When you press 'Hide', the main
window is closed and the following window shows up in the panel (magnified
2x):
-
|
-
Yellow
(left): kisdn is dialing out
-
Green
(center left): a phone connection
was made
-
Red
(center right): Data is being received
-
Red (right): Data is being
sent
|
Below the LEDs, the throughput is displayed
graphically.
But what can I do to undo these settings?
Simple, right click on the docking display. A menu will open; choose
'Open Configuration' (left mouse click) and the main window will reappear.
If you wish to keep this window on the desktop, disable 'Always dock
in the panel'.
Status LEDs
If you prefer the main window, you should
have a look at the status LEDs:
Since your ISDN connection provides two
phone lines (the so called B channels), there are two rows of LEDs of
which usually only the upper one (channel A) is used. The introduction
of telephony, however, makes it somewhat likely that you will use both
at some point (just imagine being called while you are browsing the
web).
The LEDs function similarly to those in the docking display:
- Yellow
('Dial'): kisdn is dialing out
- Green
('Con'): The connection is established (costing money) which does
not mean that the login with your ISP was successful; this can only
be verified with the two red LEDs. If they flicker shortly after the
connection is made and the green LED stays lit, you are logged in
(or else your ISP would have hung up and the green LED would have
gone black. Anyway, if the IP address display shows a value different
from 0.0.0.0, you successfully connected to the internet.
- Red ('Tx'):
Data is being sent
- Red ('Rx'):
Data is being received
IP Display
This display tells you which IP
address you can be reached at (the upper line) and your ISPs IP address
(lower line). The buttons 'a' and 'b' allow you to switch between the
IP display for the first B channel and the second; if 'a' is pressed,
the IP addresses for the first channel are shown, likewise 'b' indicates
that information about the second channel is shown.
With this information you can (e.g.)
play internet games - all you have to do is to tell your partner your
IP address. In case of dynamic IP assignment, this display can also be
used to verify you are connected to the internet.
The graphical throughput monitor
The graphical display gives you
an overview over your ISDN lines data throughput - typically over the
last 12 minutes.
The line above the actual display
('Online time') informs you about the duration of the connection (separated
by channels). The uppormost line in the display, the 'Timeline', allows
you to find out at what time a specific event took place (there is a certain
tolerance to this). In addition you can see separators with blue stamps
on them which make it easier to connect any point on the graph to its
corresponding throughput. These separators adapt (the default setting)
to the highest visible transfer ratio (this sounds more complicated than
it really is - go ahead and try). The current throughput is monitored
in the lower right of the main window, just below the graphical throughput
monitor. You can not always trust this display: sometimes it displays
values that are way out of range.
Also below the monitor you will find six buttons that customize the monitor's
appearance:
-

|
Display for channel A
|

|
Display for channel B
|

|
Show the stamps for the separation lines
|

|
Display the total receiving ratio of both channels
|

|
Display the total transmission ratio of both channels
|

|
Display othe total data ratio
|
The button state is indicated
by the little triangular LED in the lower right corner - dark means 'inactive',
lit means 'active'.
Back
to the overview
T.
Westheider, Ch. Demmer, Ch. Zander / January 8 1998 - kISDN Release 0.8.0
|