version 4.7



Internet Loafer keeps you on the Internet while your computer is unattended.

Most Internet providers have an inactivity timeout. They hang up after a few minutes if you do not do anything online. So if you decide to read a news article off a web page, chances are you will hear a click if you read too long. Internet providers do this so people do not call in and stay online forever. Chances are you are paying for a "dial-up" account that supposedly has 24-hour access, but your provider will eventually hang up on you because it thinks you are not there.

Obviously, a serious pain if you are reading a document, had to use the restroom or just got a phonecall. When you come back, you have to press redial, and hope you can get logged in before all the phonelines are used up by other Internet customers.

Internet Loafer solves this problem by connecting to an Internet server every few seconds, tricking your provider into thinking you are busy at the computer. Now you can take that phonecall or microwave a snack without worrying about your connection.

Note: Please do not use Loafer everytime you dial up. If you hang out online for lots of hours everyday (for no reason), your provider will probably complain quickly, and may even cancel your account. Dial-up customers typically have a rule in their providers agreement that says you can not be online constantly.


Download Loafer version 4.7 (it's free! Self-extracting archive)



Join the Loafer Mailing List (update notifications only)

Your Email address:






Internet Loafer features:



Plus a ton of options, including:



Use your favorite sites!

Loafer doesn't just "ping" sites, he emulates Internet activity such as web, news, Email, gopher, finger, whois, mail, and time clients. That way, your Internet provider believes you're online and keeping busy. Loafer defaults to a listing of 100 sites. If you want to include your own custom site list, here's what to do:

Make a new file called SITES.TXT in your Loafer directory. Add site names to it, one site per line. Each site needs an identifier before it:

Identifiers you can use:

http://, ftp://, finger://, pop3://, smtp://, time://, whois://, gopher://, irc:// or news://

Valid examples:

news://news.airmail.net, ftp://ftp.onramp.net, finger://onramp.net, pop3://mail.airmail.net, smtp://mail.airmail.net, whois://whois.internic.net, http://www.autoweb.com

Please do not include invalid names, such as: www.site.com (the http:// is missing)

If you're confused about what a valid site is, then do NOT create a SITES.TXT, and let Loafer use his defaults. Enough invalid sites will seriously hose your Loafer sessions.



Right-Click Menu
(use your right mouse button to access these menu options at any time)



General Stuff

Restore Loafer
Restores program from task tray to a regular dialog

Ping now
Ping the next site on your list



Commands

Visit Internet Loafer home page
Just what it says

Check out AutoWinNet
Visit the AutoWinNet home page (another cool product of mine)

Reset all statistics
Resets all counters, pingers, and errors to zero

View logfile
Views the logfile (containing errors) using NOTEPAD

Delete logfile
Deletes the logfile

Join Internet Loafer mailing list
Sends an Email to autownet@webcom.com using your default mail reader. Just type in join loafer list or whatever

Export site list to file
Exports Loafer's current site list to a file for you to browse or edit
(You can change some sites, then re-save that file to SITES.TXT for Loafer to import next time it starts!)

Check mail now
If you setup any Email accounts, checks them immediately (rather than waiting for specified interval)



Dialing Config

Note: Windows NT 4 does NOT display any dialing status information, but Win95 does.

Automatically dial my Internet provider
Dial your provider before pinging. If you're already connected, does nothing

Provider's name
The RAS entry you want dialed

Password
Password to that RAS entry

Timeout
How long to let it ring before giving up

Retries
How many times to retry the number if it's busy, no answer, etc.

Minimize Connect To dialog once connected
Once connected, minimize that irritating "Connect To" dialog (Windows95 only)

Forget password after connection
Empty the password field once connected (security feature)



Email

Check Email when idle
You can check an unlimited number of Email accounts while Loafer is online. Just press the Add button to add an account, and Delete to remove one from the list.

If any mail is waiting, a mail icon appears in the lower right corner, along with the account and number of messages. For example: (davidr=3) means the davidr account has three messages waiting.

Sound an alarm when mail is waiting
Notifies you when Email is waiting from one of your configured accounts

Configure Email accounts

Check mail after every ...
If you check this box, Loafer will check all Email accounts in the list after a certain number of pings.

... pings
How many pings should be performed before checking mail again?



Proxy Server

If you use a proxy server for web commands, then check this box. A dialog will come up, and you can enter the server name + proxy port. If in doubt, contact your Internet provider to obtain proper proxy settings.
Note: During pinging, Internet Loafer shows any proxy servers/ports being used.

Use web proxy server
Use the web proxy server (only applies to http:// sites)

Configure Proxy server
Configure your proxy server's name and port number



Speed Options

Ping rapid recovery
Loafer connects quickly to a web server, then disconnects, ignoring any received data. This uses very little time, and will speed up your pings.

Html Headers Only
Loafer retrieves just HTML headers, not the entire HTML file. This should speec up your pinging dramatically.

Rough pinging
Ping non-stop, very quickly If combined with Ping rapid recovery, you appear to be working really hard on the 'Net! (If used too often though, your provider will charge into your house with a butcher knife)

Note: Pressing Stop or Close while this is turned on may cause a delay in halting the pings. Please be patient… Also - this hogs all winsock time, so if another Internet application is running, it probably will timeout.



What to see?

Track time statistics
Should he show you the cool stats? (1.12 Seconds for this ping, and 3.11 seconds average)

Show animation
Wanna see some cute graphics?!

Display Rude Comments
When a server is slow to respond, the Loafer will make a comment about this. Comments include: "Slow today, huh?"
"Someone fall asleep over there?"
"Bring some coffee and donuts!"

Note: You can make a file of your own custom comments called COMMENTS.TXT. Each line must contain a rude comment, and this file is imported when Loafer starts.

Ping and minimize on startup
If checked, he will immediately start pinging and hide in your taskbar. No button pressing!

Show current time
Puts a time before any displayed messages (eg: 8:09p Connecting to site)

Minimize on Lost Focus
If Loafer is pinging, automatically minimize when another application gets focus (if you click anything other than Loafer, it auto-hides)



On errors

Kill Loafer after 10 errors
Just what is says

Bring to top on failure
When an error occurs, brings Loafer on top of any window you're working in. This may get annoying!

On ping failure, change site
If a ping fails to connect, then change to the next available site from the "Ping Host" combo box.

Sound an alarm when an error occurs
Notifies you when an error occurs



Randomize stuff

Ping at random intervals
Disable the "interval of pings", and select a random number of seconds between 1 - 130. The value is generated after every ping.

Randomly choose site
Select a random site from the combo box (this also disables the site combo)




What's New


New in version 4.7:

New in version 4.6:

New in version 4.5:

New in version 4.1:

New in version 4.0:




Acknowledgements