		pppmon-0.1  -  Monitor PPP bandwith

This is a small program (or really two) for monitoring the bandwidth
used by a PPP link. One server, pppmon, that should be run in the 
background (should really be started by inetd, but no support for that 
yet), and one or many clients that connect to pppmon and display 
statistics in a small X window. 

Main purpose is for people using ppp-on-demand (diald) for their
internet link, especially when the modem is on a computer out of
reach (I always miss those LEDs on the modem when I can't see them :).

Nothing fancy, pre-alpha-0.1-relase or something. I'm no X hacker
so the code probably stinks but it works (for me). xpppmon.c should
compile without problems on a Sun too (openwin).

To install:
  1. Add a service to /etc/services called pppmon, use a nice free
     port number. If you don't want to do this, edit pppmon.c and
     xpppmon.c and change 5676 to what you think suits you.
  2. Compile pppmon and xpppmon. You may need to edit Makefile.
  3. Start pppmon in the background. You don't have to run it as
     root if you have write permissions in the /etc/ppp directory.
  4. Start xpppmon and be happy. :)

Ah yes, and there's the ip-up and ip-down scripts too. You have to
install them (or extend the ones you got) with the ones in this
package.


If you have any suggestions as how to improve this, making it more
fancy, use X more efficiently (perhaps I should read some documentation)
or anything, please feel free to email me. No flames please... :)


There is a slight problem with high speed modems using compression,
and it's that it's quite difficult to set the scaling right. Normally,
a 14400 bps modem has a maximum transmit speed of 14400 bits per second.
By using ping and large packet sizes I can reach 57600 bps without
problem (ping probably sends rather dull packets), text file transfers
goes up to some 30k. Use the -bps argument to set it the way you
want it - no auto rescaling, sorry.

Furthermore, I expected 14400 bps to yield 1440 bytes per second.
Obviously, that was wrong since I get 1800 bytes per second transferring
gzipped files - and that's 8 bits per byte. Isn't it supposed to be
a few start and stop bits in there somewhere? Or are they counted
for in the kernel?


And, as usual, for me it displays PPP bandwidth. For you, it might
as well blow up your TV. Don't say I didn't warn you... :)


Good luck,

  Calle Karlsson
  KaSH Software AB
  calle@kash.se
