Hi,

I've been helping a lady who recently moved from OS 9 to OS X. She's
using a dial-up account, and almost all she uses it to do is check for
e-mail. In OS 9 her mail app automatically dropped her modem connection
after checking, and she's used to that. As a result, she keep
connecting, checking her e-mail, then burning through her account time
while she reads her messages. She knows she's supposed to send a
disconnect command, but she keeps forgetting.

Is there something available that will disconnect her modem for her
after Mail.app checks her pop account?

--
Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of Bolen Books.
Dale Friesen, Sysadmin
Bolen Books, Inc Victoria, BC Canada
root[at]bolen.bc.ca http://www.bolen.bc.ca

In article <1gogrh8.19njfy65m5v7cN%dfriesen[at]amtsgi.bc.ca>,
dfriesen[at]amtsgi.bc.ca (Dale Friesen) wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I've been helping a lady who recently moved from OS 9 to OS X. She's
> using a dial-up account, and almost all she uses it to do is check for
> e-mail. In OS 9 her mail app automatically dropped her modem connection
> after checking, and she's used to that. As a result, she keep
> connecting, checking her e-mail, then burning through her account time
> while she reads her messages. She knows she's supposed to send a
> disconnect command, but she keeps forgetting.
>
> Is there something available that will disconnect her modem for her
> after Mail.app checks her pop account?

In network preferences, you can set PPP connections to automatically
close after a period of inactivity. Set the period to something like 1
minute. That'd get pretty close to what you seem to need.

--
Tom "Tom" Harrington
Macaroni, Automated System Maintenance for Mac OS X.
Version 2.0: Delocalize, Repair Permissions, lots more.
See http://www.atomicbird.com/

In article <1gogrh8.19njfy65m5v7cN%dfriesen[at]amtsgi.bc.ca>,
dfriesen[at]amtsgi.bc.ca (Dale Friesen) wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I've been helping a lady who recently moved from OS 9 to OS X. She's
> using a dial-up account, and almost all she uses it to do is check for
> e-mail. In OS 9 her mail app automatically dropped her modem connection
> after checking, and she's used to that. As a result, she keep
> connecting, checking her e-mail, then burning through her account time
> while she reads her messages. She knows she's supposed to send a
> disconnect command, but she keeps forgetting.
>
> Is there something available that will disconnect her modem for her
> after Mail.app checks her pop account?
>
> --
> Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of Bolen Books.
> Dale Friesen, Sysadmin
> Bolen Books, Inc Victoria, BC Canada
> root[at]bolen.bc.ca http://www.bolen.bc.ca

System Preferences -> Network -> Internal Modem -> PPP Options ->
Connect Automatically if needed
Disconnect if idle for [10] minutes

Mail -> Preferences -> General ->
Check for new mail: Manually

Now all you need to do is make sure there are no other network aware
applications running that will talk to the internet generating network
traffic that would keep the system from being network idle.

Bob Harris

Bob Harris <harris[at]zk3.dec.com> wrote:

> In article <1gogrh8.19njfy65m5v7cN%dfriesen[at]amtsgi.bc.ca>,
> dfriesen[at]amtsgi.bc.ca (Dale Friesen) wrote:
....
> > Is there something available that will disconnect her modem for her
> > after Mail.app checks her pop account?
>
> System Preferences -> Network -> Internal Modem -> PPP Options ->
> Connect Automatically if needed
> Disconnect if idle for [10] minutes
>
> Mail -> Preferences -> General ->
> Check for new mail: Manually
>
> Now all you need to do is make sure there are no other network aware
> applications running that will talk to the internet generating network
> traffic that would keep the system from being network idle.

That'll do very nicely. Thank-you!

--
Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of Bolen Books.
Dale Friesen, Sysadmin
Bolen Books, Inc Victoria, BC Canada
root[at]bolen.bc.ca http://www.bolen.bc.ca