Linksys router settings

There are a couple of settings options in Linksys ADSL routers that I
don't understand:

Connect on demand max idle time xx minutes
Keep Alive Redial Period xx seconds

What do these mean in practical terms?
Are the options and settings ISP-specific or UK ADSL-specific?
Which option is better, and how do you choose the corresponding xx
value?

Frazer Jolly Goodfellow wrote:
> There are a couple of settings options in Linksys ADSL routers that I
> don't understand:
>
> Connect on demand max idle time xx minutes
> Keep Alive Redial Period xx seconds
>
> What do these mean in practical terms?
> Are the options and settings ISP-specific or UK ADSL-specific?
> Which option is better, and how do you choose the corresponding xx
> value?

a maximum idle time of zero usually means "don't timeout on idle
connection", it looks like you can deselect timeouts on the Linksys
from the screenshot at
<http://www.adslguide.org.uk/hardware/reviews/2004/q4/linksys-wag-54g.asp>

max idle time is handy for time-based chargin, not usual in the UK.

"Keep alive" is usually some sort of checking routine to see if the
connection is alive and restart it if not. Once every 30s or minute
perhaps ?

Phil

"PhilT" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
news:(E-Mail Removed) ups.com:

> Frazer Jolly Goodfellow wrote:
>> There are a couple of settings options in Linksys ADSL routers
>> that I don't understand:
>>
>> Connect on demand max idle time xx minutes
>> Keep Alive Redial Period xx seconds
>>
>> What do these mean in practical terms?
>> Are the options and settings ISP-specific or UK ADSL-specific?
>> Which option is better, and how do you choose the corresponding
>> xx value?
>
> a maximum idle time of zero usually means "don't timeout on idle
> connection", it looks like you can deselect timeouts on the
> Linksys from the screenshot at
> <http://www.adslguide.org.uk/hardware...q4/linksys-wag
> -54g.asp>
>
> max idle time is handy for time-based chargin, not usual in the
> UK.
>
> "Keep alive" is usually some sort of checking routine to see if
> the connection is alive and restart it if not. Once every 30s or
> minute perhaps ?
>
I emailed Linksys and received a response giving general
explanations but advising that the optimal settings are country
and/or ISP specific.

I've posted a question via Plus Net's web site but only received a
pre-packed response. Perhaps someone from Plus Net support could
comment here, please?

On Sun, 28 May 2006 12:44:43 GMT, Frazer Jolly Goodfellow
<no-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:


>I've posted a question via Plus Net's web site but only received a
>pre-packed response. Perhaps someone from Plus Net support could
>comment here, please?
>

You might be better off asking at plusnet.service.customer-feedback
which is monitored by Plusnet Support, rather than here which is
sometimes monitored by off duty members of Plusnet support.

On 29 May 2006, Peter Johnson <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>You might be better off asking at plusnet.service.customer-feedback
>which is monitored by Plusnet Support, rather than here which is
>sometimes monitored by off duty members of Plusnet support.

As things stood from an announcement under a week ago, neither seems
likely to be guaranteed to be monitored except by off-duty staff, as
PN were diverting the staff from watching web discussions and Usenet
to answering their phones and handling a backlog of queries. See
<http://usergroup.plus.net/news_commshelpcsc.php>