Running programs only when online

Is there such a thing as a program that detects an Internet or network
connection and runs starts certain programs (and perhaps closes them when
the connection is lost)?

My laptop is usually connected to the Internet via wireless cable router.
But it is in the nature of a laptop to not always be in the same place,
and sometimes I don't have an access point. Besides, sometimes I just
lose my wireless connection for some reason.

Whenever I boot without an Internet connection, I have a few programs
that try to connect, fail, and complain. I can usually avoid this by just
having the laptop hibernate instead of turning it off. But occasionally I
have to actually reboot in a situation where I have no connection.

It would be nice if, instead of running the programs that need
connections during startup, I could run another program that controlled
those programs, only allowing them to start if a connection is available.

Is there such a thing?

"Gail Gurman" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:Xns950568E775625gailhomemailcom@63.223.5.250. ..
> Is there such a thing as a program that detects an Internet or network
> connection and runs starts certain programs (and perhaps closes them when
> the connection is lost)?
>
> My laptop is usually connected to the Internet via wireless cable router.
> But it is in the nature of a laptop to not always be in the same place,
> and sometimes I don't have an access point. Besides, sometimes I just
> lose my wireless connection for some reason.
>
> Whenever I boot without an Internet connection, I have a few programs
> that try to connect, fail, and complain. I can usually avoid this by just
> having the laptop hibernate instead of turning it off. But occasionally I
> have to actually reboot in a situation where I have no connection.
>
> It would be nice if, instead of running the programs that need
> connections during startup, I could run another program that controlled
> those programs, only allowing them to start if a connection is available.
>
> Is there such a thing?

Yes, the ICQ NetDetect program does this. I don't have ICQ on this machine
but I seem to recall that you can configure NetDetect to launch other apps
as well.

HTH
-pk

"Patrick Keenan" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
news:_Mmyc.53816$(E-Mail Removed) :
> Yes, the ICQ NetDetect program does this. I don't have ICQ on this
> machine but I seem to recall that you can configure NetDetect to
> launch other apps as well.

That's a thought, but I wonder if you can run NetDetect without running
ICQ. I prefer Trillian.

Gail Gurman <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
news:Xns950568E775625gailhomemailcom@63.223.5.250:

> Is there such a thing as a program that detects an Internet or network
> connection and runs starts certain programs (and perhaps closes them
> when the connection is lost)?
>
> My laptop is usually connected to the Internet via wireless cable
> router. But it is in the nature of a laptop to not always be in the
> same place, and sometimes I don't have an access point. Besides,
> sometimes I just lose my wireless connection for some reason.
>
> Whenever I boot without an Internet connection, I have a few programs
> that try to connect, fail, and complain. I can usually avoid this by
> just having the laptop hibernate instead of turning it off. But
> occasionally I have to actually reboot in a situation where I have no
> connection.
>
> It would be nice if, instead of running the programs that need
> connections during startup, I could run another program that
> controlled those programs, only allowing them to start if a connection
> is available.
>
> Is there such a thing?
>

Why not just NOT start those programs everytime you re-boot and instead
you can create a dos .bat file to place on the desktop which you can
double-click once at boot time to start all of your programs that require
an internet connection.

I futzed with this for a while trying to start a bunch of MRTG scripts
all at the same time w/o having to start each individually.

The trick is not to start the exe file in the batch file, but rather
execute a .lnk file (shortcut).

I just created a .bat file to test it out and this is all that's in it,
the full path to the shortcut must be there as well as DOS equivalent
folder and .lnk names:

C:\Docume~1\ds\StartM~1\Programs\Internet\filezill a\FileZilla.lnk
C:\Docume~1\ds\StartM~1\Programs\Audio\Winamp\wina mp.lnk

When I double click it, both winamp and filezilla start and then the .bat
file terminates automatically. This won't work with the .exe file because
if it is done that way, it will execute the first line and wait for that
program to end before it executes the next line.


DS

I think you could use hardware profiles if you are win2k/xp.

"Gail Gurman" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:Xns950568E775625gailhomemailcom@63.223.5.250. ..
> Is there such a thing as a program that detects an Internet or network
> connection and runs starts certain programs (and perhaps closes them when
> the connection is lost)?
>
> My laptop is usually connected to the Internet via wireless cable router.
> But it is in the nature of a laptop to not always be in the same place,
> and sometimes I don't have an access point. Besides, sometimes I just
> lose my wireless connection for some reason.
>
> Whenever I boot without an Internet connection, I have a few programs
> that try to connect, fail, and complain. I can usually avoid this by just
> having the laptop hibernate instead of turning it off. But occasionally I
> have to actually reboot in a situation where I have no connection.
>
> It would be nice if, instead of running the programs that need
> connections during startup, I could run another program that controlled
> those programs, only allowing them to start if a connection is available.
>
> Is there such a thing?
>

DS <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
news:Xns9505D55CDFC44idispcom@216.65.98.77:
>> It would be nice if, instead of running the programs that need
>> connections during startup, I could run another program that
>> controlled those programs, only allowing them to start if a
>> connection is available.
>>
>> Is there such a thing?
>>
>
> Why not just NOT start those programs everytime you re-boot and
> instead you can create a dos .bat file to place on the desktop which
> you can double-click once at boot time to start all of your programs
> that require an internet connection.

That would be great if I didn't normally have an Internet connection, but
the default situation is that I am connected. I don't want to have to
manually run a batch file almost every time I boot. It's really when I'm
not connected that I want something different to happen.

"Coz" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in news:VVwyc.732228$oR5.629634
@pd7tw3no:

> I think you could use hardware profiles if you are win2k/xp.

How do I associate software with a hardware profile?

In article <Xns9505D55CDFC44idispcom@216.65.98.77>,
DS <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> Gail Gurman <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
> news:Xns950568E775625gailhomemailcom@63.223.5.250:
>
> > Is there such a thing as a program that detects an Internet or network
> > connection and runs starts certain programs (and perhaps closes them
> > when the connection is lost)?
>
> Why not just NOT start those programs everytime you re-boot and instead
> you can create a dos .bat file to place on the desktop which you can
> double-click once at boot time to start all of your programs that require
> an internet connection.
>
> I futzed with this for a while trying to start a bunch of MRTG scripts
> all at the same time w/o having to start each individually.
>
> The trick is not to start the exe file in the batch file, but rather
> execute a .lnk file (shortcut).

Or put in the batch file:

start foo.exe
start bar.exe
....

--
-eben (E-Mail Removed)m home.tampabay.rr.com/hactar

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -- Ben Franklin