William Polymenakos
asked on
Order/timing of startup programs
I have an iBook G4 1 GHz running OS X 10.3 and recently installed MSN Messenger for Mac and Virex from the .Mac service. I have an Airport Extreme card for wireless networking with an older but perfectly functional Linksys 802.11b gateway router. Intenet access is though Earthlink DSL.
On startup both Virex and MSN Messenger try to connect to the Internet before my Airport Extreme sets up a connection through the Linksys. The result is that both report errors - Virex because it can't update and MSN Messenger because it can't contact the server. I can tell both apps to retry almost immediately and they work fine - the connection is there moments after they fail. Is there some way to adjust the timing of startup applications so that the network connection is established before Virex and MSN Messenger attempt to connect?
Thanks... Bill
On startup both Virex and MSN Messenger try to connect to the Internet before my Airport Extreme sets up a connection through the Linksys. The result is that both report errors - Virex because it can't update and MSN Messenger because it can't contact the server. I can tell both apps to retry almost immediately and they work fine - the connection is there moments after they fail. Is there some way to adjust the timing of startup applications so that the network connection is established before Virex and MSN Messenger attempt to connect?
Thanks... Bill
There are easier and harder ways to accomplish what you are looking for.
The more difficult methods can also give you more options for choosing schedules or if the application is triggered by an event.
There is an excellent article at http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/excerpt/runmacxpanther8/index.html
You may wish to look to a Mac OS X scheduling application like Cronnix or iBeeZz.
http://www.koch-schmidt.de/cronnix/
http://www.ibeezz.com/en/index.php
The more difficult methods can also give you more options for choosing schedules or if the application is triggered by an event.
There is an excellent article at http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/excerpt/runmacxpanther8/index.html
You may wish to look to a Mac OS X scheduling application like Cronnix or iBeeZz.
http://www.koch-schmidt.de/cronnix/
http://www.ibeezz.com/en/index.php
> You may be able to fix the problem by telling your Airport Base Station to maintain
> a connection and not "connect when needed". Then it's ALWAYS connected.
This is not the problem. I've noticed that the Airport client and Base Station take 3-10
seconds to establish a connection (handshake, DHCP, DNS, etc). I have a cable modem
"always on" connection, so establishing a [dial-up] connection is not the problem. But
if any network aware software attempts to do anything before the 802.11 link is completely
established, I get errors similar to billpoly (especially when waking from sleep).
> a connection and not "connect when needed". Then it's ALWAYS connected.
This is not the problem. I've noticed that the Airport client and Base Station take 3-10
seconds to establish a connection (handshake, DHCP, DNS, etc). I have a cable modem
"always on" connection, so establishing a [dial-up] connection is not the problem. But
if any network aware software attempts to do anything before the 802.11 link is completely
established, I get errors similar to billpoly (especially when waking from sleep).
If you tell the ABS to maintain a connection, there is no connection to establish. It's already established permanently. The ABS maintains it. You CAN actually "log out" on a dsl or cable modem even if its "always on" and you'd get the same delays. But if you let the ABS force it to be active all the time, your machines wont have a delay.
ASKER
I have to agree with brettmjohnson - the problem isn't that the ABS (not what I'm using in this case, but an example nonetheless) needs to maintain a broadband connection. The problem is that the CLIENT AirPort Extreme card needs to establish the connection (handshake, etc.) with the ABS during boot. It is while this process is taking place that some network-aware applications will start and fail due to the lack of an established connection between the client AirPort Extreme in the iBook and the ABS. Once the connection process between the two is completed then I can retry the network-aware apps and all works fine. I'm looking for a way to have these apps wait (or be delayed) until after a network connection is established to attempt their connections.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
On a side note, there is no reason to run Virex on OS X. There are a grand total of 0 virii for OS X. Yep, 0.
You may be able to fix the problem by telling your Airport Base Station to maintain a connection and not "connect when needed". Then it's ALWAYS connected.