Connectivity v.7 (November 29, 2007)
[This is one of my early programs and really isn't done, but I thought I'd post it in case someone had a use for it.]
Connectivity is a Windows program that tells you the state of your internet connection in a bunch of different ways. I made it primarily for war driving, but it should be useful in any situation where an internet connection comes and goes. And if you have a router running Bluebox, it tries to get the name of the currently connected network.
Support is available in the forum or via email, but try to use the forum first.
Since I made it for driving there's an emphasis on not having to look at the screen to figure out what's going on. So it indicates its connection state in lots of ways:
- By swapping the desktop wallpaper
- By speaking a phrase
- By playing a sound file
- By executing a batch file
- By changing its system tray icon
Here's a screenshot. Note the big red "online", which turns to a black "offline" when there's no connection. And the status is written to the message area in the bottom.
Here's the preferences, more notes on these below.
From top to bottom of the preferences above, we have:
Play wav files: when it's online, it plays online.wav in c:\program files\connectivity. When its offline, it plays offline.wav. If you want it to play a file online when you're online, just rename offline.wav. Note that it might be picky about the wav files. If it won't play your wav file, make it 44.1 hz sampling rate and all should be well in the world.
Swap wallpaper: when it's online, it'll swap your wallpaper to c:\program files\connectivity\online.jpg, and offline will be offline.jpg.
Speak status: when it's online it'll say a phrase using the Windows default text-to-speech voice, and ditto when offline. To change voices go to control panel --> speech. I really like the AT&T Natural Voices, or the Neo Speech voices.
Speak status on any keypress: when checked it will read the status of its connection on *any* keypress. The idea is if you're driving you don't even want to look for the spacebar, you just want to slap the keyboard and hear what's going on. Note that the program window needs focus and the cursor has to be in the message area for this to work. I might make a global hotkey for this in the future, if anyone has a suggestion on this, let me know.
Use with Bluebox router: as of writing this I haven't tested that feature since building the GUI and it probably broke in the translation, so it may or may not be able to get the name of the currently connected network if you're using it with Bluebox. Probably may not.
Use with GPS: if you're using it with a Wintec GPS (and probably any GPS that communicates via NMEA over serial) it'll try to get your location, which is handy since the logfiles are in the format expected by Google Earth, so in theory you can import your log files to Google Earth. Note that I can't find my GPS, such is the downside of a tiny little GPS, so I haven't tested the new version with it.
Execute external commands: Run c:\program files\connectivity\online.bat when connected, offline.bat when disconnected.
Run external commands quiety: I personally hate that damn ugly black box that pops up with Windows batch files, this will attempt to surpress it. Note that it runs the commands slightly differently though, and it looks like relying on the Windows path doesn't work. For example, to run Notepad you'd have to put "c:\windows\system32\notepad.exe" instead of just "notepad".
Minimize to system tray: When checked it'll minimze to system tray instead of the taskbar, and change its icon depending on whether it has an internet connection.
Logfile: Saved to c:\program files\connectivity\logfile.txt. Attempts to be in a format expected by Google Earth.
Other notes:
Currently there's a few variables that are only editable through a text file. So if you open c:\program files\connectivity\more_configs.ini, you'll be able to edit the phrase spoken when Connectivity is online and offline; you'll be able to add a delay before it speaks its phrase, which is useful if you're playing a sound file and want it to finish before Connectivity speaks; and you'll be able to edit the com port used by the GPS.
I added another option since writing the above called "Animate system tray icon". If checked the icon in the system tray will change brightness with the ping response time. The idea is you can see at a glance not only if you're connected to the web but how good that connection is. The feature needs work, would be nice if it reflected an average ping time instead of each individual ping time, that sort of thing.
Stuff I'd like it to do:
- make a preferences window so user can set online and offline TTS phrases, GPS com port, and a few other things that I'm probably forgetting at the moment.
- fix or at least test Bluebox support. Will have to wait until I use it in my van again. Also, add Bluebox support for logging in via SSH instead of the currently telnet only.
- bring me a beer. But alas that feature is unlikely to be added anytime soon.
FAQ:
Q) How does it test for an internet connection?
A) By default it tries to load yahoo.com and then looks for the text "Yahoo!". It does the text check so it can distinguish between a real internet connection and hotel-style RADIUS wifi systems that let you on their network but don't actually give you internet until you buy an account. You can change these settings using the more_configs.ini file.
Q) How do I change the computer voice to another?
A) Control Panel --> Speech
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