Keeping Your ISP Connection Alive!
About KeepALIVE!...
Many ISPs have an 'idle time-out' on their dialup connections. This means if you're online but
not actually using the connection they will kick you off for being idle after a set amount of
time - usually around the 10 minute mark. The idea is to keep their modems free for new dialup
connections - they don't want current dialup users hogging the modems unless they are actually
using them. Sounds like a good idea... so what's the problem? Well this can be annoying if you're
reading lengthy pages on news / info sites and it kicks you off just as you're going to the
next page. Maybe you're filling out details on an online shopping catalog and it kicks you off
so you have to log back in to the site again losing what was in your shopping basket. Maybe
you're waiting for an incoming connection for your web / FTP server, or waiting for someone
to come online in a messenger chat app or IRC client.
How does KeepALIVE! help?
KeepALIVE! is a self-refreshing webpage that sends a 'page
request' to your ISP every few minutes so they don't throw you off for being idle. You can tell
KeepALIVE! how often you want it to do this - from 30 seconds
to 8 minutes. You need to keep this time inside your ISP's dialup idle time-out, usually 2 minutes
does the trick.
KeepALIVE! isn't just for keeping a dialup connection on - you can use it on any type of internet connection if you simply need something to use that connection every few minutes for whatever purpose.
How do I use KeepALIVE!?
KeepALIVE! is simple to use - there's nothing to download
or install as it uses your web browser to function. Before you use KeepALIVE!
you must have Javascript enabled in your browser. KeepALIVE! checks
this before it starts and will tell you if the Javascript function is available in your browser. All browsers these days support Javascript so this should not be a problem.
The next step is simple - you select how often you want KeepALIVE!
to refresh. I've set the options as 30 seconds, 1, 2, 4, or 8 minutes. After you
select the refresh rate KeepALIVE! will switch to the "pinger"
window and it will countdown from the time interval you selected and reload itself. During this
you can Stop the countdown, manually Restart
the countdown, or return to the Menu screen. Normally you'd simply
minimize the pinger window during the countdown and forget about
it.
I've added the "Run the KeepALIVE! pinger in a new window"
checkbox on the Menu page in case you want to use the Menu
page window for web browsing after the Pinger has started. The option
is there for convenience - you don't have to use it.
How does KeepALIVE! work?
A self-refreshing webpage isn't a new idea - I've seen a few of them around but they either
reload a set pattern of pages, or keep reloading the same one. The problem with these is that
your web browser has a 'cache' where it stores pages it has already been to. When these pages
reload themselves your browser gets the page from the cache instead of getting it through the modem connection.
KeepALIVE! uses a different technique - it reloads the same
HTML page from the server but it makes the page address look slightly different each time so
your browser thinks it's a new page. Your browser's cache will have no match for this new page
address so it has to grab the page off the server again. KeepALIVE!
will never run out of these 'new' page addresses. It generates a string of 16 random letters
for the new address, and then tags on the amount of milliseconds that have passed since 1970.
Even if it did generate the same 16 letters again ( a chance of 1 in 43608742899428874059776
) the time elapsed since 1970 will never be the same on each page refresh.
There are things that KeepALIVE! cannot do. If your ISP has
a time limit on the connection ( like 2 hours ) you will still be kicked off at the end of that
time limit. If your ISP drops the connection due to a bad line ( or whatever ) you have to live
with that. There is good news - if you have your Dial-Up settings configured to automatically
dial your ISP when a connection is needed KeepALIVE! will
automatically connect you again and continue to run!
KeepALIVE! Disclaimer and
other blurb
I originally made KeepALIVE! for my own use but decided that
it may be useful to others as well. I have had it tested it on IE 4, 5, 6 and 7, Netscape 4, FireFox and AOL's browser
with no problems reported. Since KeepALIVE! uses your browser
to function I can't imagine it disrupting your system. But just in
case something does happen I cannot be held responsible - you use KeepALIVE!
at your own risk. Some ISPs may frown on the use of KeepALIVE!
so check with your ISP's Terms And Conditions before using it.
If you find a problem with KeepALIVE! please contact
me.
KeepALIVE! is copyright 2005 - 2010 sector101.co.uk. Please do
not copy / alter / upload it to other web servers.
Page last edited on 2nd Oct 2008
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