The
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User's Manualkisdn's different displays
13. kisdn's displays
kISDN is more than just an account manager, have a look at what it offers:
Docked display in the panel
Especially on small monitors, you don't want kISDN's big window on your desktop all of the time. Therefore, it is possible to "dock" kisdn, that means, the main window doesn't have to stay open to determine the connection state or the current transfer rates.
You do this by hitting the "Hide"- button in the main window. When quitting kisdn or loggin out of KDE, kisdn remembers its state (docked or not) when starting it the next time. If you want kISDN to be started docked all the time, regardless how it was quitted, check the option "Always dock in panel ", in the 'Customize' dialog.If you hit "Hide", the window is being closed, and the following display shows up in the panel (enlargended, here):
Below those LEDs, you can see the transfer rates during a connection.
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- Yellow (left): You are dialing out
- Green (middle left): A physical connection has been established
- Red (middle right): Data is being receivedn
- Red (right): Data is being sent
But what to do to revert to the big kisdn window?
Simple, just move the mouse pointer above the dock display and press the right mouse button. You'll see a popup menu, where you select (with the left mouse button) 'kISDN Configuration'.
Status-LEDs
In case you prefer the main window over the little docked display, here we give some explanation its status LEDs:
An ISDN-adapter features two channels, the so-called B-channels. Therefore, kISDN shows two rows of LEDs, one for each channel. Usually only the first row (channel A) is being used, tho.
The LEDs have - conforming to the docked display - the following meanings:
- Yellow ('Dial'): You are dialing out
- Green ('Con'): A physical connection is established (it costs money), but this doesn't necessarily mean, that you are alread authenticated at your ISP. This, you can determine by watching the LEDs. The red ones flash a few times (authentication data flows thru the lines) and if the green LED stays lit, it means, that your ISP hasn't closed the connection. If you see an IP-address, you can be sure that you are connected properly.
- Red ('Tx'): Data is being sent
- Red ('Rx'): Data is being received
IP display
Those 4 displays (2 for each channel) tell you, under which IP-address you (left one) or your ISP (right one) are logged in.
With this information, it is for example possible to play games via a network, by giving the other players your IP address. Additionally, you can be sure that you are authenticated, if you are using "dynamic ip assignment", if an IP number is displayed.
The graphic display of transfer rates
The graphic display gives you thorough information about how well the data transmission over your ISDN-connection works. By default, you see statistics of the last 12 minutes.
The line above the actual display ('Uptime') tells you the online time of your kisdn session (devided into channels). In the display, there is a continuous timeline, so you can assign time to the displayed throughput events. Furthermore, you see some division lines with blue markers ('Stamps'), with which you can tell the transmission rate in kb/s for a point in the graph. Those lines are variable so that the graph automatically scales the current transfer rates to show the graph as big as possible. However, you can turn this automatic scaling off in the customization dialog.
Below the graph, the current transfer rate of both channels is shown, but don't count too much on it, it is not that accurate.
Left to the throughput display, there are 6 buttons, which change the look of the display. You can enable/disable parts of the graph with them, namely:
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Show channel A ![]()
Show channel B ![]()
Show the markers for the division lines (stamps) ![]()
Show receive rates ![]()
Show transmission rates ![]()
Show the sum of receive and transmission
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Ch. Demmer / Carsten Pfeiffer / 30. October 1998, kISDN Release 0.7.0