I have setup my Slackware 10 client to dhcp and my nameserver to my XP ICS host. Everything works great. Unfortunately, in order to connect I must manually do so on the host. I have sympatico's 128k DSL.

I know that I can set it to auto-dial...but thats not what I want.

On my XP clients (other machines) they are setup so that I can click "Connect" in the network places Sympatico connetcion and it dials in. It then creates a taskbar icon which can then be disconnected by right clicking and selecting "disconnect". I have created shortcuts on the desktops to start it up easier.

Is there anyway to do this in Linux? Maybe so that I can have an X shortcut to start it? If there is a script command I can make one easily..

one of the options on ICS is to allow other machines on the network initiate a connection - it's in the advanced tab of the proprties window of your internet connection. Does that not work?

Yes, its "allowed" to initiate a connection...but how do I do it? Like I said, I don't want it to be automatic I wish to make it manual. That way I can disconnect when needed.

See, other people use my network and also the internet. If it were automatic it would disconnect while someone else was on. I like it much better as manual. Also it stops any progams from accessing the internet by themselves without my consent (media player in xp for example).

Is there a way to make a script to activate it? I'm sure there must be....it was all automatically created in XP...(but then again thats xp for you)

I think I understand now, you want the dial/disconnect confirmation screen to come up on your client - sorry, way out of my league.

Well....I don't really care if I see a confirmation screen....just so long as it does it. I mean, there has to be a way to do this since not everyone wants to stay connected to the net 24/7.

Ok I thought a visual aid of what I mean might help. This is a screen from my dual-boot XP install. Its connected to an XP host.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...ar_58/test.jpg

I can right click and select 'connect' in my XP box and it works. A little connection icon appears in the taskbar and can be easily disconnected when needed. I'm looking for a way to do this in linux instead of having to use a "dial-on-demand" option which would just auto dial.

Some people suggested to me that I use ssh to initiate a script on winxp to start the connection. Anyone familiar with how to do that?

Its really annoying how something so simple is so hard to do... I'll get it one day