I recently switched my DSL ISP. The new ISP drops connections that are idle for 30 minutes. I have no problem with that, but I want to ensure my connection stays alive non-stop because I run a server. My router can deal with this -- it just logs back in as soon as the connection drops, but I'd rather not continually log back in as the solution. The ISP suggests I run a script to send one ping every 29 minutes. Cool.

This is probably dead simple, but I don't know how to do it. Can anyone suggest the script I need?

Thanks,
Apollo

# filename is 29
ping -c 1 www.yahoo.com;sleep 29m
29
# end of file

or add something similar to cron

This question doesn't belong in the networking forum, but it's related to my previous question, so here goes ...

I set up my single ping cron job to look like this:

*/29 * * * * path-to-my-ping-script

It works fine, but runs the job at 0, 29, and 58 minutes past each hour. Is it possible to run a cron job every 29 minutes (not at discrete minutes each hour)? ie. I want it to run like this 0,29,58,27,56,25,54,23,52, and so on.

no

Short and sweet. I like it.

Ok, I'll run it every 20 minutes instead of every 29. OR, go with whansard's original "sleep 29m" solution.

Thank you.
Problem solved.

why are you so fussed about every 29 minutes? you just need to ensure network activitiy within a 30 minute period, so run the ping every 20 minutes.... */20 easy.

Is there an echo in here? Yes, as I said in my last post, I will go with every 20 minutes.

Not "fussed" about anything. It's all about learning. And thank you for helping me learn.

sir, this maybe 50% off topic, i hope you won't bash me.

noobie here, and i want to this on my PCLinuxOS box.

i need to ping my router (192.168.1.1), if it is unreachable, i need to lock the screen tru screen saver, and it won't unlock until ping returns successful.

note: screensaver will comeout repeatedly until ping is successful.

btw, im running a kiosk in this box, and want to block the screen after each time expires.

control i made is tru LAN.

thanks in advance and more power!

you should ask this as a new question.
maybe a bash script with while, and a sleep at the end.