On Thu, 09 Jul 1998 04:12:14 GMT, Tom Thacker <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

>My boss has asked me if I can do something simple as a System Task. We have a
>problem with our T1 supplier Cable & Phoneless^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^hWireless.
>Their links keep dropping & we need to periodically PING the remote Routers at
>each plant to see if the connection is up. He wants me to write a simple task
>that
>will wake up once every 2 minutes and PING each plant, reporting to the
Console
>and to each MANAGER logged on. I would like to programmatically call
>PING.ARPA.SYS from a System Routine. He wants a system routine so we don't
>have to add another background job (We already have 6). I know it can be done
>because Beechglen has a job which starts it's own System Task. The job ends
off
>but the task keeps going. To stop the task, you delete a file in PUB.SYS that
>the
>task creates as it launches.

Adding another background job wouldn't be that big a deal .... it's
not really the NUMBER of jobs, but how much work they do. If your PING
task is idle all of the time, then it's impact on the system will be
very slight even if it's another job to run.

I've been at places with 20+ background jobs. Not a problem.
---

Mark Landin                 "Before anyone passes judgment ...
T. D. Williamson, Inc.       remember we ARE in the Arctic" --
UNIX Sys. Admin              Fox Mulder during a physical exam