X-ISP is a user-friendly visual interface to pppd/chat for dialup TCP/IP, designed with X11/XForms.
One of the main benefits of X-ISP is that it provides maximum feedback from the dialing and login phases on a message browser, giving users versatility in interrupting a call in progress, and also provides a manual login terminal window. Additionally, this software enables call-back and per-ISP DNS selection capabilities.
The software consists of the main application "xisp," which relies on a special dialer called "xispdial" that is spawned by pppd to perform the dialing, and a "bare bones" terminal interface, "xispterm." For further details on these components, as well as their interaction with pppd and chat, refer to the "ARCHITECTURE" section below.
X-ISP's phone company database supports all applicable PTT attributes for logging phone-call costs, and saves this information in a separate file in the user's home directory under sub-directory ".xisplogs." This software also maintains two small databases for ISPs and phone companies, supporting a variable (but upper bounded) number of records for both.
Each ISP entry, aside from username and password, supports eight telephone numbers (tried sequentially when dialing), individual PTT selection, a multitude of dialing parameters, sixteen user-customizable script lines for the chat program, and a wealth of pppd options to cover most communication needs. All ISP database information is saved in the xisp resource control file (".xisprc") in the user's home directory. Refer to the "USER INTERFACE" section for further details on the user interface.
X-ISP also includes a .xisprc file converter ("xisprccv") that understands all ISP data base formats beginning with xisp version 1.2, and can be used to upgrade an old .xisprc file to the latest xisp version. The xisprccv provided with version 2.7 also tries to convert old PTT log files to accommodate the changes in the logging file format introduced with xisp-2.7.
Version 2.7: N/A