[plug] pppd redial - variable holdoff time

[Brad Campbell]

Steve Boak wrote:
> Hi Everyone
> 
> I am looking for an option in pppd to achieve an exponential redial holdoff 
> time - I don't think it exists, but I think it would be useful.
> 
> In setting up a (debian) firewall/gateway, I have had to make some less than 
> optimal compromises between fast recovery of a dropped 56k modem link and the 
> cost of failed calls. What I would like in an ideal situation is to have the 
> modem redial every 15 seconds for the first minute, then drop to 60 seconds 
> for the next 5 minutes, and possible every 5 minutes for the next hour. I'd 
> be happy with something as simple as starting off at say a 15 second delay, 
> and doubling the holdoff time after each failed attempt.
> 
> Has anyone heard of anything like this, in some other package maybe?

Not off the shelf. I did it years ago with a combination of pppd, diald, at and some bash scripts.
Using the ip.up script to reset the whole shebang when a connection is achieved I used a bash script 
triggered by at to lock/unlock the diald daemon at slowly increasing times that were managed by a 
series of lock files.
It was pretty overcomplicated but I had only been using linux 9 months and was pretty green. You 
could probably come up with something quite elegant now with just pppd and a script.

Regards,
Brad