stoopid question

[Ann]

Here you go.. is it possible to get the little icon with the two little computer screen thingies that flash in the sys tray to show that the router connection is live?

When you've got a moden conneciton you get this little icon and hovering over it tells you how long you've been connected and I really want to be able to do this now with the router..

So.. help me here guys.. what can i do?

[Rik]

Go to Settings > Networks connections, and right-click on the connection you want. In the properties dialogue which will pop up, check the "Show icon in notification area when connected" box. Robert should then be your uncle, Ann.

[Ann]

Yes Iv'e tried that before.  This time I go there and there's two connections.. one says LAN 30mbps and the other LAN 100mbs.  Neither seems relevant to my plain ol' connection. 

ROFL.. I've never seen the 30mbps connection there before.. where did that come from?  What on earth does it mean?

[Rik]

Yes Iv'e tried that before.  This time I go there and there's two connections.. one says LAN 30mbps and the other LAN 100mbs.  Neither seems relevant to my plain ol' connection. 

The speed refers to the LAN speed with a router, Ann, not the ADSL speed, so the 100Mbps is the one you want. The 30M I'm not sure about - do you have wireless? Otherwise, go to Device Manager and see what is listed under Network Adapters - maybe it's Firewire?

[Ann]

Hold on hold on.. on further investigation.. or rather on reading the info given I think the 30 one is to do with the new webcam.  Still nothing there for the normal 8096 connection to the h'internet...

[Rik]

Check the 100Mbps connection, Ann. That's what your network card is using to talk to the router.

[Ann]

the 100 one isn't going to tell me what my connectin speed is though is it.. and that's really what i want.. i guess i'm wanting too much

[Rik]

You can't see the ADSL speed directly, Ann, as the router talks to the 'net and the computer talks to the router. The two are separated. What you do get is the icon showing you network activity. To get to the ADSL speed, you need to talk to your your router, through your browser, or a program like routerstats or DMT.

[Ann]

okay.. i thought as much.. i do go into the brower interface to see the connection speed but i miss those little icons.. too long with dial up and modem access i guess.. and i'm suffering withdrawal symptoms

[Rik]

Well, the icons you can have, Ann, but not the speed report. IIRC, you're using a Netgear? If so, download Routerstats and run that - it will give you sync speed, attenuation and noise margin, all nicely graphed and written to a text file.

[Ann]

oh cool a new toy :-)