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outsourced · May 16, 2005, 03:37 PM

Occasionally, my dial-up (yes, I know) connection has a hiccup that causes the connection to drop, and the "Disconnected..." message keeps scrolling on the Finder menu.

However, it never does stop saying it is "Disconnected." I've waited and waited, but it will never time out. Ultimately, I have to restart the system.

Does anyone know which process(es) I can kill?

Thanks in advance.

I'm running 10.3.9.

Detrius · May 17, 2005, 02:40 PM

Have you tried yanking the phone cord? Have you tried logging out and back in? Have you tried killing SystemUIServer (the thing that runs the menu extras)?

outsourced · May 17, 2005, 11:37 PM

I didn't mention it, but it's a Bluetooth connection; so, I have done the equivalent of unplugging the cord by just shutting off the phone -- doesn't help. The connection remains.

Log out? Actually...I didn't try that. Thanks for pointing out that one. I'll try it next time.

Thanks for the info about SystemUIServer!

BTW: How in the heck were you able to obtain all those certs? You must work for a company that can pay for the training. It's great to see that there are companies who value Apple certs.

[APi]TheMan · May 19, 2005, 03:37 AM

Originally Posted by outsourced

I didn't mention it, but it's a Bluetooth connection; so, I have done the equivalent of unplugging the cord by just shutting off the phone -- doesn't help. The connection remains.

Log out? Actually...I didn't try that. Thanks for pointing out that one. I'll try it next time.

Thanks for the info about SystemUIServer!

BTW: How in the heck were you able to obtain all those certs? You must work for a company that can pay for the training. It's great to see that there are companies who value Apple certs.

I don't do much with dial-up these days, let alone via Bluetooth, but is your phone supported by Apple?

Also, yes, Detrius is one of our more... decorated mods.

Ω · May 19, 2005, 03:21 PM

I get this all the time and it blows - I think it might have something to do with the quality of the connection, but that is all speculation, no proof on my part.

How I fix the issue:

Load terminal
Type "top"
Look for the pid of pppd process
Type "q" to stop top
Type "sudo kill insert the pid here"
Type in your admin password at the prompt
Nothing will happen, so perform the sudo line again (pushing the up arrow will allow you to scroll through previous commands)

At this stage it should say a modem error occured and you should be able to connect again. However on occassions it sometimes freaks out again but following these steps should get you up and running again

outsourced · May 19, 2005, 03:48 PM

Thanks for the info. It happened again last night, and I did see the pppd process. Killing it once didn't work. I'll use your method.

Also, I noticed another process called CCLEngine that appeared to be part of the process, as it showed the ethernet information like pppd did.

Thanks again for everyone's input!

Ω · May 19, 2005, 03:50 PM

I am not sure why you need to do it twice.

You can also find small apps at Versiontracker that will do the job for you as well - they are basically doing the above.

[APi]TheMan · May 19, 2005, 10:42 PM

Originally Posted by Ω

I get this all the time and it blows - I think it might have something to do with the quality of the connection, but that is all speculation, no proof on my part.

How I fix the issue:

Load terminal
Type "top"
Look for the pid of pppd process
Type "q" to stop top
Type "sudo kill insert the pid here"
Type in your admin password at the prompt
Nothing will happen, so perform the sudo line again (pushing the up arrow will allow you to scroll through previous commands)

At this stage it should say a modem error occured and you should be able to connect again. However on occassions it sometimes freaks out again but following these steps should get you up and running again

Ooh! If you know the name of the process, it's easier just to use killall! Killall works on process names, rather than numbers like kill. For example: sudo killall ppd.

outsourced · May 20, 2005, 12:31 PM

Cool info, guys!

I'll definitely checkout VersionTracker; although, this would be a fun little scripting project!

BTW: killing that process twice actually worked. And, it killed that CCLEngine process, too. I was then immediately able to connect again. No restarting! BSD is my new friend.

Detrius · May 22, 2005, 11:37 PM

Originally Posted by outsourced

BTW: How in the heck were you able to obtain all those certs? You must work for a company that can pay for the training. It's great to see that there are companies who value Apple certs.

Actually, they only paid for the desktop technician and laptop technician certs. I got the ACTC and ACSA myself in an effort to prove to them that I was capable of handling a Mac server (and therefore they could try selling them). It didn't work too well. Oh well.

Also, I didn't take any training to get the certifications. I learned the hard way--I read the Server Admin Guides, man pages, and skill assessment guides and took the tests.