Virtual button for local area connection.

[dar]

I'd like a virtual button, thank you, that sits in my tray, which enables and disables my (dsl) local area connection. When the connection is enabled--the button is green. When the connection is disabled--the button is red. Any takers?

[lanux128]

if you're into Autohotkey, then have a look here.

[mouser]

a lot of firewalls have a feature to shutdown all network connectivity - that might be a good route to go.

[logic7]

I'd like a virtual button, thank you, that sits in my tray, which enables and disables my (dsl) local area connection. When the connection is enabled--the button is green. When the connection is disabled--the button is red. Any takers?

-dar (November 06, 2006, 06:55 PM)

If you are using Windows XP, that's a feature already buiult in into the OS.

Go to your Network connections, by right clicking on My Network Places on the desktop and then choosing Propertiesm (or Click Start/Settings/Networking connections), and then right click the connection in question, and then choose Properties.

In the properties Window, at the bottom section, you should see the following chek boxes.

[ ]Show icon in the notification area when connected.
[ ]Notify me when this connection has limited or no connectivity.

Checking both will give you a nice in the systray that even displays amount of network traffic in real time if you point your mouse on that icon, and will display green activity color when connected.

[mouser]

i think he wanted to be able to disable all network traffic easily and turn it back on easily, not just observe status, is that right?

[app103]

You can disable it from that tray icon...just right click it. It's there as an option.

[dar]

Thank you all for your time and advice. The network connection tray icon trick is a good thing for me to know in itself, but after mouser's excellent suggestion that a lot of firewalls can shut down network activity, I checked my firewall stuff and low and behold, it had a feature where I could turn connectivity on and off from an icon on my tray and the icon changes when connectivity's off. I stalled posting back about this for a few days, because this was such an obvious (and good) solution and I felt a little silly for having to ask for help about it. Thanks again.