C / C++ / MFC

30-Nov-05 9:25

Hey

I have an app that needs to be able to connect to the internet at anytime, unattended, day or night. What I have done in the past is called InternetAttemptConnect(). But in order for this to work I had to make sure that I allowed my dialup connection to connect automatically. But thanks to some poorly written apps (Firefox, ZoneAlarm) that option is no longer becoming viable as those apps are also able to connect at any time (and they do). So what I did was change the connection call from InternetAttemptConnect() to InternetAutodial(INTERNET_AUTODIAL_FORCE_UNATTENDED,...) which allows me to clear the automatically connect flag in the dialup dialog and still be able to make the internet connection my app has to make, but stop the other apps from doing the same.

But that has lead to another problem. If the dialup dialog is started by one of the other apps and is waiting for user input, InternetAutodial will also hang, waiting for the same user input.

So what I would like to know is if there is an API or other way of telling if the dialup dialog is already present, and if so how can I kill it so that my call to InternetAutodial() will succeed? I could use FindWindow to look for a dialog with the caption "Dial-up Connection" but to me that just doesn't seem to be a very safe or portable way to it.

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David Crow30-Nov-05 9:33

30-Nov-05 9:33

PJ Arends wrote:
So what I would like to know is if there is an API or other way of telling if the dialup dialog is already present...

Do you know what process owns that dialog?

PJ Arends wrote:
I could use FindWindow to look for a dialog with the caption "Dial-up Connection" but to me that just doesn't seem to be a very safe or portable way to it.

Agreed.

"Take only what you need and leave the land as you found it." - Native American Proverb

PJ Arends30-Nov-05 9:48

30-Nov-05 9:48

DavidCrow wrote:
Do you know what process owns that dialog?

No, If I did I could do a search by processID.

David Crow30-Nov-05 9:59

30-Nov-05 9:59

Does the dialog show up on the Applications tab of Task Manager?

"Take only what you need and leave the land as you found it." - Native American Proverb

PJ Arends30-Nov-05 10:09

30-Nov-05 10:09

DavidCrow wrote:
Does the dialog show up on the Applications tab of Task Manager?

No, but according to Spy++ it is a top level window.

David Crow30-Nov-05 10:29

30-Nov-05 10:29

PJ Arends wrote:
No...

That's unfortunate. One of my computers uses AT&T Global Network Client and its process is netclient.exe.

"Take only what you need and leave the land as you found it." - Native American Proverb

PJ Arends30-Nov-05 10:45

30-Nov-05 10:45

It's the standard windows/IE dialup connection dialog box. It is used by almost every app I have that needs an internet connection. Only MS Outlook 2000 uses a different one that does not interfere with my app.

David Crow30-Nov-05 10:57

30-Nov-05 10:57

PJ Arends wrote:
It's the standard windows/IE dialup connection dialog box.

Ahhh, it's been a while since I used that one. It seems like it would belong to the explorer.exe process. Yes? Not that that's any more help, however.

"Take only what you need and leave the land as you found it." - Native American Proverb

PJ Arends30-Nov-05 11:05

30-Nov-05 11:05

DavidCrow wrote:
It seems like it would belong to the explorer.exe process.

One would think so. But according to spy++ it belongs to the process that started it. That is how I figured out that firefox and zonealarm are popping the dialog up at random points in time.

DavidCrow wrote:
Not that that's any more help, however.

No, it's not. D'Oh! | :doh:

Shog⁹30-Nov-05 12:09

Shog⁹

30-Nov-05 12:09

This might be overkill, but perhaps you could set up a second (non-default) connection that will be used only by this program, and connect through it using InternetDial()?

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Broken glass and rusty nails
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I have bullets for sale...

PJ Arends30-Nov-05 15:06

30-Nov-05 15:06

That may just work! Cool | :cool:

Now all I have to do is figure out how to programatically set up a second connection. It would have to be either through my app or have a seperate app that does this via my app's installer.

I am not a network/dialup person so any hints as to APIs to use would be helpful.

Thanks Josh for the pointer in the hopefully right direction. Big Grin | :-D

Shog⁹30-Nov-05 15:30

Shog⁹

30-Nov-05 15:30

PJ Arends wrote:
I am not a network/dialup person so any hints as to APIs to use would be helpful.

I'm not really familiar with any of this either... just glancing over the Remote Access APIs is a bit intimidating. Might still be worth a look though, especially if you can dig up some sample code.

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David Crow1-Dec-05 4:05

1-Dec-05 4:05

PJ Arends wrote:
Now all I have to do is figure out how to programatically set up a second connection...I am not a network/dialup person so any hints as to APIs to use would be helpful.

Use:

RASENTRY re = {0};
re.dwSize = sizeof(re);
lstrcpy(re.szAreaCode, ???);
lstrcpy(re.szLocalPhoneNumber, ???);
 
RasSetEntryProperties(NULL, "Second Connection", &re, sizeof(re), NULL, 0);

You might then have to call:

RASDIALPARAMS rdp = {0};
rdp.dwSize = sizeof(rdp);
lstrcpy(rdp.szUserName, "PJ");
lstrcpy(rdp.szPassword, "pwd");
lstrcpy(rdp.szEntryName, "Second Connection");
 
RasSetEntryDialParams(NULL, &rdp, FALSE);

"Take only what you need and leave the land as you found it." - Native American Proverb

PJ Arends1-Dec-05 12:32

file browser in Win32 API / Visual C++

1-Dec-05 12:32

Thanks David, I will look into these functions.

pplshero5430-Nov-05 9:21

pplshero54

30-Nov-05 9:21

I am writing a program that does installations similar to InstallShield or MindVision's Installer VISE. I know that a good installer should have an option to allow the user to select an install directory but I was wondering if there was any alternative to SHBrowseForFolder() that is more flexible to browse for folders without writing a total custom dialog.

Pplshero54 thanks you for your assistance

Re: file browser in Win32 API / Visual C++

David Crow30-Nov-05 9:31

Re: file browser in Win32 API / Visual C++

30-Nov-05 9:31

pplshero54 wrote:
...I was wondering if there was any alternative to SHBrowseForFolder() that is more flexible to browse for folders...

What is it (not) doing?

"Take only what you need and leave the land as you found it." - Native American Proverb

pplshero5430-Nov-05 9:39

pplshero54

30-Nov-05 9:39

Sorry, i meant that is there a way to specify a starting folder, create folders, and/or limit the user to select locations on a hard drive by using SHBrowseForFolder().

Pplshero54 thanks you for your assistance

Re: file browser in Win32 API / Visual C++

David Crow30-Nov-05 10:07

30-Nov-05 10:07

pplshero54 wrote:
Sorry, i meant that is there a way to specify a starting folder, create folders,

What's wrong with:

BROWSEINFO bi = {0};
char szFolder[MAX_PATH];
bi.hwndOwner = GetSafeHwnd();
bi.lpszTitle = szFolder;
bi.ulFlags = BIF_USENEWUI;
SHBrowseForFolder(&bi);

pplshero54 wrote:
...and/or limit the user to select locations on a hard drive by using SHBrowseForFolder().

I prefer to do this at the OS level. You have more control and the code does not need to change if more/less security is needed.

"Take only what you need and leave the land as you found it." - Native American Proverb

WinHelp problem

Raul Simcic30-Nov-05 9:00

Raul Simcic

30-Nov-05 9:00

Hi,

I have a litle problem with compiling my help files. The application I'm developing is an MDI app created with the Visual studio wizard and has WinHelp. I created my own html help and I don't have the need for winhelp in my program any more so the question is how can I compile my program without winhelp or let's say how can I extract winhelp from the app?

Thanks

Re: WinHelp problem

David Crow30-Nov-05 9:12