How come some apple base stations will tell you how long they have been up and some others computers will not? Second question. Is an apple base station just a modem or is it a computer system too?
What else can you tell me about apple base stations? thank you
Most computers are able to tell you how long they have been up:
- All Unix and Linux-based machines have a "uptime" command.
- Windows has the information, but you may need some extra software to get the info (it's in the registry, but as a binary number, so not so easy to get). You can get the software from Microsoft as a free download. I'm pretty sure it's called "uptime" (I wrote my own, which is DEFINITELY called "uptime" - it's all of about 5 lines!).
- I'm pretty sure that since OS X is based on a variety of Unix (BSD?), it should be able to do that too. Not quite so sure about older MacOS versions.
I think even in MS-DOS you can find out what time the machine booted - but that I'm not quite so sure about.
So, the case is more "why isn't it so easy to find out how long the machine has been up?".
Any DSL/Cable-modem is sort of a computer - it's just not a regular PC/Mac, but rather a dedicated system that can do some network communication on two sides at the same time. Many other companies sell similar products to the AirBase - I have a wireless ADSL modem from NetGear (that I got with the broadband subscription).
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Mats
Yes for a computer you are sitting at to get system up time I am aware that you need to convert jiffs to standard time format. But I am talking about sending an active ip a command and receiving the system time up from a remote computer that you are not at. It seem apple base stations are the only ones that will do this. Thank you for the reply and the info.
So it is a router then?
the uptime might be implemented as a Simple Network Management Protocol service, which is not necessary for all routers to support.
Yes, I would call it a router. At least if the Apple Base Station that you talk about is the same as what I found on the web when researching your answer.
As to what you can do via an IP "command" is entirely up to what software you put in the machine. I guess it's not a bad thing to have in a router type machine, since it's not practical to expect someone to connect a console to it. It's not a particularly hard thng to come up with.
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Mats
