NAVIGATION: David's Corner > DIY Delphi > Netclose Shutdown Utility

NETCLOSE SHUTDOWN UTILITY

SUMMARY

Netclose is a small, single-purpose utility I wrote to meet a specific need. I use Free Agent and Gravity as my Usenet clients; they can be set up to download a batch of files and then disconnect from the internet, but not to shut down the computer afterwards.

This is the gap that Netclose fills. It monitors your system's internet connection, and shuts down the computer 30 seconds after it detects a disconnection.

PROGRAMMING RATIONALE

Netclose only works under Windows 2000, XP and 2003. It would actually have been simpler to code a program for Win9x, but the shutdown code doesn't work under NT-based systems.

Secondly, there is already a program that does exactly for Win9x what Netclose does for WinNT; it's called Multimodemia, available at

http://www.leeos.com/multimodemia.html

The site claims that Multimodemia works under Win2000/XP, but it doesn't.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

Windows 2000, XP or 2003. Tested under the first two of these systems.

INSTALLATION/UNINSTALLATION

Simply unzip the files in the archive to a folder and run Netclose. To uninstall, delete the same files.

USAGE

Run Netclose whenever you wish. It will detect whether there is an active internet connection at any stage while it is running. If you check the 'Shutdown On Disconnect' box, Netclose will shutdown Windows 30 seconds after disconnection, unless you prevent this action by closing the program.

LIMITATIONS

Netclose won't shutdown Windows if Zone Alarm is running; it closes all programs, but leaves the system "hanging". I haven't been able to fix this; it works well with the native XP firewall, and as I've only ever used these two firewall utilities, I don't know if the problem occurs in other similar software.

Netclose also won't close Windows if the screensaver is active, but I think I have a fix for this, and I'm working on it. For now, though, the simple solution is to disable your screensaver and re-enable it when you next switch on the computer.


DOWNLOAD

Netclose can be downloaded from here (ZIP file, 420 Kb). Archive includes executable and source.