The Location Helper tool allows you to specify files or documents you want opened when your network location in the Network Preferences panel changes or PPP connects geting a new IP address. You can use the Location Helper to:

  1. Quickly select between pre-configured IPNetTunerX settings files.
  2. Specify different IPNetTunerX settings based on how you are connecting to the Internet.
  3. Apply Tuner settings each time PPP connects.
  4. Run scripts to configure other applications when the network location changes.

The Location Helper tool registers with the Mac OS X System Configuration Framework (SCF) to be notified when the list of IPv4 addresses changes. When it detects a new location has been selected or a new PPP address assigned, it examines each entry in the table in order and opens the specified item if the corresponding entry is "On" and matches the current network location.

The Location column displays a popup menu listing the network locations currently defined in the Network Preferences panel.

The Open Item column displays a popup menu listing the files in the "Tuner Documents" folder in "/Library/Application Support/IPNetTunerX". By default, IPNetTunerX will create this folder with the pre-configured IPNetTunerX settings files we suggest for common network configurations. Notice you can add other documents or aliases to this list and are not restricted to IPNetTunerX settings files. IPNetTunerX will try to open them as requested using Mac OS X launch services.

The Comment column allows you to annotate what these settings are for.

The "+" and "-" buttons allow you to add or remove rows from the table.

The "Test" button opens the item specified in the first selected row.

The Location Helper tool does not need to be left open. It will continue to operate as long as the IPNetTunerX application is running, and will remember your settings between application launches.

Examples

To quickly select between pre-configured IPNetTunerX settings files, press "+" to create a table entry if there isn't one already. Click on the Popup menu arrows in the "Open Item" column to select the pre-configured settings you want to try, then press "Test" to open them.

To specify different IPNetTunerX settings based on how you are connecting to the Internet, create a row in the table for each network location and corresponding settings document you want to open. Then set IPNetTunerX to launch automatically when you login under the Accounts Preferences panel. When you change network locations in the Network Preferences panel, IPNetTunerX will open the corresponding documents.

To apply Tuner settings each time PPP connects, create a row in the table for your PPP network location and set it to open the desired settings.

To run scripts that configure other applications when the network location changes, you will need to place launchable documents in the "Tuner Documents" folder and then create corresponding table rows to open them as needed.

Additional Features

New table rows are inserted before the selected row or at the end of the table if no row is selected.

You can copy and paste rows to re-arrange them.

To reduce screen clutter, settings documents applied by the Location Helper are not normally displayed in a window. To open the corresponding document, use the Test button. The Location Helper will report any settings it applied in the status area along the bottom of the window and write a log message to the system console ("system.log" in the Console application).

Location Helper settings are stored in /Library/Application Support/Sustainable Softworks/LocationHelperData.

Notice the Network "Location" can be set from the Apple menu for easy access from any application.

Launching IPNetTunerX as a Mac OS X startup item

Once you are comfortable IPNetTunerX is working as desired, you can configure it to launch as a Mac OS X startup item outside the context of any user login. To do this, drag /Library/Application Support/IPNetTunerX/HelperTools/IPNetTunerX_startup to the /Library/StartupItems folder. Notice you must drag the actual startup item. You will not be able to copy it or use an alias due to the way Mac OS X privileges and startup items work. To keep another copy on your hard drive, you can make an alias to the startup item, or delete the HelperTools folder so IPNetTunerX re-creates it for you.

The advantage of launching as a startup item is that there is no user interface to accidentaly quit or get in your way. To reconfigure the Location Helper tool, you can run another copy of the application from the Finder. Your changes will take effect the next time you quit and relaunch the startup item. Notice it is not actually necessary to restart your system to quit and relaunch the startup item. You can quit by using the Activity Monitor to locate the IPNetTunerX process and "kill" it. You can relaunch the startup item from the command line as "/Library/StartupItems/IPNetTunerX_startup.app/IPNetTunerX_startup.app".

If you encounter difficulty, you can restart while pressing the Shift key to prevent startup items from loading and then remove IPNetTunerX_startup from the /Library/StartupItems folder.

The startup item writes simple log messages to the system console ("system.log" in the Console application) when it is launched or opens a settings file to help you verify it is working.

When launched as a Mac OS X startup item, IPNetTunerX will attempt to open any matching Location Helper documents.


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