PLEASE I am BEGGING for help here. I need to write a VP script that will monitor a log file, and if the log is not written to in a 5 minute period, it will send an email alert. I TOLD THEM I WAS A NETWORK ADMIN, NOT A PROGRAMMER!!!!

VB or CGI or PERL or JAVA I dont care which...

hire a temp. to sit and watch the file.

I'll help. Toss up an email.

tbone's the bomb what with the helping and shit.

thanks TBone I found a way to monitor the file and send smtp mail via command line batch. Of course, now that I have figured it out, they will be back for more.

Time to learn some perl.

Yeah, man. Can't be no system admin without knowin' the perl.

well, the point is, many folks who should understand don't understand the difference between a programmer and sys admin or a computer technician, etc. plenty of people think if you can do anything with computers, you can do everything with computers. but the thing is, everybody's wingin' it, all the time.

that sounds just like contract archaeology.

probably. Personally, I think it is just a way to keep payrolls lighter. We have a person in house who said "I can do that script in two hours, I'll help, but I am not doing it for you". Um, he is a programmer. I am a network admin. who SHOULD be doing it? Our department head's favorite term is "well, aren't you a team player?"

Before Windows became so ubiquitous, it was hardly uncommon for a network admin to throw together a utility here and there. Learning how to do a little scripting will make your job easier. . "I'll help, but I am not doing it for you" is the best way to deal with most interdepartmental requests like these. It sometimes takes more time, but it cuts down on future requests. . But that team player crap is crap. Teams work best when people perform the tasks they're best at. Managers often seem to think that a team works best if everyone simultaniously tries to do everything. Or maybe just do what they're told.

Two hours? To do a script to check if a log file has been touched in the last five minutes? Um...you need new programmers, d00d.

heh. i don't know vbscript, i went to msdn and looked at the reference and figured out half of it in five minutes. unfortunately i had to go to work and only had time to make a jackass comment.

its easy to do a time check, but how this script needed to ignore the time and check size, then send out emails via smtp. I ended up using Logmon for the monitor and Blat for the smtp portion.

God, I am a dinosaur. It's all greek to me. I think I'll stick to COBOL.

Here is something I found interesting. I'm sure spunky and eri already know about this. http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA16.01A.no_smoking.6ce98b90.html