second question for the night, i've heard du meter is a god pc monitor for keeping a check of internet activity, namely downloads, anyone know of mac version. i can't begin to explain how annoying it is having to go through explorer (which i despise) and check my usage via the isp account. can't i have it constantly displayed such as would be possible with du meter?

umm, menu meters for mac does that doesnt it? just google for Menu Meters give it a go, you should like it even if it isnt what you really want

I have a slight variation on this request for help. I am looking for a meter that can stay on the desktop that shows the amount of time you have been on the internet. I want to monitor a dial up account and keep within the hours of the plan.

I have looked at Menu Meters and it looks good for usage monitoring and broadband internet but not for time.

Any help would be much appreciated.

I just did a quick search and came across this.

Seems to do the things that you want.

You can do this by clicking on the dial up icon on the top toolbar of your desktop. The drop down menu then gives you the option to show time connected. This is using OSX V 10.3.7....

I came across this one for my Mum a little while ago.

PPP Genie http://www.biggerplanet.com/pppgenie/

It's shareware but it does the job realy well. Can count up or down, set for day, week or month limits. You can also set costs, Time and/or Downloads.
It also has a feature to force you offline if you go over time, and it has alerts.

It can be menu bar of floating window.

It can replace your existing time and connection icon in the menu bar as well.