ppp.linkup but for cable?

[Lowell Gilbert]

"J.D. Bronson" <jbronson at wixb.com> writes:

> I am looking for a way to monitor a cable NIC in the freebsd box so
> that if the cable line fails, I can get an email *like in ppp.linkdown*
> 
> Is there such a thing?

You can detect loss of Ethernet link, but usually that won't do
much for you because most of the possible failures won't be
between your PC and whatever it plugs into.  In Ethernet or
Ethernet-like technologies, you generally can't do any better
than using test packets to monitor the availability of an
upstream router.