suspect that this is simple but will ask anyway.

I have a client that has a problem with their ISDN and we want to keep the
connection alive - so we would probably want to ping an internet address
once every 30 seconds.

I read man ping and found that I can ping address -i30 -q but I want that
process in the background so I get a shell prompt so I add an ampersand to
the line to make it...

ping (address) -i30 -q &

but it still doesn't return to the shell prompt unless I hit return a second
time - why? can anyone clue in the clueless?  Is this a reasonable way to do
this?

----:----|----:----|----:----|----:----|----:----|----:----|
- Craig White - PO Box 8634 - Scottsdale, Arizona - 85252
- e-mail address ................ - CraigWhite@AzApple.com
- world wide web address ........ - http://www.AzApple.com
- e-mail my pager address ....... - 6023779752@airtouch.net
- cellular phone ................ - (602) 377-9752
- voice/facsimile ............... - (480) 945-8445
----:----|----:----|----:----|----:----|----:----|----:----|