The CoSTa Comms
Worried about the cost of comms? Neil Martin uses CoSTa to keep tabs on
his phone bill...
CoSTa began life over two years ago as a simple utility for NOS users.
Since then it's evolved into a comprehensive phone bill monitor.
CoSTa extracts the call details from the log files generated by
OASIS2/ICE, CoNnect, CixComm and MINTnet. Unfortunately STiK doesn't
generate a log file but is still supported via another utility, called
STiKtime, which monitors the STiK cookie and generates a log file CoSTa
can utilise.
Installation is straightforward, select Preferences from the Options
menu and set the GMT adjustment as required. For example 01+ for
British Summer Time, then select Paths and locate the log files for
each program. CoSTa interrogates or ignores each log file depending on
the checkbox at the right hand end of each line.

If you have a screen resolution with a width of 720 pixels (or more)
click on the 'resize' button to stretch CoSTa's main display window
and eliminate the need for the horizontal scroll bar.
The next task is the set the call rates for individual telephone
numbers via the Costs dialog. After receiving the first telephone bill,
compare CoSTa's details with the bill and use the Duration Offsets
dialog box to compensate for any consistent irregularities, such as the
variation in the time different modems take to dial and connect.
After checking CoSTa's information against the bill the Pay Bill dialog
can be used to mark calls prior to a specific date as paid. The
registered version offers a powerful Filter option to decide which
calls details CoSTa should display.

The Costs dialog can handle 100 entries and copes fine with unusual
services such as Phonebase or Orange SMS

Registered users have excellent control over which call details are
displayed or printed
Gary is continuing to develop CoSTa and hopes to develop support for
anyone using more than one telecoms provider.
At present it's only possible to specify one minimum cost figure in the
Costs dialog. I got around the problem by installing two copies of
CoSTa on my hard disk. By renaming the COSTA folder to COSTA.BT and
COSTA.ACC and COSTA.PRG to COSTA_BT.PRG and COSTA_AC.PRG I could select
between them under MagiC. The call details for each provider are now
listed the appropriate folder.
If your system clock stops one day, or if a rogue log entry causes a
silly error, CoSTa allows all individual call details to be adjusted or
even recalculated.
Money for nothing
Recently after Demon internet installed some new modems, there was an
intermittent fault somewhere in the system between BT, Demon and
Energis (who supply the virtual POPs which offer local call access
around the UK to Demon's modems in London). This resulted in BT
charging me for a significant number of calls which didn't connect. The
problem has been solved and thanks to my CoSTa logs I managed to
persuade BT to give me a œ20 refund!

Set the call rates to the cost per minute, excluding VAT
Product name: CoSTa v1.42
Author: Gary A Priest
Contact:
32 Castle Street, Inner Avenue, Southampton SO14 6HF
Email:gary@the-gap.demon.co.uk
URL: http://www.the-gap.demon.co.uk
Price: £6.00
System: All Ataris
Pros: Daily monitoring of on-line expenditure, no more unexpectedly
high phone bills, breakdown for each program at a glance.
Cons:
Can only display details of ten calls on-screen at a time, insists on
displaying itself centre screen, horizontal scrolling to view details
on most screens. You know your bill is high so you worry even before
the bill arrives!
Score: 87%

For really accurate results enter the average variation from the actual
telephone bill for each program used
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