The three icons at the upper left of the icon bar indicate “Connect,” “Start,” and “Stop” (from left to right).
When you first download a desktop agent The program that interacts with the rest of Merkato on behalf of buyers
and sellers. Buyers can acquire bandwidth The amount of data transmitted or received per unit of time. When we
refer to acquiring or selling bandwidth, we mean the amount of information
that can be sent over a connection at one time, at the allowed speed,
without packet loss or excessive delay. Bandwidth is measured in bits-per-second.
by configuring their agents to offer the price they are willing to pay
for a range of available quantity, or use their agent to request a quote
for a fixed-price bandwidth reservation. Sellers configure their agents
with a quantity of bandwidth for sale and a minimum price they are willing
to accept for that quantity.,
before you configure it to start bidding, it is disconnected from the
auction. Your agent does not bid or allow you to view auction status when
it is disconnected, although you can change its configuration. When the
connect symbol on the icon bar (
on the far left) is un-depressed
and un-colored the agent is disconnected.
When you connect to the auction in “Stopped” mode you can observe the auction but you are not participating in it. The Auction Graph and Auction Table show you the current auction in progress and allow you to determine whether you wish to join it. The Auction Graph and Auction Table are shown below:
When you want to start bidding, either click the Start
icon (
second from left on the icon bar) or select Start
under the Selection menu. Bidding starts immediately with the current
active settings.
To stop bidding, click the Stop icon (
third from left on icon bar) or select Stop
from the Selection menu. Your agent stops bidding and you are returned
to Stop mode and disconnected. To begin viewing the auction again you
must reconnect.
Note: You need a Merkato login ID to bid. If two users have the same login, both may try to bid using the same agent. Bidder’s names do not appear on the auction graph or auction graph—bidders are identified with arbitrary numbers. There is no way to know whether your agent is already active on another desktop when you preview an auction (although once you become adept at reading the auction table and auction canvas, it is possible to detect bidders who appear to have your valuation settings).
If an agent is already logged in with the same ID you are using, when you click Start, the message below appears. If you click Yes, confirming your wish to begin bidding, your agent gains control of the bidding process. The agent on other user’s PC is disconnected.
The last user to log in successfully always wins control of the agent, and the previous user receives an error message, as shown below, indicating that user’s agent is no longer bidding.
