Broadband connection monitoring software

[Tommie38]

Hello all

Can somebody recommend a Windows or iOS app to monitor the uptime of my internet service?

Having issues with Virgin Media connection and would like some good data (how often it drops) rather than rely on when I notice it. I don’t think I need anything more than a continuous ping type solution (please tell me if you think that would not give the best answer). In my case the bandwidth is always good, the issue is just that the connection drops.

Reflecting, iOS probably better so that I can use the family iPad.

Let me know.

[Actual]

This is a quick and dirty test.

In a command window type...

ping -t virginmedia.com

The output will be

Pinging virginmedia.com [213.105.9.24] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 213.105.9.24: bytes=32 time=26ms TTL=240
Reply from 213.105.9.24: bytes=32 time=24ms TTL=240
Reply from 213.105.9.24: bytes=32 time=93ms TTL=240

This repeats forever and you can scroll back to see any errors.

For extra diagnostics change the target to other websites or maybe your gateway.

[srappy]

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/broadband/monitorin...

However you should use some kind of dynamic DNS to make sure that it always refers back to your connection even if Virgin connections don't change so often but you might be lucky enough to get away with it if the connection stays up.

[Tommie38]

Thanks for coming back so quickly. I wouldn’t mind something a bit different / better than a basic ping from the command line although do agree it is an option.

Outages that I notice appear to be one or two per day. It makes me think there will be more than that in reality. I’d like to gather data over a few days, perhaps even a week.

Perhaps if I reshape my requirement above slightly to be iOS?

I’ve had a scan of the App Store but can’t see anything that offers a historical view, more one-off testers.

[QuartzDad]

Probably 20 years ago I used PRTG freeware to do the same thing. Depends if the Virgin box supports SNMP.

[Tommie38]

srappy said:

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/broadband/monitorin...

However you should use some kind of dynamic DNS to make sure that it always refers back to your connection even if Virgin connections don't change so often but you might be lucky enough to get away with it if the connection stays up.

That looks to be just what the doctor ordered! I’ll try with the identifier IP and move to dynamic if it changes. I only need a few days.

What is the best way to set up a dynamic IP if I need one?

Thanks for the suggestion.

[Tommie38]

QuartzDad said:

Probably 20 years ago I used PRTG freeware to do the same thing. Depends if the Virgin box supports SNMP.

Thanks for sharing. I will take a look if the Thinkbroadband solution doesn’t work.

Having looked at Thinkbroadband the only possible issue is that it doesn’t give me the resolution at I need. Drop outs are usually short periods. Long enough to ruin an important Teams call but unsure if it would register.

[the-photographer]

Does your router record a log?

Download this as a txt file and search for the outages

Or something like Prometheus from https://geekflare.com/best-open-source-monitoring-...

Edited by the-photographer on Sunday 11th June 09:12

[mmm-five]

I used to use a device for a few years from SamKnows called a 'Whitebox' which was connected between the computer and the router to monitor performance, drop-outs and downtime.

https://www.samknows.com/products/connectedhome

https://samknows.cdn.prismic.io/samknows/2f1cf456-...

https://www.samknows.com/signup

But, I've seem messages from Virgin (or SamKnows) that there's a version now built-in to the Virgin hubs...but I don't know how to access it, or whether it's as feature complete as the Whitebox. It might even be for Virgin to monitor the connection rather than the consumer.

Edited by mmm-five on Sunday 11th June 11:03

[Smurfsarepeopletoo]

Virgin can see if the router disconnects from their network, they can see how many disconnections, and how long they last for.

Surely you only need to be concerned with the disconnections that you notice, and then you need to determine whether its your equipment disconnecting from the router, or the router disconnecting from the network.

[Tommie38]

Smurfsarepeopletoo said:

Virgin can see if the router disconnects from their network, they can see how many disconnections, and how long they last for.

Surely you only need to be concerned with the disconnections that you notice, and then you need to determine whether its your equipment disconnecting from the router, or the router disconnecting from the network.

It’s definitely router to Internet. Basically the Virgin box. The issue is that the drop outs are sporadic. Falling off important calls at work is the big issue. Even one or two a day can have an impact. I just want data to know how bad it is and ideally how it compares to what would be considered acceptable. My starting position is no/very few drop outs. But if I am noticing 2 then it is likely to be more.

I do get the impression that Virgin has all of the data but I can see why they don’t want to expose it to end users. Many of us would demand improvements.

[silentbrown]

Sometimes it can be a DNS issue. The connection is up, but you can't connect to anything because host names can't be resolved. Try switching to cloudflare or Google DNS servers instead of whatever virgin configure...

[Actual]

Tommie38 said:

It’s definitely router to Internet. Basically the Virgin box. The issue is that the drop outs are sporadic. Falling off important calls at work is the big issue. Even one or two a day can have an impact. I just want data to know how bad it is and ideally how it compares to what would be considered acceptable. My starting position is no/very few drop outs. But if I am noticing 2 then it is likely to be more.

I do get the impression that Virgin has all of the data but I can see why they don’t want to expose it to end users. Many of us would demand improvements.

I would run a ping -t during the call and see in real time if the internet connection has dropped.

[TonyRPH]

You want hrping

It's a windows command line app with an additional graphical output.

As you can see from the screenshot, you can set the time scale etc. It's very useful for diagnosing issues such as this.

[thebraketester]

R-Pi
PiHole
Speedtest CLI

If you want to tinker.

[SteveKTMer]

https://uptimerobot.com/pricing/

The free edition will do what you want.

[xeny]

Tommie38 said:

It’s definitely router to Internet. Basically the Virgin box.

you're asking how to do a fairly simple bit of connection monitoring, but are utterly confident the problem isn't internal - what has lead you to that conclusion?

[Tommie38]

xeny said:

Tommie38 said:

It’s definitely router to Internet. Basically the Virgin box.

you're asking how to do a fairly simple bit of connection monitoring, but are utterly confident the problem isn't internal - what has lead you to that conclusion?

I agree it is a simple ask. Not that I done have a passable set of IT credentials (please don’t ask) but rather that I wanted to know if anybody had any specific recommendations that I could try. I now have a list so will work through until I get what I am looking for.

In terms of trouble shooting we have tried a lot. Had devices hanging off the Virgin box (including a mesh) all removed so now just the Virgin box providing WiFi. No difference. Replaced the Virgin box, again no difference. Engineer (repeated visits) thinks a network issue but they don’t seem to be very good with intermittent problems. Which I can understand.

Although unlikely it could be an issue with the wiring on my premises. Which is an issue because the line to the house is buried and they would need to run a cable over the driveway.

[xeny]

I don't see anything in that list of things you've done eliminating the possibility of RF interference intermittently impacting the WiFi.....

[Smurfsarepeopletoo]

Tommie38 said:

I agree it is a simple ask. Not that I done have a passable set of IT credentials (please don’t ask) but rather that I wanted to know if anybody had any specific recommendations that I could try. I now have a list so will work through until I get what I am looking for.

In terms of trouble shooting we have tried a lot. Had devices hanging off the Virgin box (including a mesh) all removed so now just the Virgin box providing WiFi. No difference. Replaced the Virgin box, again no difference. Engineer (repeated visits) thinks a network issue but they don’t seem to be very good with intermittent problems. Which I can understand.

Although unlikely it could be an issue with the wiring on my premises. Which is an issue because the line to the house is buried and they would need to run a cable over the driveway.

Are you using a VPN? that could be the issue, I work for virgin, can guarantee that if customer services are seeing disconnections, they will just send an engineer out, its an easy one for them.

You should have had the Isolator and any internal cabling changed if you have had a number of engineer visits, along with any external splitters and any old connectors, the engineer can see on his meter if there is an issue with the cable outside, as you would have noise on the line if it was damaged, and they can also speak to the network team or their manager and see a history of any issues with the cab that you are connected to.

Are you sure its not something internal causing the issue, one of your devices, CCTV something like that, or even a VPN if you are using one for work.