PBW

[geoschmo]

se5a said:
down again

Yeah, the cable went out again. It's back on now.

I'm working on a script that will monitor the internet connection and reset the cable modem whenever it senses an outage. It's going to log the outages as well so I have some information to use when talking to the cable people to get it fixed.

Geoschmo

[geoschmo]

I've loaded the script now on the server which checks periodically for connection loss and attempts to reset the modem if needed. This should greatly improve the reliability of the site. If you can't reach the site give it about 5 minutes and try again. If you still can't reach it then something else has happened that a simple reset won't fix, or my script isn't working.

Geoschmo

[Romulus68]

Switch to Verizon FiOS!! :-) Virtually no downtimes.

[geoschmo]

Romulus68 said:
Switch to Verizon FiOS!! :-) Virtually no downtimes.

Either they don't offer any service in my area or their system is having a problem right now because I can't get it to recognize my address to see if it's available.

[capnq]

geoschmo said:

Either they don't offer any service in my area or their system is having a problem right now because I can't get it to recognize my address to see if it's available.

Try poking around their site a bit. When I tried to check on Verizon DSL availability in my area, I had to try links on three different pages before I found one that worked. (I don't remember if I had to load the site in IE to get an answer.)

[Romulus68]

geoschmo said:

Either they don't offer any service in my area or their system is having a problem right now because I can't get it to recognize my address to see if it's available.

http://www.verizon.com/fios

[geoschmo]

Yes, I know Romulus. That's the same link you gave me earlier. It doesn't recognize my address. Not even to tell me the service isn't available. It doesn't like the street or zipcode I'm putting in. I found a service map on broadbandreports.com that says FIOS isn't available anywhere in Ohio. Not suprising. I guess it's fairly new and they would want to start out hitting the major markets first.

My only options appear to be cable and DSL. DSL for me isn't a good option though because I'm over 15,000 feet from the nearest CO. At my old house where the PBW server was previously it ran well on DSL, but I was much closer to a CO there.

Since I've installed the script on the server we haven't had a single outage except when I took it down on purpose last night to test the script. That's pretty good compared to the last few weeks. I'm wondering if the script checking the line occasionally is somehow stabalizing the signal. I don't know if that's even possible, I just think it's an interesting coincidence.

[Romulus68]

geoschmo said:
Yes, I know Romulus. That's the same link you gave me earlier. It doesn't recognize my address. Not even to tell me the service isn't available. It doesn't like the street or zipcode I'm putting in. I found a service map on broadbandreports.com that says FIOS isn't available anywhere in Ohio. Not suprising. I guess it's fairly new and they would want to start out hitting the major markets first.

My only options appear to be cable and DSL. DSL for me isn't a good option though because I'm over 15,000 feet from the nearest CO. At my old house where the PBW server was previously it ran well on DSL, but I was much closer to a CO there.

Since I've installed the script on the server we haven't had a single outage except when I took it down on purpose last night to test the script. That's pretty good compared to the last few weeks. I'm wondering if the script checking the line occasionally is somehow stabalizing the signal. I don't know if that's even possible, I just think it's an interesting coincidence.

I work for Verizon. BUT, the reliabilty is really there. Its a shame you can't get fios, yet. I would say you were loosing connection when no one had visited the website in a fixed time period. The ISP is dropping your connection on purpose thinking its a dead link with no one there. They do that to save money and to give more bandwith to other users by taking yours away as they think you aren't home or something like that. The script is accessing the web and think of it like moving the mouse so the screensaver won't kick in. That brief access resets the timer that has been timing you out.

** Edit ** Oh, DSL and FiOS don't do that. The nature of the two is somewhat like a T1 and once the loop/connection is made it stays there. I will say DSL will loose performance over severals days without resetting the IP, BUT it remains connected the whole time.

[se5a]

sweet