Which test URLs do you set for your Lost Internet Connectivity alerts?

Thank you Andy not only for your purposefully helpful response but for the added value of which domains are common Windows 10 Internet test domains.

I was ignorant of how Windows tested it, but my ignorance was cured by you! 1. NCSI performs a DNS lookup on

then NCSI requests 2. NCSI expects a 200 OK response header with the proper text returned. The ncsi.txt file contains only the text of "Microsoft NCSI". 3. If the response is never received, or if there is a redirect, then a DNS request for dns.msftncsi.com is made. 4. NCSI then sends a DNS lookup request for dns.msftncsi.com. This DNS address should resolve to 131.107.255.255. 5. If the address does not match, then test reports that it failed.

Incidentally, for privacy, you can set up your own nsci server:

You probably know all this, but those domains are all in the registry: *Network Connectivity Status Indicator* (NCSI) [HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\NlaSvc\Parameters\Internet] Note that "EnableActiveProbing" apparently turns NCSI on or off. Also note "ActiveDnsProbeContent" === 131.107.255.255 And note "ActiveDnsProbeHost" === dns.msftncsi.com And "ActiveWebProbeHost" ===

Concomitant V6 domains "ActiveWebProbeHostV6" === ipv6.msftconnecttest.com etc.

For privacy reasons, Ghacks suggests Windows users change the address which then means that the question I asked that Unsteadyken clearly ignorantly ridiculed as not being a Windows issue - is as much a Windows privacy concern as it is for Android. (That's always the case with such people who don't understand anything about privacy across platforms.) *Disable or customize Windows' Internet Connection test to improve privacy*

Note there are apparently other options such as "ipv4 checksum offload" which can be set to "Tx & Rx Enabled", "Rx Enabled" or "Tx Enabled". Disable-NetAdapterChecksumOffload -Name "*" -TcpIPv4

I will test by setting 'Internet Connectivity Tester' to both domains:

by setting 'Internet Connection Alert' to just the one domain: But that assumes port 80 which you didn't mention the port Windows uses.

After you gave me the "ncsi" term, I found the NCSI Group Policy Editor: Computer Configuration > Policies > Administrative Templates > System > Internet Communication Management > Internet Communication Settings > Turn off Windows Network Connectivity Status Indicator active tests = Enabled/Disabled

As always with you Andy, you know far more than I ever will, but I'm happy to report that you've edified me about what domains Windows uses to determine network connectivity which I can test now on Android.

I was about to reply to the unprepossessing unsteadyken with a nastigram but your polite correction of his chilish attitude negated me needing to do so.

Why do I bother monitoring the Internet connection?

The question came up initially a few days ago when "micky" (who is also here on Windows) asked for a free ad-free app that speaks a warning that "your cell signal just dropped" and that verbally advises "your cell signal just returned" when his phone in his pocket loses and regains tower connectivity while hiking in the backwoods, where monitoring such things is a safety concern.

Nobody knew the answer so, being the purposefully helpful kind-hearted resourceful person I am, I dug around and it took even me a few hours to find and test a good set of free ad-free gsf-free google-free highly rated often downloaded app combinations which eventually resolved that issue:

1. You first need to create the text to speech warning alarms/notifications
2. Then you need to find an app that will test the cellular connectivity
3. And then that app has to be able to be set to speak your custom warnings

All using free ad-free apps that _anyone_ can use, as I often tell JP Gilliver is a requirement since _all_ my kind-hearted tutorials are always intended to greatly benefit everyone who wants to have the power we have.

Given Usenet is a team sport where volunteers pitch in where they can, Steve, being an EE, kindly tested it inside an aluminum foil Faraday cage.

With that "lost cellular signal" problem resolved...

During the hours of testing I did out of the goodness of my heart for micky, I found a few "Internet" testing tools, where they would use either the Wi-Fi or the Cellular connection (or both, usually settable) as their test.

Of *those* tools, there were two kinds that I found in my searches: A. Those that simply tested "network" connectivity B. Those that more deeply probed "Internet" connectivity

Those that probed for actual Internet connectivity, require a domain.

As is almost always the case with cross platform Internet connectivity solutions, I figured the Windows users must also have solved this problem.

Hence, my question to the two groups at large.

Is my (one?) connection so unstable?

It is when hiking in the backcountry where signal is often flaky at best. *Kids going hiking for three days from point to point in the mountains*

"USA backcountry hike from Mount Madonna to Loma Prieta involving topographic geoPDF quadrangles & iOS/Android GPX tracks & waypoints"

However, on any platform, knowledge of Internet connectivity is crucial.

For example, I get my Internet over WISP because I'm so far in the Santa Cruz mountain range that there is no infrastructure such as no cable, no water, no natural gas lines, no sewage lines, and even a 40-acre zoning so that nobody can put more than a single home on 79 acres of land out here.

They do that to keep the land pristine, of course, but my point is that Internet connectivity is crucial when your WISP AP is 6 miles (10km) away!

AP is 6 miles away

So, to the point of this thread, we run on the radio the default watchdog.

Typical range is about 10 miles

Which tells us when the radio has an issue (along with indicator lights).

Rocket M2 signal strength

As do the Android (but not iOS) devices using excellent debug utilities.

Wi-Fi debug channel graphs This doesn't exist on iOS But Android has many debuggers

Even extending to a variety of cellular signal strength debugging tools.

Wi-Fi & Cellular debugging

Given we all have dozens of acres of land, our pools, stables, barns, sheds, and even our driveway gates are far from the house, so inside our homes we typically have redundant routers that can handle switching multiple WISPs.

Peplink Balance 30 router

This is a photo of just _some_ of my home access points.

My home Wi-Fi APs

Where you'll note we also have cellular radio repeaters as shown here:

My home Wi-Fi APs

In addition, alignment of our antennas is critical for good connections:

Align Mikrotik radio antenna Align Ubiquiti radio antenna

We are usually radio savvy in the mountains, just as we get good at water pump technology and horses and four wheel drive repairs and septic systems such that we often run tests on the spectrum inside and outside of wi-fi.

Wi-Fi analysis Spectrum analysis Many Wi-Fi debug apps

Nonetheless, we're old men who do just fine with what we have at hand.

Desktop in shed with MikroTik

Where, like farmers do with old tractors, we learn to repurpose WISP CPE

WISP router transceiver

Which, even when bought new, cost about the same as crappy consumer routers

Parts costs ~$150

Yet, for the same price, we can connect to a home AP hundreds of feet away

MikroTik -40dBm

For example, the barn desktop doesn't have a Wi-Fi card so out the Ethernet port is connected a wireless wi-fi pseudobridge courtesy of MikroTik.

Desktop MikroTik pseudobridge

With distances to the barn being a hundred yards from the home router, you begin to think about how to assemble a network out of available spare parts.

Desktop MikroTik WISP radios

Not desktops, but the laptops at the pool also require long range equipment.

Horns extend laptop Wi-Fi range

Where in the pool shed, we keep a spare linksys router & horn extender.

Laptop horn to router

Sometimes requiring a dish to throw the laptop signal a few hundred yards.

Laptop to dish antenna

Which, over time, gets extended even further with the addition of a switch.

Laptop horn to switch

And, with that switch, we can then add another more powerful access point.

AP

Although sometimes we set them up as a repeater instead of as an AP alone.

AP or Repeater

If not just as a basic bridge to bridge the computer to the SOHO router.

Bridge

But often the horn alone has enough transmit power & receiver sensitivity:

Laptop to horn

The point being that with all these radios and these distances, we kind of do sort of get a disconnect on our desktop computers every once in a while (even with radios connected to them capable of going over 10 miles LOS).

I gratefully thank JP Gilliver and Big Al for their kind advice, where I too sometimes reset the power by disconnecting all my devices starting the furthest away from "the wall" and moving toward "the wall" (which is how I tell my wife to do it when I'm traveling away from home).

Given I have multiple wired and wireless repeaters, bridges, and access points, there's a certain "perfect sequence" which is never achieved in practice, particularly considering the lag time necessitated in bootup.

In theory, if not always in practice, I boot everything back up starting with the devices closest to "the wall", such as the rooftop transceiver (which would be a "modem" for most of you) and ending with the PCs & phones. a. I start with the rooftop transceivers & outside & indoor access points c. then move to the cellular repeaters and femtocells (of which I have both) b. including multiple connected routers, switches, and the client bridges d. culminating with then end devices being Windows, Linux, iOS & Android.

As end points, usually the iOS devices have the most trouble switching between the many access points as I can hold in my hand an Android phone & an iPad and see the iPad _not_ connecting as I walk about the home and yard while Android does. I brought two of the affected iPads to the Apple Store but the blue shirts (at that time they didn't wear red shirts) didn't even know what a decibel was (they confused dBm with megabits per second just like Jolly Roger & nospam do).

In keeping with the kind-hearted purposefully helpful connection watchdog advice that Big Al offered, if you need to have a watchdog on your cellphone for not only Internet connectivity (which the opening post described), you can also easily set up a watchdog for your cellphone cellular signal.

1. You first need to create the text to speech warning alarms/notifications
2. Then you need to find an app that will test the cellular connectivity
3. And then that app has to be able to be set to speak your custom warnings

I'll write up a post separately for the best free ad-free gsf-free Google-free (often open source) apps that do the job above, where I'll add a nicety of the ability to tap once on an icon shortcut inside your network folder which will enable/disable (or just enable, or just disable) a specific access point that you tend to access frequently.

This feature is especially useful for people who have privacy setups like I do where my home access points do not broadcast for privacy reasons (not for security reasons!) to keep the dumb "other people" from uploading my GPS location and unique access point BSSIDs to Google/Mozilla/Kismet/etc. public databases simply as a result of them not knowing how to configure their phones as they drive by my home.

Given my SSID's are "hidden" (again, don't tell me it's not for security as I know that), I also have my devices set up to NOT reconnect when the signal is lost (otherwise they shout out the SSID as they _look_ for APs, which defeats the whole privacy point of having a hidden SSID in the main).

Given my phones don't _look_ for access point SSIDS for privacy reasons when away from home, it's nice to have a single-tap icon inside my network folder which makes the connection for me when I'm at home (where it is needed).

This is getting long so I'll put more detail in another kind-hearted purposefully helpful post where these are the free tools I tested recently.

*Cellular-Z* by JerseyHo, 4.0, 1,700 reviews, 100K+ installs, etc. *Fake GPS location* by Lexa, 4.6 out of 500K reviews, 10M+ downloads *Tell Me - Text To Speech* by Simply Complex Apps, 4.1, 500K+ installs *Cellular Connection Monitor* by Pavel Borzenkov, 4.0, 10K+ installs, etc. *Internet Status* by Infinities, 100+, free, ad-free, etc. *Internet Status Message* by h2zonesp*, 10+, free, ad-free, etc. *Check your internet connection* by Dogegames Freak, 50+, free, ad-free, *Internet Connectivity Tester* by Paul Rowe, 4.6, 10K+, free, ad free, etc. *Internet Connection Alert* by Blue Spectrum, 5K+, free, ad free, etc. *Wifi Shortcuts+* by OpenGait.NET 3.8, 10K+ downloads, free, ad-free, etc.

Here's another bit of purposefully helpful detailed kind-hearted advice for the Usenet volunteer team, which is that most of the Android graphical Wi-Fi and Signal Strength tools _require_ the GPS receiver radio to be turned on, which you don't need for the tool, but for a Google requirement (let's not go into why Google requires GPS as it's easy to prevent if you know how).

graphical radio debuggers

To save others time, and bearing in mind I only suggest the best and most often downloaded and the highest rated free ad-free usually gsf-free always google-free tools in the extensive Android APK arsenal in order to maintain all my tutorials at the level that anyone can install them at this instant, here is a link to just one of the many Wi-Fi and Cellular debuggers I use. *Cellular-Z* by JerseyHo, 4.0, 1,700 reviews, 100K+ installs, etc.

But I should note there are _plenty_ of graphical debuggers I use daily.

Variety of graphical debuggers

Although it should be noted, for privacy reasons, I don't use a Google Google Play client, but an open source Google Play client which scrapes the exact same repo as does Google Play (and which doesn't require a login on the device which is a critical privacy feature iOS completely lacks).

Given privacy is _always_ a concern, on Android the free ad-free mock location app I prefer is the one below which Android settings accept. *Fake GPS location* by Lexa, 4.6 out of 500K reviews, 10M+ downloads

Which, coincidentally, has the option to "spoof the Wi-Fi provider".

Spoof Wi-Fi Provider If you're on iOS, tough luck (again), as iOS lacks this kind of privacy.

Moving forward, the next thing you might want is a text-to-speech converter that saves _directly_ to a wav file suitable for the notification channel (or for the alarm channel, which isn't muted when the phone is silenced). *Tell Me - Text To Speech* by Simply Complex Apps, 4.1, 500K+ installs

Once you have the notification (or alarm) wav file saved, then you need an app that will speak when you lose (or regain) your cellular connection. *Cellular Connection Monitor* by Pavel Borzenkov, 4.0, 10K+ installs, etc.

Of all the apps I tested, that wasn't perfect, but it was the best, and to their credit, Steve and micky tested it and found it to work as advertised.

Testing alert apps Play Store client ratings Custom verbal alert

When you have that set up, you might want to add a shortcut to a widget (yes, I said a shortcut to a widget) that will connect and disconnect from any of your many access points at a single touch of a button.

I have this need more than do most people because not only do I have many access points sprinkled about my home and property such as these below.

Cellular repeater & home Wi-Fi APs

But I also have my SOHO routers set up to NOT broadcast the SSID to protect my gps location and unique BSSIDs from being uploaded to Google & Mozilla and Kismet (et. al) public databases (and no, "_nomap" doesn't do that).

Doing that isn't for security but for privacy, but then you _also_ have to set up each device to _not_ automatically try to reconnect when the signal is lost, which means that having a shortcut icon to connect & disconnect is a really nice click-saving feature given my devices are set for privacy.

Given I am extremely well organized on a computer or phone as shown here:

Android organization Windows organization

You'll notice there is one homescreen page (ever!) on any device, even iPads

One home screen (Note it's impossible to set up an iOS homescreen the way you want to!)

For this reason, I didn't want AP on/off widgets that wouldn't slide _into_ a homescreen folder, which is what this neat free app allows you to create: *Wifi Shortcuts+* by OpenGait.NET 3.8, 10K+ downloads, free, ad-free, etc.