wifi router - are you connected yet? no? grrr!

Have the user use common sense and figure it out.

Sometimes they just don't get it. but I think if such software exists it would be useful to more than just novice users. I would use it before I logged into the router to check a connection. It would serve the same purpose I guess.

You didn't mention the make and model of the router nor was there any mention of switching on a modem so is this a combo modem/ router? If it is why does he not check the lights to see if he is connected to his ISP before he uses his computer?

Thanks I think that may be enough It's a Buffalo WBMR-G54 modem/router .. According to the manual the status light should blink green .. I'll let the user grapple with this new info

code_wrong wrote: >

Hit them with a clue-by-four till they get it. Seriously tho, the answer is to educate them, not provide them with an extra diaper and comforter. Just think, one day they;ll move to some other organization and _still_ be clueless.

You could write a shell script to ping your isp, and as soon as the pings started returning you could pop up an alert.

Or you could leave the router running 24x7, like they're designed to be...

is this in the UK ?

anyway - it looks like a ADSL router, which means if it is powered off every day, and then back on - the DSL line must be re-ramped every day. Your user/client is starting off the morning with the slowest speed, and may never reach their potential - as the ADSL device gets turned off again.

Yes uk, and you're right it is an ADSL router/modem. I have not heard of ramping the DSL line got a link?

I am curious about that as well. Before I started with "MaxDSL" DSL line performance seemed to remain stable and constant no matter how many times the modem was switched on and off. "MaxDSL" has been another ballgame altogether.

usually, the DSLAM (the CO mux box) will start the copper wires at a known speed, and then try to increase the speed - ramp up - by trying different configurations, letting it run for a day - and reset at the next daily maint time to a new speed, and then see how the line looks and performs..... then repeat the next day.

If you are powering off your DSL modem - WHY ?? then this ramp-up effort is basically lost every day.

I understand, in which case I might try leaving mine on for a couple days and check the speed. The reason I turn it off, and advise others that it is ok to do so, is simply to not waste electricity. Even if I see an increase in speed I will probably continue to turn off my router overnight as I don't need superfast internet access ... 1Mbps works out just fine... (I'm not near enough to the exchange for anything much faster)

I have never seen it work like that,my original DSL line never varied in speed for 2 years until they changed the equipment in the CO and doubled my line speed. When I started with MaxDSL the sync speed started high and worked down until it was stable and if it then remained stable for several days an increase in sync speed would be tried etc... see the link I provided. The modem used to be switched on and off because at that time I was testing a variety of modem/router combo's over a period of time and I only had one DSL line. I no longer do testing of these at home so my modem only gets switched off when we are away for several days.

In California, PBI/SBC/AT&T does it by slowly ramping up the speed as indicated. I recently installed a 6MBit/sec (6000/640) DSL line. Using the SBC speed test and Web100 sites, the speed at about noon was something like: kbits/sec Day 1 2000/200 2 2000/200 3 4500/400 4 2000/200 5 4500/380 6 5200/400 7 5500/500 and has held steady since then. I can get the exact numbers if anyone really wants them. AT&T was obviously experimenting with different configurations. Attached to the DSL modem is a warning sticker than demands that the modem be powered on continuously for the first 10 days.

I've had the displeasure of cleaning up the mess left by customers that plug in their DSL modem, and simultaneously make a mess of the DSL splitter or DSL filters. With bad wiring, or badly configured filters, the adaptive equalizers cannot do their job. The result it low signal levels and a high error rate. The DSLAM configures the line for the slowest possible speed. I usually arrive on the scene after the 10 day training period, and end up calling AT&T support (in India) begging them to setup line retrain the line. In the past, they would not do it unless I claim something has drastically changed at the customers site, or that I threaten cancellation if the speed doesn't increase. If you're really good, you can beg them for a copy (via fax) of the line report. Here's a sample of an old 6000/384 DSL line:

You can also get many of these statistics from the internal web configuration page of your DSL modem, or using various tools and utilities. For example, this is a sample of what one can extract from an old Efficient 5260 DSL modem:

That's fine. I have no clue how long a training window your DSL service allows. You may want to ask. In general, if I expect to be doing wiring after the DSL is initially installed, I will install just the DSL modem in the best possible location (near the Demarc) and leave it on while doing the wiring. That's probably overkill as leaving the modem on over night is probably sufficient for testing purposes.

Sure. Lots of connectivity monitors out there. If you have a high end router with SNMP support, I use MRTG and RRDTool (with ping probe) to monitor traffic and connectivity. If you just want something to tell you that you can connect to the internet, try FreePing:

That's what I use for monitoring if my customers routers are up and connected. Note that I don't pound on their connecting very minute, but only check once every 30 minutes.

Many routers and DSL/cable modems also have a built in connectivity monitor. It's usually in the form of an "internet" light. Internally, it checks connectivity to internet site, and illuminates the light red or green as required.

So, you're losing wireless connectivity and want a monitor program? Pinging the ISP gateway from the laptop using FreePing would work, but would be rather disruptive. I suspect your unspecified model laptop wireless device might have a built in connection manager, with a connectivity indication. I know that most Linksys and Netgear cards do that.

Chuckle. I have a much simpler problem. My users want a big indicator on the screen when the computer is ready to use (and not doing updates or virus scans). I was thinking of writing a utility called "Ready" that would do just that. A big traffic light appears on the desktop with red, yellow, and green lights and would announce over the speakers that your computer is done with housekeeping, booting, virus scanning, defragging, updating, and is ready to be used.

Please note that Windoze has a rather moronic idea of what constitutes "connected". To Microsoft, "connected" really means "associated" which means that the wireless device as found a suitable access point and is able to negotiate a connection. It doesn't mean that it has successfully negotiated that connection, passed encryption, survived authentication, has received a DHCP assigned IP address, and is able to pass packets to the internet. It just means that the wireless devices have settled on a connection protocol and are able to do the rest. Everything in between this initial "connected" message, and the actual start of traffic is missing, as Microsoft did not see it necessary to offer any connection progress indicators. I had hoped that Vista would have supplies the missing connection progress indications, but that didn't happen.

Anyway, there are various wireless client manager programs that can sorta supply a connection indication. I've been using WiFiHopper:

as a connection manager of sorts.

Yep. I can think of a few other ways to break a connection. I suggest that telling your customers to wait until the router is ready before attempting to connect might be useful. Also, showing them how to retry a failed wireless connection might be helpful. Windoze will almost continuously retry a connection (i.e. "connect automatically") so I suspect some configuration on the laptop might be useful.

I used to use the "DMT Tool", mainly for speedtouch modems. Site is in German

English translation, compliments of Google:

and more:

Digging through that site, I found this gem for extracting numbers from Belkin modem/routers:

and from other assorted DSL modems:

Nice.

How to use SNMP to extract DSL line stats: