Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
Mine will too, and won't let go until I kick it over to 2.4Ghz when I go outside. Mix of AP's. On Fri, Nov 21, 2014 at 3:40 PM, Eric Muehleisen via Af wrote: > iOS devices have a mechanism in place that picks the best network between > 2.4 or 5ghz. I don't know specifically how it does it. All my iDevices > including my MBP will choose 5ghz first. > > On Fri, Nov 21, 2014 at 2:35 PM, Josh Luthman via Af wrote: > >> iPads are smart enough to do 5 GHz first, that's great! >> >> >> Josh Luthman >> Office: 937-552-2340 >> Direct: 937-552-2343 >> 1100 Wayne St >> Suite 1337 >> Troy, OH 45373 >> >> On Fri, Nov 21, 2014 at 3:33 PM, Mike Hammett via Af >> wrote: >> >>> Currently there's three iPads on 5 Ghz. Stuck on 2.4 now are a printer >>> an airrouter and an iPad. Of course most people are at work now, so tonight >>> it'll be a different mix. >>> >>> >>> >>> - >>> Mike Hammett >>> Intelligent Computing Solutions >>> http://www.ics-il.com >>> >>> <https://www.facebook.com/ICSIL> >>> <https://plus.google.com/+IntelligentComputingSolutionsDeKalb> >>> <https://www.linkedin.com/company/intelligent-computing-solutions> >>> <https://twitter.com/ICSIL> >>> >>> -- >>> *From: *"Josh Luthman via Af" >>> *To: *af@afmug.com >>> *Sent: *Friday, November 21, 2014 2:28:25 PM >>> >>> *Subject: *Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's >>> >>> What devices started using 5 GHz? Every device I've ever used just went >>> to 2.4 first and stayed there. >>> >>> >>> Josh Luthman >>> Office: 937-552-2340 >>> Direct: 937-552-2343 >>> 1100 Wayne St >>> Suite 1337 >>> Troy, OH 45373 >>> >>> On Fri, Nov 21, 2014 at 3:24 PM, Mike Hammett via Af >>> wrote: >>> >>>> Get better devices? >>>> >>>> In my GF's house, it's about 50/50 2.4 and 5. Same SSID. >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> - >>>> Mike Hammett >>>> Intelligent Computing Solutions >>>> http://www.ics-il.com >>>> >>>> <https://www.facebook.com/ICSIL> >>>> <https://plus.google.com/+IntelligentComputingSolutionsDeKalb> >>>> <https://www.linkedin.com/company/intelligent-computing-solutions> >>>> <https://twitter.com/ICSIL> >>>> >>>> -- >>>> *From: *"Josh Luthman via Af" >>>> *To: *af@afmug.com >>>> *Sent: *Friday, November 21, 2014 1:48:42 PM >>>> *Subject: *Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's >>>> >>>> I have a Unifi 802.11ac dual band AP in my house. I had the same SSID >>>> (Toobs) for both 2.4 and 5 GHz. Not a single device used 5 GHz. >>>> >>>> I've seen changed the SSID of 5 GHz (Toobs 5ghz) and I now know that my >>>> Xbox one and cell phone will connect to it. It also works better than 2.4 >>>> (noise thing I'm sure). It seems to be there's a lack of a solution to >>>> push things off 2.4 onto 5. I've heard that Ruckus has some trickery to >>>> this that may help. >>>> >>>> >>>> Josh Luthman >>>> Office: 937-552-2340 >>>> Direct: 937-552-2343 >>>> 1100 Wayne St >>>> Suite 1337 >>>> Troy, OH 45373 >>>> >>>> On Fri, Nov 21, 2014 at 2:43 PM, Rory Conaway via Af >>>> wrote: >>>> >>>>> That’s our policy also. Then we get to manage them. Need a dual band >>>>> AirGateway next that’s less than $100. We are seeing about 40Mbps through >>>>> the AirGateways which is more than most people need but I’m ready for a >>>>> 5GHz version. >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> *From:* Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com] *On Behalf Of *That One Guy >>>>> via Af >>>>> *Sent:* Friday, November 21, 2014 10:16 AM >>>>> *To:* af@afmug.com >>>>> *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> yeah, air routers are so cheap to give the customer its not worth not >>>>> doing >>>&g
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
iOS devices have a mechanism in place that picks the best network between 2.4 or 5ghz. I don't know specifically how it does it. All my iDevices including my MBP will choose 5ghz first. On Fri, Nov 21, 2014 at 2:35 PM, Josh Luthman via Af wrote: > iPads are smart enough to do 5 GHz first, that's great! > > > Josh Luthman > Office: 937-552-2340 > Direct: 937-552-2343 > 1100 Wayne St > Suite 1337 > Troy, OH 45373 > > On Fri, Nov 21, 2014 at 3:33 PM, Mike Hammett via Af wrote: > >> Currently there's three iPads on 5 Ghz. Stuck on 2.4 now are a printer an >> airrouter and an iPad. Of course most people are at work now, so tonight >> it'll be a different mix. >> >> >> >> - >> Mike Hammett >> Intelligent Computing Solutions >> http://www.ics-il.com >> >> <https://www.facebook.com/ICSIL> >> <https://plus.google.com/+IntelligentComputingSolutionsDeKalb> >> <https://www.linkedin.com/company/intelligent-computing-solutions> >> <https://twitter.com/ICSIL> >> >> ---------- >> *From: *"Josh Luthman via Af" >> *To: *af@afmug.com >> *Sent: *Friday, November 21, 2014 2:28:25 PM >> >> *Subject: *Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's >> >> What devices started using 5 GHz? Every device I've ever used just went >> to 2.4 first and stayed there. >> >> >> Josh Luthman >> Office: 937-552-2340 >> Direct: 937-552-2343 >> 1100 Wayne St >> Suite 1337 >> Troy, OH 45373 >> >> On Fri, Nov 21, 2014 at 3:24 PM, Mike Hammett via Af >> wrote: >> >>> Get better devices? >>> >>> In my GF's house, it's about 50/50 2.4 and 5. Same SSID. >>> >>> >>> >>> - >>> Mike Hammett >>> Intelligent Computing Solutions >>> http://www.ics-il.com >>> >>> <https://www.facebook.com/ICSIL> >>> <https://plus.google.com/+IntelligentComputingSolutionsDeKalb> >>> <https://www.linkedin.com/company/intelligent-computing-solutions> >>> <https://twitter.com/ICSIL> >>> >>> -- >>> *From: *"Josh Luthman via Af" >>> *To: *af@afmug.com >>> *Sent: *Friday, November 21, 2014 1:48:42 PM >>> *Subject: *Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's >>> >>> I have a Unifi 802.11ac dual band AP in my house. I had the same SSID >>> (Toobs) for both 2.4 and 5 GHz. Not a single device used 5 GHz. >>> >>> I've seen changed the SSID of 5 GHz (Toobs 5ghz) and I now know that my >>> Xbox one and cell phone will connect to it. It also works better than 2.4 >>> (noise thing I'm sure). It seems to be there's a lack of a solution to >>> push things off 2.4 onto 5. I've heard that Ruckus has some trickery to >>> this that may help. >>> >>> >>> Josh Luthman >>> Office: 937-552-2340 >>> Direct: 937-552-2343 >>> 1100 Wayne St >>> Suite 1337 >>> Troy, OH 45373 >>> >>> On Fri, Nov 21, 2014 at 2:43 PM, Rory Conaway via Af >>> wrote: >>> >>>> That’s our policy also. Then we get to manage them. Need a dual band >>>> AirGateway next that’s less than $100. We are seeing about 40Mbps through >>>> the AirGateways which is more than most people need but I’m ready for a >>>> 5GHz version. >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> *From:* Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com] *On Behalf Of *That One Guy >>>> via Af >>>> *Sent:* Friday, November 21, 2014 10:16 AM >>>> *To:* af@afmug.com >>>> *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> yeah, air routers are so cheap to give the customer its not worth not >>>> doing >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> On Fri, Nov 21, 2014 at 11:12 AM, Travis Johnson via Af >>>> wrote: >>>> >>>> Hi, >>>> >>>> This is why we just included a "free" WiFi router with all of our >>>> installations. It wasn't a separate item on their bill, it was just part of >>>> our service. Then we had control of the router, and could actually test >>>> clear to the router from our NOC. The customers liked it because they >>>> didn't have to worry about the router, and when it failed we just
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
iPads are smart enough to do 5 GHz first, that's great! Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 On Fri, Nov 21, 2014 at 3:33 PM, Mike Hammett via Af wrote: > Currently there's three iPads on 5 Ghz. Stuck on 2.4 now are a printer an > airrouter and an iPad. Of course most people are at work now, so tonight > it'll be a different mix. > > > > - > Mike Hammett > Intelligent Computing Solutions > http://www.ics-il.com > > <https://www.facebook.com/ICSIL> > <https://plus.google.com/+IntelligentComputingSolutionsDeKalb> > <https://www.linkedin.com/company/intelligent-computing-solutions> > <https://twitter.com/ICSIL> > > -- > *From: *"Josh Luthman via Af" > *To: *af@afmug.com > *Sent: *Friday, November 21, 2014 2:28:25 PM > > *Subject: *Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's > > What devices started using 5 GHz? Every device I've ever used just went > to 2.4 first and stayed there. > > > Josh Luthman > Office: 937-552-2340 > Direct: 937-552-2343 > 1100 Wayne St > Suite 1337 > Troy, OH 45373 > > On Fri, Nov 21, 2014 at 3:24 PM, Mike Hammett via Af wrote: > >> Get better devices? >> >> In my GF's house, it's about 50/50 2.4 and 5. Same SSID. >> >> >> >> - >> Mike Hammett >> Intelligent Computing Solutions >> http://www.ics-il.com >> >> <https://www.facebook.com/ICSIL> >> <https://plus.google.com/+IntelligentComputingSolutionsDeKalb> >> <https://www.linkedin.com/company/intelligent-computing-solutions> >> <https://twitter.com/ICSIL> >> >> -- >> *From: *"Josh Luthman via Af" >> *To: *af@afmug.com >> *Sent: *Friday, November 21, 2014 1:48:42 PM >> *Subject: *Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's >> >> I have a Unifi 802.11ac dual band AP in my house. I had the same SSID >> (Toobs) for both 2.4 and 5 GHz. Not a single device used 5 GHz. >> >> I've seen changed the SSID of 5 GHz (Toobs 5ghz) and I now know that my >> Xbox one and cell phone will connect to it. It also works better than 2.4 >> (noise thing I'm sure). It seems to be there's a lack of a solution to >> push things off 2.4 onto 5. I've heard that Ruckus has some trickery to >> this that may help. >> >> >> Josh Luthman >> Office: 937-552-2340 >> Direct: 937-552-2343 >> 1100 Wayne St >> Suite 1337 >> Troy, OH 45373 >> >> On Fri, Nov 21, 2014 at 2:43 PM, Rory Conaway via Af >> wrote: >> >>> That’s our policy also. Then we get to manage them. Need a dual band >>> AirGateway next that’s less than $100. We are seeing about 40Mbps through >>> the AirGateways which is more than most people need but I’m ready for a >>> 5GHz version. >>> >>> >>> >>> *From:* Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com] *On Behalf Of *That One Guy >>> via Af >>> *Sent:* Friday, November 21, 2014 10:16 AM >>> *To:* af@afmug.com >>> *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's >>> >>> >>> >>> yeah, air routers are so cheap to give the customer its not worth not >>> doing >>> >>> >>> >>> On Fri, Nov 21, 2014 at 11:12 AM, Travis Johnson via Af >>> wrote: >>> >>> Hi, >>> >>> This is why we just included a "free" WiFi router with all of our >>> installations. It wasn't a separate item on their bill, it was just part of >>> our service. Then we had control of the router, and could actually test >>> clear to the router from our NOC. The customers liked it because they >>> didn't have to worry about the router, and when it failed we just replaced >>> it, no charge. >>> >>> Again... customer service is what wins the day. :) >>> >>> Travis >>> >>> >>> >>> On 11/21/2014 9:00 AM, Ken Hohhof via Af wrote: >>> >>> I really question if customers want a device to help them troubleshoot. >>> More like if we (a bunch of network admins) were the customer, that’s what >>> we’d want. It’s like the guys on Big Bang Theory trying to imagine what a >>> regular person would want. >>> >>> >>> >>> The hurdle seems to be getting them to pay someone to fix problems in >>> their internal network. If you can monetize this by sel
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
Currently there's three iPads on 5 Ghz. Stuck on 2.4 now are a printer an airrouter and an iPad. Of course most people are at work now, so tonight it'll be a different mix. - Mike Hammett Intelligent Computing Solutions http://www.ics-il.com - Original Message - From: "Josh Luthman via Af" To: af@afmug.com Sent: Friday, November 21, 2014 2:28:25 PM Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's What devices started using 5 GHz? Every device I've ever used just went to 2.4 first and stayed there. Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 On Fri, Nov 21, 2014 at 3:24 PM, Mike Hammett via Af < af@afmug.com > wrote: Get better devices? In my GF's house, it's about 50/50 2.4 and 5. Same SSID. - Mike Hammett Intelligent Computing Solutions http://www.ics-il.com From: "Josh Luthman via Af" < af@afmug.com > To: af@afmug.com Sent: Friday, November 21, 2014 1:48:42 PM Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's I have a Unifi 802.11ac dual band AP in my house. I had the same SSID (Toobs) for both 2.4 and 5 GHz. Not a single device used 5 GHz. I've seen changed the SSID of 5 GHz (Toobs 5ghz) and I now know that my Xbox one and cell phone will connect to it. It also works better than 2.4 (noise thing I'm sure). It seems to be there's a lack of a solution to push things off 2.4 onto 5. I've heard that Ruckus has some trickery to this that may help. Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 On Fri, Nov 21, 2014 at 2:43 PM, Rory Conaway via Af < af@afmug.com > wrote: That’s our policy also. Then we get to manage them. Need a dual band AirGateway next that’s less than $100. We are seeing about 40Mbps through the AirGateways which is more than most people need but I’m ready for a 5GHz version. From: Af [mailto: af-boun...@afmug.com ] On Behalf Of That One Guy via Af Sent: Friday, November 21, 2014 10:16 AM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's yeah, air routers are so cheap to give the customer its not worth not doing On Fri, Nov 21, 2014 at 11:12 AM, Travis Johnson via Af < af@afmug.com > wrote: Hi, This is why we just included a "free" WiFi router with all of our installations. It wasn't a separate item on their bill, it was just part of our service. Then we had control of the router, and could actually test clear to the router from our NOC. The customers liked it because they didn't have to worry about the router, and when it failed we just replaced it, no charge. Again... customer service is what wins the day. :) Travis On 11/21/2014 9:00 AM, Ken Hohhof via Af wrote: I really question if customers want a device to help them troubleshoot. More like if we (a bunch of network admins) were the customer, that’s what we’d want. It’s like the guys on Big Bang Theory trying to imagine what a regular person would want. The hurdle seems to be getting them to pay someone to fix problems in their internal network. If you can monetize this by selling an onsite support plan, or by dispatching from a separate side of your business that charges for service calls, that is good, as long as you can say this is not an Internet service problem, it is a customer network problem. Otherwise, refer them to a local computer shop that does house calls. What amazes me is the reluctance to pay us $5/mo for a managed Mikrotik router that comes with free replacement, phone support and onsite support. All of a sudden it’s not so interesting to have us solve the problem for them. Yet they will go to Best Buy and let the kid talk them into a $200 Linksys AC router as the solution to all their problems. I guess that points back to me being a poor salesman compared to the kid at Best Buy. Probably because I know the managed router is a good deal for the customer, so if they don’t want it, I’m only going to push it so hard. While Best Buy makes tons more money on a $200 router than they do on a $50 router and doesn’t give a rat’s ass what’s good for the customer, so they sell the hell out of the expensive router. And people like going to stores and buying cool gadgets. Maybe I need to rub some “new car smell” on the Mikrotik routers or something. So I guess if your proposed gizmo has a “new car smell” or “latest iPhone” aura to it, people might buy it. Just make sure that red light doesn’t have false detects, or it will just make people complain their Internet is down because the red light is on. From: David via Af Sent: Friday, November 21, 2014 9:27 AM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's Yeah we put a little thought into ours on that behalf.
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
What devices started using 5 GHz? Every device I've ever used just went to 2.4 first and stayed there. Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 On Fri, Nov 21, 2014 at 3:24 PM, Mike Hammett via Af wrote: > Get better devices? > > In my GF's house, it's about 50/50 2.4 and 5. Same SSID. > > > > - > Mike Hammett > Intelligent Computing Solutions > http://www.ics-il.com > > <https://www.facebook.com/ICSIL> > <https://plus.google.com/+IntelligentComputingSolutionsDeKalb> > <https://www.linkedin.com/company/intelligent-computing-solutions> > <https://twitter.com/ICSIL> > > -- > *From: *"Josh Luthman via Af" > *To: *af@afmug.com > *Sent: *Friday, November 21, 2014 1:48:42 PM > *Subject: *Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's > > I have a Unifi 802.11ac dual band AP in my house. I had the same SSID > (Toobs) for both 2.4 and 5 GHz. Not a single device used 5 GHz. > > I've seen changed the SSID of 5 GHz (Toobs 5ghz) and I now know that my > Xbox one and cell phone will connect to it. It also works better than 2.4 > (noise thing I'm sure). It seems to be there's a lack of a solution to > push things off 2.4 onto 5. I've heard that Ruckus has some trickery to > this that may help. > > > Josh Luthman > Office: 937-552-2340 > Direct: 937-552-2343 > 1100 Wayne St > Suite 1337 > Troy, OH 45373 > > On Fri, Nov 21, 2014 at 2:43 PM, Rory Conaway via Af wrote: > >> That’s our policy also. Then we get to manage them. Need a dual band >> AirGateway next that’s less than $100. We are seeing about 40Mbps through >> the AirGateways which is more than most people need but I’m ready for a >> 5GHz version. >> >> >> >> *From:* Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com] *On Behalf Of *That One Guy via >> Af >> *Sent:* Friday, November 21, 2014 10:16 AM >> *To:* af@afmug.com >> *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's >> >> >> >> yeah, air routers are so cheap to give the customer its not worth not >> doing >> >> >> >> On Fri, Nov 21, 2014 at 11:12 AM, Travis Johnson via Af >> wrote: >> >> Hi, >> >> This is why we just included a "free" WiFi router with all of our >> installations. It wasn't a separate item on their bill, it was just part of >> our service. Then we had control of the router, and could actually test >> clear to the router from our NOC. The customers liked it because they >> didn't have to worry about the router, and when it failed we just replaced >> it, no charge. >> >> Again... customer service is what wins the day. :) >> >> Travis >> >> >> >> On 11/21/2014 9:00 AM, Ken Hohhof via Af wrote: >> >> I really question if customers want a device to help them troubleshoot. >> More like if we (a bunch of network admins) were the customer, that’s what >> we’d want. It’s like the guys on Big Bang Theory trying to imagine what a >> regular person would want. >> >> >> >> The hurdle seems to be getting them to pay someone to fix problems in >> their internal network. If you can monetize this by selling an onsite >> support plan, or by dispatching from a separate side of your business that >> charges for service calls, that is good, as long as you can say this is not >> an Internet service problem, it is a customer network problem. Otherwise, >> refer them to a local computer shop that does house calls. >> >> >> >> What amazes me is the reluctance to pay us $5/mo for a managed Mikrotik >> router that comes with free replacement, phone support and onsite support. >> All of a sudden it’s not so interesting to have us solve the problem for >> them. Yet they will go to Best Buy and let the kid talk them into a $200 >> Linksys AC router as the solution to all their problems. I guess that >> points back to me being a poor salesman compared to the kid at Best Buy. >> Probably because I know the managed router is a good deal for the customer, >> so if they don’t want it, I’m only going to push it so hard. While Best >> Buy makes tons more money on a $200 router than they do on a $50 router and >> doesn’t give a rat’s ass what’s good for the customer, so they sell the >> hell out of the expensive router. And people like going to stores and >> buying cool gadgets. Maybe I need to rub some “new car smell” on the >> Mikrotik routers or something. >> >> >> >> So I guess if
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
Get better devices? In my GF's house, it's about 50/50 2.4 and 5. Same SSID. - Mike Hammett Intelligent Computing Solutions http://www.ics-il.com - Original Message - From: "Josh Luthman via Af" To: af@afmug.com Sent: Friday, November 21, 2014 1:48:42 PM Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's I have a Unifi 802.11ac dual band AP in my house. I had the same SSID (Toobs) for both 2.4 and 5 GHz. Not a single device used 5 GHz. I've seen changed the SSID of 5 GHz (Toobs 5ghz) and I now know that my Xbox one and cell phone will connect to it. It also works better than 2.4 (noise thing I'm sure). It seems to be there's a lack of a solution to push things off 2.4 onto 5. I've heard that Ruckus has some trickery to this that may help. Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 On Fri, Nov 21, 2014 at 2:43 PM, Rory Conaway via Af < af@afmug.com > wrote: That’s our policy also. Then we get to manage them. Need a dual band AirGateway next that’s less than $100. We are seeing about 40Mbps through the AirGateways which is more than most people need but I’m ready for a 5GHz version. From: Af [mailto: af-boun...@afmug.com ] On Behalf Of That One Guy via Af Sent: Friday, November 21, 2014 10:16 AM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's yeah, air routers are so cheap to give the customer its not worth not doing On Fri, Nov 21, 2014 at 11:12 AM, Travis Johnson via Af < af@afmug.com > wrote: Hi, This is why we just included a "free" WiFi router with all of our installations. It wasn't a separate item on their bill, it was just part of our service. Then we had control of the router, and could actually test clear to the router from our NOC. The customers liked it because they didn't have to worry about the router, and when it failed we just replaced it, no charge. Again... customer service is what wins the day. :) Travis On 11/21/2014 9:00 AM, Ken Hohhof via Af wrote: I really question if customers want a device to help them troubleshoot. More like if we (a bunch of network admins) were the customer, that’s what we’d want. It’s like the guys on Big Bang Theory trying to imagine what a regular person would want. The hurdle seems to be getting them to pay someone to fix problems in their internal network. If you can monetize this by selling an onsite support plan, or by dispatching from a separate side of your business that charges for service calls, that is good, as long as you can say this is not an Internet service problem, it is a customer network problem. Otherwise, refer them to a local computer shop that does house calls. What amazes me is the reluctance to pay us $5/mo for a managed Mikrotik router that comes with free replacement, phone support and onsite support. All of a sudden it’s not so interesting to have us solve the problem for them. Yet they will go to Best Buy and let the kid talk them into a $200 Linksys AC router as the solution to all their problems. I guess that points back to me being a poor salesman compared to the kid at Best Buy. Probably because I know the managed router is a good deal for the customer, so if they don’t want it, I’m only going to push it so hard. While Best Buy makes tons more money on a $200 router than they do on a $50 router and doesn’t give a rat’s ass what’s good for the customer, so they sell the hell out of the expensive router. And people like going to stores and buying cool gadgets. Maybe I need to rub some “new car smell” on the Mikrotik routers or something. So I guess if your proposed gizmo has a “new car smell” or “latest iPhone” aura to it, people might buy it. Just make sure that red light doesn’t have false detects, or it will just make people complain their Internet is down because the red light is on. From: David via Af Sent: Friday, November 21, 2014 9:27 AM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's Yeah we put a little thought into ours on that behalf. The customer will have to go to the trouble of signing up for these alerts and it will only show alerts associated with their tower or CPE. Even any scheduled work being done on that site. Alerts for outages on their connection only is all that will be displayed. We are not doing this for anyone on our FSK network only the 450 net. We already have the Portal for billing. On 11/20/2014 11:47 AM, Josh Luthman via Af wrote: *An app for my phone? Yuck *Something that pushes to cutomers letting them know we're having issues? Yuck *Something that let's the customer verify their particular service is good/not? That'd be great! *Web portal for billing, easy peasy Why a node fails probably won't be detectable by a
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
I have a Unifi 802.11ac dual band AP in my house. I had the same SSID (Toobs) for both 2.4 and 5 GHz. Not a single device used 5 GHz. I've seen changed the SSID of 5 GHz (Toobs 5ghz) and I now know that my Xbox one and cell phone will connect to it. It also works better than 2.4 (noise thing I'm sure). It seems to be there's a lack of a solution to push things off 2.4 onto 5. I've heard that Ruckus has some trickery to this that may help. Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 On Fri, Nov 21, 2014 at 2:43 PM, Rory Conaway via Af wrote: > That’s our policy also. Then we get to manage them. Need a dual band > AirGateway next that’s less than $100. We are seeing about 40Mbps through > the AirGateways which is more than most people need but I’m ready for a > 5GHz version. > > > > *From:* Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com] *On Behalf Of *That One Guy via > Af > *Sent:* Friday, November 21, 2014 10:16 AM > *To:* af@afmug.com > *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's > > > > yeah, air routers are so cheap to give the customer its not worth not doing > > > > On Fri, Nov 21, 2014 at 11:12 AM, Travis Johnson via Af > wrote: > > Hi, > > This is why we just included a "free" WiFi router with all of our > installations. It wasn't a separate item on their bill, it was just part of > our service. Then we had control of the router, and could actually test > clear to the router from our NOC. The customers liked it because they > didn't have to worry about the router, and when it failed we just replaced > it, no charge. > > Again... customer service is what wins the day. :) > > Travis > > > > On 11/21/2014 9:00 AM, Ken Hohhof via Af wrote: > > I really question if customers want a device to help them troubleshoot. > More like if we (a bunch of network admins) were the customer, that’s what > we’d want. It’s like the guys on Big Bang Theory trying to imagine what a > regular person would want. > > > > The hurdle seems to be getting them to pay someone to fix problems in > their internal network. If you can monetize this by selling an onsite > support plan, or by dispatching from a separate side of your business that > charges for service calls, that is good, as long as you can say this is not > an Internet service problem, it is a customer network problem. Otherwise, > refer them to a local computer shop that does house calls. > > > > What amazes me is the reluctance to pay us $5/mo for a managed Mikrotik > router that comes with free replacement, phone support and onsite support. > All of a sudden it’s not so interesting to have us solve the problem for > them. Yet they will go to Best Buy and let the kid talk them into a $200 > Linksys AC router as the solution to all their problems. I guess that > points back to me being a poor salesman compared to the kid at Best Buy. > Probably because I know the managed router is a good deal for the customer, > so if they don’t want it, I’m only going to push it so hard. While Best > Buy makes tons more money on a $200 router than they do on a $50 router and > doesn’t give a rat’s ass what’s good for the customer, so they sell the > hell out of the expensive router. And people like going to stores and > buying cool gadgets. Maybe I need to rub some “new car smell” on the > Mikrotik routers or something. > > > > So I guess if your proposed gizmo has a “new car smell” or “latest iPhone” > aura to it, people might buy it. Just make sure that red light doesn’t > have false detects, or it will just make people complain their Internet is > down because the red light is on. > > > > > > *From:* David via Af > > *Sent:* Friday, November 21, 2014 9:27 AM > > *To:* af@afmug.com > > *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's > > > > Yeah we put a little thought into ours on that behalf. > The customer will have to go to the trouble of signing up for these alerts > and it will only show alerts associated with their tower or CPE. > Even any scheduled work being done on that site. > Alerts for outages on their connection only is all that will be displayed. > We are not doing this for anyone on our FSK network only the 450 net. > We already have the Portal for billing. > > On 11/20/2014 11:47 AM, Josh Luthman via Af wrote: > > *An app for my phone? Yuck > > *Something that pushes to cutomers letting them know we're having issues? > Yuck > > *Something that let's the customer verify their particular service is > good/not? That'd be great! > > *Web portal for billing, easy peasy > > > > Why a
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
That’s our policy also. Then we get to manage them. Need a dual band
AirGateway next that’s less than $100. We are seeing about 40Mbps through the
AirGateways which is more than most people need but I’m ready for a 5GHz
version.
From: Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com] On Behalf Of That One Guy via Af
Sent: Friday, November 21, 2014 10:16 AM
To: af@afmug.com
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
yeah, air routers are so cheap to give the customer its not worth not doing
On Fri, Nov 21, 2014 at 11:12 AM, Travis Johnson via Af wrote:
Hi,
This is why we just included a "free" WiFi router with all of our
installations. It wasn't a separate item on their bill, it was just part of our
service. Then we had control of the router, and could actually test clear to
the router from our NOC. The customers liked it because they didn't have to
worry about the router, and when it failed we just replaced it, no charge.
Again... customer service is what wins the day. :)
Travis
On 11/21/2014 9:00 AM, Ken Hohhof via Af wrote:
I really question if customers want a device to help them troubleshoot.
More like if we (a bunch of network admins) were the customer, that’s what
we’d want. It’s like the guys on Big Bang Theory trying to imagine what a
regular person would want.
The hurdle seems to be getting them to pay someone to fix problems in
their internal network. If you can monetize this by selling an onsite support
plan, or by dispatching from a separate side of your business that charges for
service calls, that is good, as long as you can say this is not an Internet
service problem, it is a customer network problem. Otherwise, refer them to a
local computer shop that does house calls.
What amazes me is the reluctance to pay us $5/mo for a managed Mikrotik
router that comes with free replacement, phone support and onsite support. All
of a sudden it’s not so interesting to have us solve the problem for them. Yet
they will go to Best Buy and let the kid talk them into a $200 Linksys AC
router as the solution to all their problems. I guess that points back to me
being a poor salesman compared to the kid at Best Buy. Probably because I know
the managed router is a good deal for the customer, so if they don’t want it,
I’m only going to push it so hard. While Best Buy makes tons more money on a
$200 router than they do on a $50 router and doesn’t give a rat’s ass what’s
good for the customer, so they sell the hell out of the expensive router. And
people like going to stores and buying cool gadgets. Maybe I need to rub some
“new car smell” on the Mikrotik routers or something.
So I guess if your proposed gizmo has a “new car smell” or “latest
iPhone” aura to it, people might buy it. Just make sure that red light doesn’t
have false detects, or it will just make people complain their Internet is down
because the red light is on.
From: David via Af <mailto:af@afmug.com>
Sent: Friday, November 21, 2014 9:27 AM
To: af@afmug.com
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
Yeah we put a little thought into ours on that behalf.
The customer will have to go to the trouble of signing up for these
alerts and it will only show alerts associated with their tower or CPE.
Even any scheduled work being done on that site.
Alerts for outages on their connection only is all that will be
displayed.
We are not doing this for anyone on our FSK network only the 450 net.
We already have the Portal for billing.
On 11/20/2014 11:47 AM, Josh Luthman via Af wrote:
*An app for my phone? Yuck
*Something that pushes to cutomers letting them know we're
having issues? Yuck
*Something that let's the customer verify their particular
service is good/not? That'd be great!
*Web portal for billing, easy peasy
Why a node fails probably won't be detectable by a machine - in
some cases it's difficult for a person to narrow it down (radio, connectors,
cables, ethernet, surge, etc) but I'd like to see ideas on this of course.
I use/suggest an outgoing message. IF the customer is having
issues and they do call us, they hear we're having issues and hang up. This
means that we're not telling 100 people there are issues when 25 are effecting
ending up with 75 calls next month saying we owe them a credit when they had
nothing to do with an outage.
Josh Luthman
Office: 937-552-2340
Direct: 937-552-2343
1100 Wayne St
Suite 1337
Troy, O
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
We have done this also and now we have a couple of options if the customer is a big "Gadget fan " which we are finding true in some cases so we have a 5 and 10 dollar plan for managed services. The Free one is only the 951-2n and the others are 2Hn integrated vs connectorized antennas. Now that cambium will have the c3voip-200 series soon we will only offer it as a $10 or they can buy outright with no maint. I believe there are 2 models one with voip and other not. On 11/21/2014 11:12 AM, Travis Johnson via Af wrote: Hi, This is why we just included a "free" WiFi router with all of our installations. It wasn't a separate item on their bill, it was just part of our service. Then we had control of the router, and could actually test clear to the router from our NOC. The customers liked it because they didn't have to worry about the router, and when it failed we just replaced it, no charge. Again... customer service is what wins the day. :) Travis On 11/21/2014 9:00 AM, Ken Hohhof via Af wrote: I really question if customers want a device to help them troubleshoot. More like if we (a bunch of network admins) were the customer, that’s what we’d want. It’s like the guys on Big Bang Theory trying to imagine what a regular person would want. The hurdle seems to be getting them to pay someone to fix problems in their internal network. If you can monetize this by selling an onsite support plan, or by dispatching from a separate side of your business that charges for service calls, that is good, as long as you can say this is not an Internet service problem, it is a customer network problem. Otherwise, refer them to a local computer shop that does house calls. What amazes me is the reluctance to pay us $5/mo for a managed Mikrotik router that comes with free replacement, phone support and onsite support. All of a sudden it’s not so interesting to have us solve the problem for them. Yet they will go to Best Buy and let the kid talk them into a $200 Linksys AC router as the solution to all their problems. I guess that points back to me being a poor salesman compared to the kid at Best Buy. Probably because I know the managed router is a good deal for the customer, so if they don’t want it, I’m only going to push it so hard. While Best Buy makes tons more money on a $200 router than they do on a $50 router and doesn’t give a rat’s ass what’s good for the customer, so they sell the hell out of the expensive router. And people like going to stores and buying cool gadgets. Maybe I need to rub some “new car smell” on the Mikrotik routers or something. So I guess if your proposed gizmo has a “new car smell” or “latest iPhone” aura to it, people might buy it. Just make sure that red light doesn’t have false detects, or it will just make people complain their Internet is down because the red light is on. *From:* David via Af <mailto:af@afmug.com> *Sent:* Friday, November 21, 2014 9:27 AM *To:* af@afmug.com <mailto:af@afmug.com> *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's Yeah we put a little thought into ours on that behalf. The customer will have to go to the trouble of signing up for these alerts and it will only show alerts associated with their tower or CPE. Even any scheduled work being done on that site. Alerts for outages on their connection only is all that will be displayed. We are not doing this for anyone on our FSK network only the 450 net. We already have the Portal for billing. On 11/20/2014 11:47 AM, Josh Luthman via Af wrote: *An app for my phone? Yuck *Something that pushes to cutomers letting them know we're having issues? Yuck *Something that let's the customer verify their particular service is good/not? That'd be great! *Web portal for billing, easy peasy Why a node fails probably won't be detectable by a machine - in some cases it's difficult for a person to narrow it down (radio, connectors, cables, ethernet, surge, etc) but I'd like to see ideas on this of course. I use/suggest an outgoing message. IF the customer is having issues and they do call us, they hear we're having issues and hang up. This means that we're not telling 100 people there are issues when 25 are effecting ending up with 75 calls next month saying we owe them a credit when they had nothing to do with an outage. Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:43 PM, Sterling Jacobson via Af mailto:af@afmug.com>> wrote: What I really want is an integrated system that isn't stuck in the 90's. I want the customer to have an app on their phone that tells them when their network is having issues and why. I want it to also remind them to pay their bill and provide a lazy/easy way to do that. I want that same system to have an engineer app that
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
yeah, air routers are so cheap to give the customer its not worth not doing On Fri, Nov 21, 2014 at 11:12 AM, Travis Johnson via Af wrote: > Hi, > > This is why we just included a "free" WiFi router with all of our > installations. It wasn't a separate item on their bill, it was just part of > our service. Then we had control of the router, and could actually test > clear to the router from our NOC. The customers liked it because they > didn't have to worry about the router, and when it failed we just replaced > it, no charge. > > Again... customer service is what wins the day. :) > > Travis > > > On 11/21/2014 9:00 AM, Ken Hohhof via Af wrote: > > I really question if customers want a device to help them troubleshoot. > More like if we (a bunch of network admins) were the customer, that’s what > we’d want. It’s like the guys on Big Bang Theory trying to imagine what a > regular person would want. > > The hurdle seems to be getting them to pay someone to fix problems in > their internal network. If you can monetize this by selling an onsite > support plan, or by dispatching from a separate side of your business that > charges for service calls, that is good, as long as you can say this is not > an Internet service problem, it is a customer network problem. Otherwise, > refer them to a local computer shop that does house calls. > > What amazes me is the reluctance to pay us $5/mo for a managed Mikrotik > router that comes with free replacement, phone support and onsite support. > All of a sudden it’s not so interesting to have us solve the problem for > them. Yet they will go to Best Buy and let the kid talk them into a $200 > Linksys AC router as the solution to all their problems. I guess that > points back to me being a poor salesman compared to the kid at Best Buy. > Probably because I know the managed router is a good deal for the customer, > so if they don’t want it, I’m only going to push it so hard. While Best > Buy makes tons more money on a $200 router than they do on a $50 router and > doesn’t give a rat’s ass what’s good for the customer, so they sell the > hell out of the expensive router. And people like going to stores and > buying cool gadgets. Maybe I need to rub some “new car smell” on the > Mikrotik routers or something. > > So I guess if your proposed gizmo has a “new car smell” or “latest iPhone” > aura to it, people might buy it. Just make sure that red light doesn’t > have false detects, or it will just make people complain their Internet is > down because the red light is on. > > > *From:* David via Af > *Sent:* Friday, November 21, 2014 9:27 AM > *To:* af@afmug.com > *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's > > Yeah we put a little thought into ours on that behalf. > The customer will have to go to the trouble of signing up for these alerts > and it will only show alerts associated with their tower or CPE. > Even any scheduled work being done on that site. > Alerts for outages on their connection only is all that will be displayed. > We are not doing this for anyone on our FSK network only the 450 net. > We already have the Portal for billing. > > On 11/20/2014 11:47 AM, Josh Luthman via Af wrote: > > *An app for my phone? Yuck > *Something that pushes to cutomers letting them know we're having issues? > Yuck > *Something that let's the customer verify their particular service is > good/not? That'd be great! > *Web portal for billing, easy peasy > > Why a node fails probably won't be detectable by a machine - in some cases > it's difficult for a person to narrow it down (radio, connectors, cables, > ethernet, surge, etc) but I'd like to see ideas on this of course. > > I use/suggest an outgoing message. IF the customer is having issues and > they do call us, they hear we're having issues and hang up. This means > that we're not telling 100 people there are issues when 25 are effecting > ending up with 75 calls next month saying we owe them a credit when they > had nothing to do with an outage. > > > Josh Luthman > Office: 937-552-2340 > Direct: 937-552-2343 > 1100 Wayne St > Suite 1337 > Troy, OH 45373 > > On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:43 PM, Sterling Jacobson via Af > wrote: > >> What I really want is an integrated system that isn't stuck in the 90's. >> >> I want the customer to have an app on their phone that tells them when >> their network is having issues and why. >> I want it to also remind them to pay their bill and provide a lazy/easy >> way to do that. >> >> I want that same system to have an engineer app that tells us when nodes >> fail and
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
Hi, This is why we just included a "free" WiFi router with all of our installations. It wasn't a separate item on their bill, it was just part of our service. Then we had control of the router, and could actually test clear to the router from our NOC. The customers liked it because they didn't have to worry about the router, and when it failed we just replaced it, no charge. Again... customer service is what wins the day. :) Travis On 11/21/2014 9:00 AM, Ken Hohhof via Af wrote: I really question if customers want a device to help them troubleshoot. More like if we (a bunch of network admins) were the customer, that’s what we’d want. It’s like the guys on Big Bang Theory trying to imagine what a regular person would want. The hurdle seems to be getting them to pay someone to fix problems in their internal network. If you can monetize this by selling an onsite support plan, or by dispatching from a separate side of your business that charges for service calls, that is good, as long as you can say this is not an Internet service problem, it is a customer network problem. Otherwise, refer them to a local computer shop that does house calls. What amazes me is the reluctance to pay us $5/mo for a managed Mikrotik router that comes with free replacement, phone support and onsite support. All of a sudden it’s not so interesting to have us solve the problem for them. Yet they will go to Best Buy and let the kid talk them into a $200 Linksys AC router as the solution to all their problems. I guess that points back to me being a poor salesman compared to the kid at Best Buy. Probably because I know the managed router is a good deal for the customer, so if they don’t want it, I’m only going to push it so hard. While Best Buy makes tons more money on a $200 router than they do on a $50 router and doesn’t give a rat’s ass what’s good for the customer, so they sell the hell out of the expensive router. And people like going to stores and buying cool gadgets. Maybe I need to rub some “new car smell” on the Mikrotik routers or something. So I guess if your proposed gizmo has a “new car smell” or “latest iPhone” aura to it, people might buy it. Just make sure that red light doesn’t have false detects, or it will just make people complain their Internet is down because the red light is on. *From:* David via Af <mailto:af@afmug.com> *Sent:* Friday, November 21, 2014 9:27 AM *To:* af@afmug.com <mailto:af@afmug.com> *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's Yeah we put a little thought into ours on that behalf. The customer will have to go to the trouble of signing up for these alerts and it will only show alerts associated with their tower or CPE. Even any scheduled work being done on that site. Alerts for outages on their connection only is all that will be displayed. We are not doing this for anyone on our FSK network only the 450 net. We already have the Portal for billing. On 11/20/2014 11:47 AM, Josh Luthman via Af wrote: *An app for my phone? Yuck *Something that pushes to cutomers letting them know we're having issues? Yuck *Something that let's the customer verify their particular service is good/not? That'd be great! *Web portal for billing, easy peasy Why a node fails probably won't be detectable by a machine - in some cases it's difficult for a person to narrow it down (radio, connectors, cables, ethernet, surge, etc) but I'd like to see ideas on this of course. I use/suggest an outgoing message. IF the customer is having issues and they do call us, they hear we're having issues and hang up. This means that we're not telling 100 people there are issues when 25 are effecting ending up with 75 calls next month saying we owe them a credit when they had nothing to do with an outage. Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:43 PM, Sterling Jacobson via Af mailto:af@afmug.com>> wrote: What I really want is an integrated system that isn't stuck in the 90's. I want the customer to have an app on their phone that tells them when their network is having issues and why. I want it to also remind them to pay their bill and provide a lazy/easy way to do that. I want that same system to have an engineer app that tells us when nodes fail and why. So if a node goes down and it's important, it should show up on my phone and I can take action. One of those actions would be to message to outage impacted customers the ETA to fix etc. Emails from Cacti don't count.
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
I really question if customers want a device to help them troubleshoot. More like if we (a bunch of network admins) were the customer, that’s what we’d want. It’s like the guys on Big Bang Theory trying to imagine what a regular person would want. The hurdle seems to be getting them to pay someone to fix problems in their internal network. If you can monetize this by selling an onsite support plan, or by dispatching from a separate side of your business that charges for service calls, that is good, as long as you can say this is not an Internet service problem, it is a customer network problem. Otherwise, refer them to a local computer shop that does house calls. What amazes me is the reluctance to pay us $5/mo for a managed Mikrotik router that comes with free replacement, phone support and onsite support. All of a sudden it’s not so interesting to have us solve the problem for them. Yet they will go to Best Buy and let the kid talk them into a $200 Linksys AC router as the solution to all their problems. I guess that points back to me being a poor salesman compared to the kid at Best Buy. Probably because I know the managed router is a good deal for the customer, so if they don’t want it, I’m only going to push it so hard. While Best Buy makes tons more money on a $200 router than they do on a $50 router and doesn’t give a rat’s ass what’s good for the customer, so they sell the hell out of the expensive router. And people like going to stores and buying cool gadgets. Maybe I need to rub some “new car smell” on the Mikrotik routers or something. So I guess if your proposed gizmo has a “new car smell” or “latest iPhone” aura to it, people might buy it. Just make sure that red light doesn’t have false detects, or it will just make people complain their Internet is down because the red light is on. From: David via Af Sent: Friday, November 21, 2014 9:27 AM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's Yeah we put a little thought into ours on that behalf. The customer will have to go to the trouble of signing up for these alerts and it will only show alerts associated with their tower or CPE. Even any scheduled work being done on that site. Alerts for outages on their connection only is all that will be displayed. We are not doing this for anyone on our FSK network only the 450 net. We already have the Portal for billing. On 11/20/2014 11:47 AM, Josh Luthman via Af wrote: *An app for my phone? Yuck *Something that pushes to cutomers letting them know we're having issues? Yuck *Something that let's the customer verify their particular service is good/not? That'd be great! *Web portal for billing, easy peasy Why a node fails probably won't be detectable by a machine - in some cases it's difficult for a person to narrow it down (radio, connectors, cables, ethernet, surge, etc) but I'd like to see ideas on this of course. I use/suggest an outgoing message. IF the customer is having issues and they do call us, they hear we're having issues and hang up. This means that we're not telling 100 people there are issues when 25 are effecting ending up with 75 calls next month saying we owe them a credit when they had nothing to do with an outage. Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:43 PM, Sterling Jacobson via Af wrote: What I really want is an integrated system that isn't stuck in the 90's. I want the customer to have an app on their phone that tells them when their network is having issues and why. I want it to also remind them to pay their bill and provide a lazy/easy way to do that. I want that same system to have an engineer app that tells us when nodes fail and why. So if a node goes down and it's important, it should show up on my phone and I can take action. One of those actions would be to message to outage impacted customers the ETA to fix etc. Emails from Cacti don't count.
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
Yeah we put a little thought into ours on that behalf. The customer will have to go to the trouble of signing up for these alerts and it will only show alerts associated with their tower or CPE. Even any scheduled work being done on that site. Alerts for outages on their connection only is all that will be displayed. We are not doing this for anyone on our FSK network only the 450 net. We already have the Portal for billing. On 11/20/2014 11:47 AM, Josh Luthman via Af wrote: *An app for my phone? Yuck *Something that pushes to cutomers letting them know we're having issues? Yuck *Something that let's the customer verify their particular service is good/not? That'd be great! *Web portal for billing, easy peasy Why a node fails probably won't be detectable by a machine - in some cases it's difficult for a person to narrow it down (radio, connectors, cables, ethernet, surge, etc) but I'd like to see ideas on this of course. I use/suggest an outgoing message. IF the customer is having issues and they do call us, they hear we're having issues and hang up. This means that we're not telling 100 people there are issues when 25 are effecting ending up with 75 calls next month saying we owe them a credit when they had nothing to do with an outage. Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:43 PM, Sterling Jacobson via Af mailto:af@afmug.com>> wrote: What I really want is an integrated system that isn't stuck in the 90's. I want the customer to have an app on their phone that tells them when their network is having issues and why. I want it to also remind them to pay their bill and provide a lazy/easy way to do that. I want that same system to have an engineer app that tells us when nodes fail and why. So if a node goes down and it's important, it should show up on my phone and I can take action. One of those actions would be to message to outage impacted customers the ETA to fix etc. Emails from Cacti don't count.
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
PLUS 1 for Nagios and there are some apps coming about for it on the android. We have a company that is working on an app for us and the customers as you mentioned to do just that. regardless of the APP you still need a good monitoring server running to interface with the APP. There are some Free options out there and there are some great ones too. On 11/20/2014 04:21 PM, Eric Kuhnke via Af wrote: "Emails from Cacti don't count" - cacti is not an up/down monitoring system, it's a charting system... Any threshold alerting plugins that might be available are just a bonus. Use something like OpenNMS or Nagios. On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 9:43 AM, Sterling Jacobson via Af mailto:af@afmug.com>> wrote: What I really want is an integrated system that isn't stuck in the 90's. I want the customer to have an app on their phone that tells them when their network is having issues and why. I want it to also remind them to pay their bill and provide a lazy/easy way to do that. I want that same system to have an engineer app that tells us when nodes fail and why. So if a node goes down and it's important, it should show up on my phone and I can take action. One of those actions would be to message to outage impacted customers the ETA to fix etc. Emails from Cacti don't count.
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
Agreed. A picture is worth 1,000 words. You can tell them what it looks like or you can show them what it looks like. - Mike Hammett Intelligent Computing Solutions http://www.ics-il.com - Original Message - From: "Sterling Jacobson via Af" To: af@afmug.com Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 5:46:10 PM Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's Yeah, I agree. We have the PoE with a green light. I want to build that into the App, so it shows or walks through a series of steps like check the adapter that looks like THIS for a green light. Check GFI tripped, check cables connected in proper order to PoE and router etc. The customer wants to be able to do that themselves before calling in. I think that would eliminate a lot of the calls and customers can do things on their own time. I guess the App could also help them schedule a paid visit if it determines the ISP service is working, but they can’t figure out their stuff. I would almost like to have it refer them to a list of local computer/network shops instead. Or those ISPs that want to make money off that kind of visit could schedule themselves. From: Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com] On Behalf Of Ken Hohhof via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 2:53 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's I feel you’re overthinking this, at the risk of adding more stuff to fail or for the customer to bitch about. We use the Tycon POEs with current indicator, we tell the customer the light should be green. That covers a lot of calls – cables unplugged or chewed or POE not getting AC power. If the customer thinks their Internet is down, and they have a customer supplied router, we tell them to power cycle the router, this is the most common issue. If the customer is 100% WiFi, we try to make sure they have a spare Ethernet cable on a LAN port of the router. Most laptops have an Ethernet port, we tell them to take their laptop over to the router, plug it in, and if they have Internet then they have a WiFi problem. Once these 3 steps are done, or if they are complaining about speed, I think Travis is right, you’re better off having them call. If nothing else, this may be an upsell opportunity, if they talk to a human. Or you may get to explain a few things about P2P or video streaming or botnets to them. From: Sterling Jacobson via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 3:28 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's Lol! I imagine in the App a line with points on it that connect from both ends. Kind of like the Xbox line test. Where it shows green lights on the provider service, the unit on the side of the house, then the router inside their house, and then their device. It might break in the middle, so the phone could show that it sees their wifi, but on 4G it talks to the ISP and shows green dots up to their CPE, then a red dot for their router. It’s not complicated programming on the ISP side. It could even tell you if the customers router IP was registered in the ARP table, or if just the physical connection is made and no MAC or IP etc. I think most of us have a service table for the customer record that has the CPE IP address. Maybe it would need another table in the customer relation to the router, or maybe it’s implicit in the IP address or Gateway IP etc. From: Af [ mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com ] On Behalf Of Ken Hohhof via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 2:22 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's For VoIP we bridge the ATA ahead of the router. I love it when someone calls on the VoIP phone to tell us “the tower is down”. From: Shayne Lebrun via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 2:56 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's What we need to do is get people to view the ‘internet light’ like the ‘check engine’ light on their car. It could mean ‘your gas cap is loose’ or it could mean ‘your driveshaft just fell out of your car’ but if you want to know, it’s going to cost $250 just for somebody to open the hood and plug in the diagnostic checker. Wouldn’t that be nice….. From: Af [ mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com ] On Behalf Of Chuck McCown via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 2:53 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's As determined by DHCP adds a horrible layer of complexity for a cheap and simple device. How about ping to 8.8.8.8? From: Josh Luthman via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 12:41 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's Red/green light for successful DNS and ping to a server determined by DHCP Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Tr
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
Least effort and outlay... to the decision makers. Talking to someone doing the cleanup... they buy a lot of meses. - Mike Hammett Intelligent Computing Solutions http://www.ics-il.com - Original Message - From: "Chuck McCown via Af" To: af@afmug.com Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 3:57:33 PM Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's I really can’t say what was in the minds of the JAB decision makers. Seems like they were trying to hoover up as many customers as possible with the least effort and outlay. From: Josh Luthman via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 2:54 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's So you're saying definitely not based on customer service... Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 On Nov 20, 2014 4:49 PM, "Chuck McCown via Af" < af@afmug.com > wrote: Pretty sure it was based on revenue stream and the quality of the network. Canopy based systems got more than Trango or UBNT etc. From: Josh Luthman via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 2:45 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's I have to think the company was worth more because of location. I doubt JAB could care less what the quality of tech support was. Another WISP in Utah was another drop in the bucket. Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 On Nov 20, 2014 4:42 PM, "Chuck McCown via Af" < af@afmug.com > wrote: The day is coming when that statement can be verified... ;-) -Original Message- From: Travis Johnson via Af Microserv. You remember, the company that was 10x larger than yours and sold to JAB for more, per sub, than any other company so far. :)
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
What would Kevin O'Leary value it at? :-p - Mike Hammett Intelligent Computing Solutions http://www.ics-il.com - Original Message - From: "Travis Johnson via Af" To: af@afmug.com Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 3:38:28 PM Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's I wasn't responding to get into an argument with you. You are obviously free to do whatever you want, and handle your customers however you see fit. I was simply explaining from my perspective what I am seeing today, and what I saw while building Microserv. You remember, the company that was 10x larger than yours and sold to JAB for more, per sub, than any other company so far. :) I also own part of the fastest growing software companies in Utah. We have 20+ full-time developers and current customers like Nike, Google, eBay, Nordstroms, Toms, Disney and Vistaprint to name a few. The company has been in business for less than a year and already has a valuation of $6,000,000 from a national institutional investor that invested a month ago. I'm pretty familiar with the software development scene, especially in Utah. :) Good luck with your app, I hope it works out for you. Travis On 11/20/2014 2:19 PM, Sterling Jacobson via Af wrote: > Wrong on both counts. > > I used to be in software development, so like anything else, it's who you > know. > I can get this done for a lot less. > > And having an app for the customer to view and fix or find problems on their > own is a differentiator itself. > Every one of my customers I've talked to about this has expressed great > interest in not having to call in if they can help it. > > I'm guessing a few of the older generation won't have a phone or care to use > an app, they can always call in. > > But in general it looks like it will greatly reduce support overhead for the > ISP and increase customer satisfaction at the same time. > > I guess time will tell. > > I already have this underway, parts are developed already, but if someone > wants to help out, let me know! > > -Original Message- > From: Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com] On Behalf Of Travis Johnson via Af > Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 2:15 PM > To: af@afmug.com > Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's > > Sterling, > > This sounds like an easy task, but I can tell you as someone that is > currently developing software, and is starting December 1 to build a simple > iPhone app, software development is very expensive. My app is a pretty > simple... easy to use front-end with a cloud based database back-end... yet > the quotes I have gotten are $50,000 - $75,000. This is from 3 different > development companies all based in Utah. All of them are busy and each has > 20+ full-time developers working for them, so they have enough business and > must not be totally out of line on their quotes. > > I said this 10+ years ago, and I'll say it again... customer service is the > only thing that makes you different than the big cable and telco companies. > Having a live person that can help people troubleshoot and fix issues is the > key to keeping people with your service. If you are just going to send them > to an app on their phones, you become the same as every other provider... and > your service becomes a commodity just like everyone else. > > Travis > > On 11/20/2014 1:49 PM, Sterling Jacobson via Af wrote: >> BUT, the phones now days are smart enough to know when wifi sucks or goes >> out completely. >> >> They fall back to 3/4G. >> >> Which is awesome, because it could still talk to the service provider end >> and tell the customer the status. >> >> I think this would work better than a green/red light. >> >> The phone App would tell you that your service is correct to the house, but >> that inside it's not talking. >> Then walk the customer through a set of standard fix it routines. >> >> That would solve most of our calls right there. >> >> On the back end it just needs to talk to a server process that can get >> access to the device on the side of the house. >> >> The best would be an embedded speed test in the ONT/CPE that could report >> back to the App and say they are getting what they are paying for to the >> side of their house. And then give them suggestions for fixing their crappy >> wifi. >> >> I bet it wouldn't take much to get this done and working with a few larger >> billing systems and equipment platforms, who's with me?? >> >> -Original Message- >> From: Af [mai
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
Go to India. ;-) An app on their phone removes the user from the troubleshooting, though, which is a very good thing. - Mike Hammett Intelligent Computing Solutions http://www.ics-il.com - Original Message - From: "Travis Johnson via Af" To: af@afmug.com Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 3:14:34 PM Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's Sterling, This sounds like an easy task, but I can tell you as someone that is currently developing software, and is starting December 1 to build a simple iPhone app, software development is very expensive. My app is a pretty simple... easy to use front-end with a cloud based database back-end... yet the quotes I have gotten are $50,000 - $75,000. This is from 3 different development companies all based in Utah. All of them are busy and each has 20+ full-time developers working for them, so they have enough business and must not be totally out of line on their quotes. I said this 10+ years ago, and I'll say it again... customer service is the only thing that makes you different than the big cable and telco companies. Having a live person that can help people troubleshoot and fix issues is the key to keeping people with your service. If you are just going to send them to an app on their phones, you become the same as every other provider... and your service becomes a commodity just like everyone else. Travis On 11/20/2014 1:49 PM, Sterling Jacobson via Af wrote: > BUT, the phones now days are smart enough to know when wifi sucks or goes out > completely. > > They fall back to 3/4G. > > Which is awesome, because it could still talk to the service provider end and > tell the customer the status. > > I think this would work better than a green/red light. > > The phone App would tell you that your service is correct to the house, but > that inside it's not talking. > Then walk the customer through a set of standard fix it routines. > > That would solve most of our calls right there. > > On the back end it just needs to talk to a server process that can get access > to the device on the side of the house. > > The best would be an embedded speed test in the ONT/CPE that could report > back to the App and say they are getting what they are paying for to the side > of their house. And then give them suggestions for fixing their crappy wifi. > > I bet it wouldn't take much to get this done and working with a few larger > billing systems and equipment platforms, who's with me?? > > -Original Message- > From: Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com] On Behalf Of Ken Hohhof via Af > Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 12:35 PM > To: af@afmug.com > Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's > > Part of the problem is so many customers are 100% WiFi now, so unless you > have a managed router there, you have 2 big problem areas beyond the demarc - > the customer's router and the customer's WiFi. > > > -----Original Message- > From: Bill Prince via Af > Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 1:04 PM > To: af@afmug.com > Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's > > Linktechs built a tool a couple years ago that ran on the customer's PC > (WIndows only) that would give the customer a "connection health" > indication. It would monitor the local gateway, and give both a green light > for connected, plus a reading on the latency. You go too much beyond that, > and you will get a bunch of false positives when something beyond your local > network is having some kind of issue (we get our share of these). > > I don't think they got much response from it, and I don't think they offer it > any longer. > > bp > > > On 11/20/2014 9:43 AM, Sterling Jacobson via Af wrote: >> What I really want is an integrated system that isn't stuck in the 90's. >> >> I want the customer to have an app on their phone that tells them when >> their network is having issues and why. >> I want it to also remind them to pay their bill and provide a >> lazy/easy way to do that. >> >> I want that same system to have an engineer app that tells us when >> nodes fail and why. >> >> So if a node goes down and it's important, it should show up on my >> phone and I can take action. >> One of those actions would be to message to outage impacted customers >> the ETA to fix etc. >> >> Emails from Cacti don't count. >> > >
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
Does a BTest to a Mikrotik, an iPerf to a Ubiquiti, whatever Cambium uses to theirs from your NOC. - Mike Hammett Intelligent Computing Solutions http://www.ics-il.com - Original Message - From: "Sterling Jacobson via Af" To: af@afmug.com Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 2:49:26 PM Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's BUT, the phones now days are smart enough to know when wifi sucks or goes out completely. They fall back to 3/4G. Which is awesome, because it could still talk to the service provider end and tell the customer the status. I think this would work better than a green/red light. The phone App would tell you that your service is correct to the house, but that inside it's not talking. Then walk the customer through a set of standard fix it routines. That would solve most of our calls right there. On the back end it just needs to talk to a server process that can get access to the device on the side of the house. The best would be an embedded speed test in the ONT/CPE that could report back to the App and say they are getting what they are paying for to the side of their house. And then give them suggestions for fixing their crappy wifi. I bet it wouldn't take much to get this done and working with a few larger billing systems and equipment platforms, who's with me?? -Original Message- From: Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com] On Behalf Of Ken Hohhof via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 12:35 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's Part of the problem is so many customers are 100% WiFi now, so unless you have a managed router there, you have 2 big problem areas beyond the demarc - the customer's router and the customer's WiFi. -Original Message- From: Bill Prince via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 1:04 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's Linktechs built a tool a couple years ago that ran on the customer's PC (WIndows only) that would give the customer a "connection health" indication. It would monitor the local gateway, and give both a green light for connected, plus a reading on the latency. You go too much beyond that, and you will get a bunch of false positives when something beyond your local network is having some kind of issue (we get our share of these). I don't think they got much response from it, and I don't think they offer it any longer. bp On 11/20/2014 9:43 AM, Sterling Jacobson via Af wrote: > What I really want is an integrated system that isn't stuck in the 90's. > > I want the customer to have an app on their phone that tells them when > their network is having issues and why. > I want it to also remind them to pay their bill and provide a > lazy/easy way to do that. > > I want that same system to have an engineer app that tells us when > nodes fail and why. > > So if a node goes down and it's important, it should show up on my > phone and I can take action. > One of those actions would be to message to outage impacted customers > the ETA to fix etc. > > Emails from Cacti don't count. >
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
NEVER depend on someone outside of your network, especially Google. Using Google DNS is a terrible thing for ISPs to do. - Mike Hammett Intelligent Computing Solutions http://www.ics-il.com - Original Message - From: "Chuck McCown via Af" To: af@afmug.com Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 1:52:33 PM Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's As determined by DHCP adds a horrible layer of complexity for a cheap and simple device. How about ping to 8.8.8.8? From: Josh Luthman via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 12:41 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's Red/green light for successful DNS and ping to a server determined by DHCP Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 1:05 PM, Chuck McCown via Af < af@afmug.com > wrote: What would be the determining factor? Ping DNS server OK? From: Jason McKemie via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 11:03 AM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's A red/green led would probably suffice for this purpose. On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:01 PM, Gino Villarini via Af < af@afmug.com > wrote: We need a “device” that plugs between router and internet connection with a big screed that says Internet OK! Or Internef BAD… filter out calls with customer having issues with wifi Gino A. Villarini President Aeronet Wireless Broadband Corp. www.aeronetpr.com @aeronetpr From: " af@afmug.com " < af@afmug.com > Reply-To: " af@afmug.com " < af@afmug.com > Date: Thursday, November 20, 2014 at 1:47 PM To: " af@afmug.com " < af@afmug.com > Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's *An app for my phone? Yuck *Something that pushes to cutomers letting them know we're having issues? Yuck *Something that let's the customer verify their particular service is good/not? That'd be great! *Web portal for billing, easy peasy Why a node fails probably won't be detectable by a machine - in some cases it's difficult for a person to narrow it down (radio, connectors, cables, ethernet, surge, etc) but I'd like to see ideas on this of course. I use/suggest an outgoing message. IF the customer is having issues and they do call us, they hear we're having issues and hang up. This means that we're not telling 100 people there are issues when 25 are effecting ending up with 75 calls next month saying we owe them a credit when they had nothing to do with an outage. Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:43 PM, Sterling Jacobson via Af < af@afmug.com > wrote: What I really want is an integrated system that isn't stuck in the 90's. I want the customer to have an app on their phone that tells them when their network is having issues and why. I want it to also remind them to pay their bill and provide a lazy/easy way to do that. I want that same system to have an engineer app that tells us when nodes fail and why. So if a node goes down and it's important, it should show up on my phone and I can take action. One of those actions would be to message to outage impacted customers the ETA to fix etc. Emails from Cacti don't count.
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
ComEd does have a very good app, but a utility. - Mike Hammett Intelligent Computing Solutions http://www.ics-il.com - Original Message - From: "Ken Hohhof via Af" To: af@afmug.com Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 12:16:53 PM Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's Several brands of home routers have an Internet light that changes color when the Internet is reachable, for example Netgear and DLink do this. I don’t know about Belkin but they probably phone home to the mothership. I think the method depends on whether the Internet connection is set for DHCP, PPPoE or static IP. With PPPoE it monitors for an active PPPoE session. I think the other two maybe they check if the DNS servers are reachable. This method is not foolproof, because cheap routers tend to lock up and they may lock up with the light saying Internet is good. But it’s better than nothing. As far as notifying customers, ComEd here has an outage map that’s pretty nice. You can bring it up on your phone and the starting location will be your phone location, outage locations are shown with an estimated number of customers affected, problem description (like wires down), status (like crew onsite or being dispatched), and ETA. Not saying that’s what we need, but from a customer perspective, it’s useful. From: Chuck McCown via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 12:05 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's What would be the determining factor? Ping DNS server OK? From: Jason McKemie via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 11:03 AM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's A red/green led would probably suffice for this purpose. On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:01 PM, Gino Villarini via Af < af@afmug.com > wrote: We need a “device” that plugs between router and internet connection with a big screed that says Internet OK! Or Internef BAD… filter out calls with customer having issues with wifi Gino A. Villarini President Aeronet Wireless Broadband Corp. www.aeronetpr.com @aeronetpr From: " af@afmug.com " < af@afmug.com > Reply-To: " af@afmug.com " < af@afmug.com > Date: Thursday, November 20, 2014 at 1:47 PM To: " af@afmug.com " < af@afmug.com > Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's *An app for my phone? Yuck *Something that pushes to cutomers letting them know we're having issues? Yuck *Something that let's the customer verify their particular service is good/not? That'd be great! *Web portal for billing, easy peasy Why a node fails probably won't be detectable by a machine - in some cases it's difficult for a person to narrow it down (radio, connectors, cables, ethernet, surge, etc) but I'd like to see ideas on this of course. I use/suggest an outgoing message. IF the customer is having issues and they do call us, they hear we're having issues and hang up. This means that we're not telling 100 people there are issues when 25 are effecting ending up with 75 calls next month saying we owe them a credit when they had nothing to do with an outage. Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:43 PM, Sterling Jacobson via Af < af@afmug.com > wrote: What I really want is an integrated system that isn't stuck in the 90's. I want the customer to have an app on their phone that tells them when their network is having issues and why. I want it to also remind them to pay their bill and provide a lazy/easy way to do that. I want that same system to have an engineer app that tells us when nodes fail and why. So if a node goes down and it's important, it should show up on my phone and I can take action. One of those actions would be to message to outage impacted customers the ETA to fix etc. Emails from Cacti don't count.
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
Mobile web is generally terrible. Natively programmed apps (not Air) FTW. Perhaps not an alert saying that you're down, but when the customer goes to check, it tells them. - Mike Hammett Intelligent Computing Solutions http://www.ics-il.com - Original Message - From: "Josh Luthman via Af" To: af@afmug.com Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 11:47:56 AM Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's *An app for my phone? Yuck *Something that pushes to cutomers letting them know we're having issues? Yuck *Something that let's the customer verify their particular service is good/not? That'd be great! *Web portal for billing, easy peasy Why a node fails probably won't be detectable by a machine - in some cases it's difficult for a person to narrow it down (radio, connectors, cables, ethernet, surge, etc) but I'd like to see ideas on this of course. I use/suggest an outgoing message. IF the customer is having issues and they do call us, they hear we're having issues and hang up. This means that we're not telling 100 people there are issues when 25 are effecting ending up with 75 calls next month saying we owe them a credit when they had nothing to do with an outage. Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:43 PM, Sterling Jacobson via Af < af@afmug.com > wrote: What I really want is an integrated system that isn't stuck in the 90's. I want the customer to have an app on their phone that tells them when their network is having issues and why. I want it to also remind them to pay their bill and provide a lazy/easy way to do that. I want that same system to have an engineer app that tells us when nodes fail and why. So if a node goes down and it's important, it should show up on my phone and I can take action. One of those actions would be to message to outage impacted customers the ETA to fix etc. Emails from Cacti don't count.
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
That sounds like something your billing system should do, given that you want it to also handle paying their bill. - Mike Hammett Intelligent Computing Solutions http://www.ics-il.com - Original Message - From: "Sterling Jacobson via Af" To: "af@afmug.com" Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 11:43:40 AM Subject: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's What I really want is an integrated system that isn't stuck in the 90's. I want the customer to have an app on their phone that tells them when their network is having issues and why. I want it to also remind them to pay their bill and provide a lazy/easy way to do that. I want that same system to have an engineer app that tells us when nodes fail and why. So if a node goes down and it's important, it should show up on my phone and I can take action. One of those actions would be to message to outage impacted customers the ETA to fix etc. Emails from Cacti don't count.
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
It would be nise if you could use the USB port on air routers to run applications, then customers with the managed routers we give them could have an avenue for support (like a supplemental webserver they could go to locally for troubleshooting tools. Download some installer if you dont have a provided key, install to your USB key (everybody has 30 of these in a drawer now) insert it and reboot the router. speaking of jab, there is a suspiscious link I came across, its down to 4 of us left in our territory that count that havent sold their souls and this link is connecting a jab POP to one of the other guys POPs. My boss better not sell to them too. On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 6:13 PM, Josh Luthman via Af wrote: > > The customer wants to be able to do that themselves before calling in. > > WHAT??? My customers want me to snap my fingers and fix it as soon I pick > up the phone. They don't want to be bothered with going home to make sure > the power is on after a storm. > > Josh Luthman > Office: 937-552-2340 > Direct: 937-552-2343 > 1100 Wayne St > Suite 1337 > Troy, OH 45373 > On Nov 20, 2014 6:46 PM, "Sterling Jacobson via Af" wrote: > >> Yeah, I agree. >> >> >> >> We have the PoE with a green light. >> >> >> >> I want to build that into the App, so it shows or walks through a series >> of steps like check the adapter that looks like THIS for a green light. >> Check GFI tripped, check cables connected in proper order to PoE and router >> etc. >> >> >> >> The customer wants to be able to do that themselves before calling in. >> >> >> >> I think that would eliminate a lot of the calls and customers can do >> things on their own time. >> >> >> >> I guess the App could also help them schedule a paid visit if it >> determines the ISP service is working, but they can’t figure out their >> stuff. >> >> >> >> I would almost like to have it refer them to a list of local >> computer/network shops instead. >> >> Or those ISPs that want to make money off that kind of visit could >> schedule themselves. >> >> >> >> *From:* Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com] *On Behalf Of *Ken Hohhof via Af >> *Sent:* Thursday, November 20, 2014 2:53 PM >> *To:* af@afmug.com >> *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's >> >> >> >> I feel you’re overthinking this, at the risk of adding more stuff to fail >> or for the customer to bitch about. >> >> >> >> We use the Tycon POEs with current indicator, we tell the customer the >> light should be green. That covers a lot of calls – cables unplugged or >> chewed or POE not getting AC power. >> >> >> >> If the customer thinks their Internet is down, and they have a customer >> supplied router, we tell them to power cycle the router, this is the most >> common issue. >> >> >> >> If the customer is 100% WiFi, we try to make sure they have a spare >> Ethernet cable on a LAN port of the router. Most laptops have an Ethernet >> port, we tell them to take their laptop over to the router, plug it in, and >> if they have Internet then they have a WiFi problem. >> >> >> >> Once these 3 steps are done, or if they are complaining about speed, I >> think Travis is right, you’re better off having them call. If nothing >> else, this may be an upsell opportunity, if they talk to a human. Or you >> may get to explain a few things about P2P or video streaming or botnets to >> them. >> >> >> >> >> >> *From:* Sterling Jacobson via Af >> >> *Sent:* Thursday, November 20, 2014 3:28 PM >> >> *To:* af@afmug.com >> >> *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's >> >> >> >> Lol! >> >> >> >> I imagine in the App a line with points on it that connect from both ends. >> >> >> >> Kind of like the Xbox line test. >> >> >> >> Where it shows green lights on the provider service, the unit on the side >> of the house, then the router inside their house, and then their device. >> >> >> >> It might break in the middle, so the phone could show that it sees their >> wifi, but on 4G it talks to the ISP and shows green dots up to their CPE, >> then a red dot for their router. >> >> >> >> It’s not complicated programming on the ISP side. >> >> >> >> It could even tell you if the customers router IP was registered in the >> ARP table,
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
> The customer wants to be able to do that themselves before calling in. WHAT??? My customers want me to snap my fingers and fix it as soon I pick up the phone. They don't want to be bothered with going home to make sure the power is on after a storm. Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 On Nov 20, 2014 6:46 PM, "Sterling Jacobson via Af" wrote: > Yeah, I agree. > > > > We have the PoE with a green light. > > > > I want to build that into the App, so it shows or walks through a series > of steps like check the adapter that looks like THIS for a green light. > Check GFI tripped, check cables connected in proper order to PoE and router > etc. > > > > The customer wants to be able to do that themselves before calling in. > > > > I think that would eliminate a lot of the calls and customers can do > things on their own time. > > > > I guess the App could also help them schedule a paid visit if it > determines the ISP service is working, but they can’t figure out their > stuff. > > > > I would almost like to have it refer them to a list of local > computer/network shops instead. > > Or those ISPs that want to make money off that kind of visit could > schedule themselves. > > > > *From:* Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com] *On Behalf Of *Ken Hohhof via Af > *Sent:* Thursday, November 20, 2014 2:53 PM > *To:* af@afmug.com > *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's > > > > I feel you’re overthinking this, at the risk of adding more stuff to fail > or for the customer to bitch about. > > > > We use the Tycon POEs with current indicator, we tell the customer the > light should be green. That covers a lot of calls – cables unplugged or > chewed or POE not getting AC power. > > > > If the customer thinks their Internet is down, and they have a customer > supplied router, we tell them to power cycle the router, this is the most > common issue. > > > > If the customer is 100% WiFi, we try to make sure they have a spare > Ethernet cable on a LAN port of the router. Most laptops have an Ethernet > port, we tell them to take their laptop over to the router, plug it in, and > if they have Internet then they have a WiFi problem. > > > > Once these 3 steps are done, or if they are complaining about speed, I > think Travis is right, you’re better off having them call. If nothing > else, this may be an upsell opportunity, if they talk to a human. Or you > may get to explain a few things about P2P or video streaming or botnets to > them. > > > > > > *From:* Sterling Jacobson via Af > > *Sent:* Thursday, November 20, 2014 3:28 PM > > *To:* af@afmug.com > > *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's > > > > Lol! > > > > I imagine in the App a line with points on it that connect from both ends. > > > > Kind of like the Xbox line test. > > > > Where it shows green lights on the provider service, the unit on the side > of the house, then the router inside their house, and then their device. > > > > It might break in the middle, so the phone could show that it sees their > wifi, but on 4G it talks to the ISP and shows green dots up to their CPE, > then a red dot for their router. > > > > It’s not complicated programming on the ISP side. > > > > It could even tell you if the customers router IP was registered in the > ARP table, or if just the physical connection is made and no MAC or IP etc. > > > > I think most of us have a service table for the customer record that has > the CPE IP address. > > > > Maybe it would need another table in the customer relation to the router, > or maybe it’s implicit in the IP address or Gateway IP etc. > > > > > > > > *From:* Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com ] *On > Behalf Of *Ken Hohhof via Af > *Sent:* Thursday, November 20, 2014 2:22 PM > *To:* af@afmug.com > *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's > > > > For VoIP we bridge the ATA ahead of the router. I love it when someone > calls on the VoIP phone to tell us “the tower is down”. > > > > *From:* Shayne Lebrun via Af > > *Sent:* Thursday, November 20, 2014 2:56 PM > > *To:* af@afmug.com > > *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's > > > > What we need to do is get people to view the ‘internet light’ like the > ‘check engine’ light on their car. It could mean ‘your gas cap is loose’ > or it could mean ‘your driveshaft just fell out of your car’ but if you > want to know, it’s going to cost $250 just for
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
Yeah, I agree. We have the PoE with a green light. I want to build that into the App, so it shows or walks through a series of steps like check the adapter that looks like THIS for a green light. Check GFI tripped, check cables connected in proper order to PoE and router etc. The customer wants to be able to do that themselves before calling in. I think that would eliminate a lot of the calls and customers can do things on their own time. I guess the App could also help them schedule a paid visit if it determines the ISP service is working, but they can’t figure out their stuff. I would almost like to have it refer them to a list of local computer/network shops instead. Or those ISPs that want to make money off that kind of visit could schedule themselves. From: Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com] On Behalf Of Ken Hohhof via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 2:53 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's I feel you’re overthinking this, at the risk of adding more stuff to fail or for the customer to bitch about. We use the Tycon POEs with current indicator, we tell the customer the light should be green. That covers a lot of calls – cables unplugged or chewed or POE not getting AC power. If the customer thinks their Internet is down, and they have a customer supplied router, we tell them to power cycle the router, this is the most common issue. If the customer is 100% WiFi, we try to make sure they have a spare Ethernet cable on a LAN port of the router. Most laptops have an Ethernet port, we tell them to take their laptop over to the router, plug it in, and if they have Internet then they have a WiFi problem. Once these 3 steps are done, or if they are complaining about speed, I think Travis is right, you’re better off having them call. If nothing else, this may be an upsell opportunity, if they talk to a human. Or you may get to explain a few things about P2P or video streaming or botnets to them. From: Sterling Jacobson via Af<mailto:af@afmug.com> Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 3:28 PM To: af@afmug.com<mailto:af@afmug.com> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's Lol! I imagine in the App a line with points on it that connect from both ends. Kind of like the Xbox line test. Where it shows green lights on the provider service, the unit on the side of the house, then the router inside their house, and then their device. It might break in the middle, so the phone could show that it sees their wifi, but on 4G it talks to the ISP and shows green dots up to their CPE, then a red dot for their router. It’s not complicated programming on the ISP side. It could even tell you if the customers router IP was registered in the ARP table, or if just the physical connection is made and no MAC or IP etc. I think most of us have a service table for the customer record that has the CPE IP address. Maybe it would need another table in the customer relation to the router, or maybe it’s implicit in the IP address or Gateway IP etc. From: Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com] On Behalf Of Ken Hohhof via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 2:22 PM To: af@afmug.com<mailto:af@afmug.com> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's For VoIP we bridge the ATA ahead of the router. I love it when someone calls on the VoIP phone to tell us “the tower is down”. From: Shayne Lebrun via Af<mailto:af@afmug.com> Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 2:56 PM To: af@afmug.com<mailto:af@afmug.com> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's What we need to do is get people to view the ‘internet light’ like the ‘check engine’ light on their car. It could mean ‘your gas cap is loose’ or it could mean ‘your driveshaft just fell out of your car’ but if you want to know, it’s going to cost $250 just for somebody to open the hood and plug in the diagnostic checker. Wouldn’t that be nice….. From: Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com] On Behalf Of Chuck McCown via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 2:53 PM To: af@afmug.com<mailto:af@afmug.com> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's As determined by DHCP adds a horrible layer of complexity for a cheap and simple device. How about ping to 8.8.8.8? From: Josh Luthman via Af<mailto:af@afmug.com> Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 12:41 PM To: af@afmug.com<mailto:af@afmug.com> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's Red/green light for successful DNS and ping to a server determined by DHCP Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 1:05 PM, Chuck McCown via Af mailto:af@afmug.com>> wrote: What would be the determining factor? Ping DNS server OK? From: Jason McKemie via Af<mailto:af@afmug.com> Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 11:03 AM To: af@afmug.com<mailto:af@afmug.com> S
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
Wowsers. -Original Message- From: Travis Johnson via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 4:53 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's It's pretty easy to verify now... We got 12.3 times EBIDTA, or 3 times our current annual gross revenue, however you want to look at it. :) Travis On 11/20/2014 2:42 PM, Chuck McCown via Af wrote: The day is coming when that statement can be verified... ;-) -Original Message- From: Travis Johnson via Af Microserv. You remember, the company that was 10x larger than yours and sold to JAB for more, per sub, than any other company so far. :)
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
I am referring to a particular NDA still in effect. -Original Message- From: Travis Johnson via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 3:53 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's It's pretty easy to verify now... We got 12.3 times EBIDTA, or 3 times our current annual gross revenue, however you want to look at it. :) Travis On 11/20/2014 2:42 PM, Chuck McCown via Af wrote: The day is coming when that statement can be verified... ;-) -Original Message- From: Travis Johnson via Af Microserv. You remember, the company that was 10x larger than yours and sold to JAB for more, per sub, than any other company so far. :)
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
It's pretty easy to verify now... We got 12.3 times EBIDTA, or 3 times our current annual gross revenue, however you want to look at it. :) Travis On 11/20/2014 2:42 PM, Chuck McCown via Af wrote: The day is coming when that statement can be verified... ;-) -Original Message- From: Travis Johnson via Af Microserv. You remember, the company that was 10x larger than yours and sold to JAB for more, per sub, than any other company so far. :)
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
Customer Service is what generates word of mouth referrals. We had 11,000 wireless customers and we were doing 300+ new installs per month... over 50% of those were from word of mouth each month. Travis On 11/20/2014 2:54 PM, Josh Luthman via Af wrote: So you're saying definitely not based on customer service... Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 On Nov 20, 2014 4:49 PM, "Chuck McCown via Af" <mailto:af@afmug.com>> wrote: Pretty sure it was based on revenue stream and the quality of the network. Canopy based systems got more than Trango or UBNT etc. *From:* Josh Luthman via Af <mailto:af@afmug.com> *Sent:* Thursday, November 20, 2014 2:45 PM *To:* af@afmug.com <mailto:af@afmug.com> *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's I have to think the company was worth more because of location. I doubt JAB could care less what the quality of tech support was. Another WISP in Utah was another drop in the bucket. Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 On Nov 20, 2014 4:42 PM, "Chuck McCown via Af" mailto:af@afmug.com>> wrote: The day is coming when that statement can be verified... ;-) -Original Message- From: Travis Johnson via Af Microserv. You remember, the company that was 10x larger than yours and sold to JAB for more, per sub, than any other company so far. :)
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
Not really, just assuming the bigger you get, the more you run things like a
big company. I see numbers. Not I see people. And that’s not all bad. Way
too many of us in this industry get paid in personal pride and customer
satisfaction but not so much in dollars. That’s not right when big ISPs like
Comcast, AT&T and Verizon are getting rewarded very handsomely for cherry
picking the most lucrative areas and striking deals like I’ll stop deploying
fiber if you bundle my cellphones with your cable.
From: Josh Luthman via Af
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 4:08 PM
To: af@afmug.com
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
You sound a bit bitter :(
Josh Luthman
Office: 937-552-2340
Direct: 937-552-2343
1100 Wayne St
Suite 1337
Troy, OH 45373
On Nov 20, 2014 5:07 PM, "Ken Hohhof via Af" wrote:
Ooooh, look at all these customers and all this revenue.
And think how much more profitable it could be with some cuts in the customer
service budget, Travis was spending way too much there.
If customers complain, we’ll sell them service plans.
Now customer service is a profit center not a cost center.
Plus we’ll charge Idaho customers $10/mo more than Utah customers because
there’s less competition.
Damn, we’re good.
From: Josh Luthman via Af
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 3:54 PM
To: af@afmug.com
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
So you're saying definitely not based on customer service...
Josh Luthman
Office: 937-552-2340
Direct: 937-552-2343
1100 Wayne St
Suite 1337
Troy, OH 45373
On Nov 20, 2014 4:49 PM, "Chuck McCown via Af" wrote:
Pretty sure it was based on revenue stream and the quality of the network.
Canopy based systems got more than Trango or UBNT etc.
From: Josh Luthman via Af
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 2:45 PM
To: af@afmug.com
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
I have to think the company was worth more because of location. I doubt
JAB could care less what the quality of tech support was. Another WISP in Utah
was another drop in the bucket.
Josh Luthman
Office: 937-552-2340
Direct: 937-552-2343
1100 Wayne St
Suite 1337
Troy, OH 45373
On Nov 20, 2014 4:42 PM, "Chuck McCown via Af" wrote:
The day is coming when that statement can be verified... ;-)
-Original Message- From: Travis Johnson via Af Microserv. You
remember, the company that was 10x larger than yours and sold to JAB for more,
per sub, than any other company so far. :)
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
And chuck puts the stirring stick into the fecal matter!! -- D. Ryan Spott | Iron Goat Networks, llc broadband | telco | colo | community PO Box 1232 / 603 W. Stevens Sultan, WA 98284 360-799-0552 | gtalk:rsp...@irongoat.net > On Nov 20, 2014, at 13:49, Chuck McCown via Af wrote: > > Pretty sure it was based on revenue stream and the quality of the network. > Canopy based systems got more than Trango or UBNT etc. > > From: Josh Luthman via Af > Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 2:45 PM > To: af@afmug.com > Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's > > I have to think the company was worth more because of location. I doubt JAB > could care less what the quality of tech support was. Another WISP in Utah > was another drop in the bucket. > > Josh Luthman > Office: 937-552-2340 > Direct: 937-552-2343 > 1100 Wayne St > Suite 1337 > Troy, OH 45373 > >> On Nov 20, 2014 4:42 PM, "Chuck McCown via Af" wrote: >> The day is coming when that statement can be verified... ;-) >> >> -Original Message- From: Travis Johnson via Af Microserv. You >> remember, the company that was 10x larger than yours and sold to JAB for >> more, per sub, than any other company so far. :)
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
"Emails from Cacti don't count" - cacti is not an up/down monitoring system, it's a charting system... Any threshold alerting plugins that might be available are just a bonus. Use something like OpenNMS or Nagios. On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 9:43 AM, Sterling Jacobson via Af wrote: > What I really want is an integrated system that isn't stuck in the 90's. > > I want the customer to have an app on their phone that tells them when > their network is having issues and why. > I want it to also remind them to pay their bill and provide a lazy/easy > way to do that. > > I want that same system to have an engineer app that tells us when nodes > fail and why. > > So if a node goes down and it's important, it should show up on my phone > and I can take action. > One of those actions would be to message to outage impacted customers the > ETA to fix etc. > > Emails from Cacti don't count. >
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
You sound a bit bitter :( Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 On Nov 20, 2014 5:07 PM, "Ken Hohhof via Af" wrote: > Ooooh, look at all these customers and all this revenue. > And think how much more profitable it could be with some cuts in the > customer service budget, Travis was spending way too much there. > If customers complain, we’ll sell them service plans. > Now customer service is a profit center not a cost center. > Plus we’ll charge Idaho customers $10/mo more than Utah customers because > there’s less competition. > Damn, we’re good. > > *From:* Josh Luthman via Af > *Sent:* Thursday, November 20, 2014 3:54 PM > *To:* af@afmug.com > *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's > > > So you're saying definitely not based on customer service... > > Josh Luthman > Office: 937-552-2340 > Direct: 937-552-2343 > 1100 Wayne St > Suite 1337 > Troy, OH 45373 > On Nov 20, 2014 4:49 PM, "Chuck McCown via Af" wrote: > >> Pretty sure it was based on revenue stream and the quality of the >> network. >> Canopy based systems got more than Trango or UBNT etc. >> >> *From:* Josh Luthman via Af >> *Sent:* Thursday, November 20, 2014 2:45 PM >> *To:* af@afmug.com >> *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's >> >> >> I have to think the company was worth more because of location. I doubt >> JAB could care less what the quality of tech support was. Another WISP in >> Utah was another drop in the bucket. >> >> Josh Luthman >> Office: 937-552-2340 >> Direct: 937-552-2343 >> 1100 Wayne St >> Suite 1337 >> Troy, OH 45373 >> On Nov 20, 2014 4:42 PM, "Chuck McCown via Af" wrote: >> >>> The day is coming when that statement can be verified... ;-) >>> >>> -Original Message- From: Travis Johnson via Af Microserv. You >>> remember, the company that was 10x larger than yours and sold to JAB for >>> more, per sub, than any other company so far. :) >>> >>
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
Ooooh, look at all these customers and all this revenue. And think how much more profitable it could be with some cuts in the customer service budget, Travis was spending way too much there. If customers complain, we’ll sell them service plans. Now customer service is a profit center not a cost center. Plus we’ll charge Idaho customers $10/mo more than Utah customers because there’s less competition. Damn, we’re good. From: Josh Luthman via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 3:54 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's So you're saying definitely not based on customer service... Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 On Nov 20, 2014 4:49 PM, "Chuck McCown via Af" wrote: Pretty sure it was based on revenue stream and the quality of the network. Canopy based systems got more than Trango or UBNT etc. From: Josh Luthman via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 2:45 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's I have to think the company was worth more because of location. I doubt JAB could care less what the quality of tech support was. Another WISP in Utah was another drop in the bucket. Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 On Nov 20, 2014 4:42 PM, "Chuck McCown via Af" wrote: The day is coming when that statement can be verified... ;-) -Original Message- From: Travis Johnson via Af Microserv. You remember, the company that was 10x larger than yours and sold to JAB for more, per sub, than any other company so far. :)
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
+1 Craig R. Schmaderer CEO | Skywave Wireless, Inc. Ph: 402-372-1975 | Fax: 402-372-1058 Direct: 402-372-1052 -Original Message- From: Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com] On Behalf Of Chuck McCown via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 3:43 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's The day is coming when that statement can be verified... ;-) -Original Message- From: Travis Johnson via Af Microserv. You remember, the company that was 10x larger than yours and sold to JAB for more, per sub, than any other company so far. :)
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
I really can’t say what was in the minds of the JAB decision makers. Seems like they were trying to hoover up as many customers as possible with the least effort and outlay. From: Josh Luthman via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 2:54 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's So you're saying definitely not based on customer service... Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 On Nov 20, 2014 4:49 PM, "Chuck McCown via Af" wrote: Pretty sure it was based on revenue stream and the quality of the network. Canopy based systems got more than Trango or UBNT etc. From: Josh Luthman via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 2:45 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's I have to think the company was worth more because of location. I doubt JAB could care less what the quality of tech support was. Another WISP in Utah was another drop in the bucket. Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 On Nov 20, 2014 4:42 PM, "Chuck McCown via Af" wrote: The day is coming when that statement can be verified... ;-) -Original Message- From: Travis Johnson via Af Microserv. You remember, the company that was 10x larger than yours and sold to JAB for more, per sub, than any other company so far. :)
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
So you're saying definitely not based on customer service... Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 On Nov 20, 2014 4:49 PM, "Chuck McCown via Af" wrote: > Pretty sure it was based on revenue stream and the quality of the > network. > Canopy based systems got more than Trango or UBNT etc. > > *From:* Josh Luthman via Af > *Sent:* Thursday, November 20, 2014 2:45 PM > *To:* af@afmug.com > *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's > > > I have to think the company was worth more because of location. I doubt > JAB could care less what the quality of tech support was. Another WISP in > Utah was another drop in the bucket. > > Josh Luthman > Office: 937-552-2340 > Direct: 937-552-2343 > 1100 Wayne St > Suite 1337 > Troy, OH 45373 > On Nov 20, 2014 4:42 PM, "Chuck McCown via Af" wrote: > >> The day is coming when that statement can be verified... ;-) >> >> -Original Message- From: Travis Johnson via Af Microserv. You >> remember, the company that was 10x larger than yours and sold to JAB for >> more, per sub, than any other company so far. :) >> >
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
I feel you’re overthinking this, at the risk of adding more stuff to fail or for the customer to bitch about. We use the Tycon POEs with current indicator, we tell the customer the light should be green. That covers a lot of calls – cables unplugged or chewed or POE not getting AC power. If the customer thinks their Internet is down, and they have a customer supplied router, we tell them to power cycle the router, this is the most common issue. If the customer is 100% WiFi, we try to make sure they have a spare Ethernet cable on a LAN port of the router. Most laptops have an Ethernet port, we tell them to take their laptop over to the router, plug it in, and if they have Internet then they have a WiFi problem. Once these 3 steps are done, or if they are complaining about speed, I think Travis is right, you’re better off having them call. If nothing else, this may be an upsell opportunity, if they talk to a human. Or you may get to explain a few things about P2P or video streaming or botnets to them. From: Sterling Jacobson via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 3:28 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's Lol! I imagine in the App a line with points on it that connect from both ends. Kind of like the Xbox line test. Where it shows green lights on the provider service, the unit on the side of the house, then the router inside their house, and then their device. It might break in the middle, so the phone could show that it sees their wifi, but on 4G it talks to the ISP and shows green dots up to their CPE, then a red dot for their router. It’s not complicated programming on the ISP side. It could even tell you if the customers router IP was registered in the ARP table, or if just the physical connection is made and no MAC or IP etc. I think most of us have a service table for the customer record that has the CPE IP address. Maybe it would need another table in the customer relation to the router, or maybe it’s implicit in the IP address or Gateway IP etc. From: Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com] On Behalf Of Ken Hohhof via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 2:22 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's For VoIP we bridge the ATA ahead of the router. I love it when someone calls on the VoIP phone to tell us “the tower is down”. From: Shayne Lebrun via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 2:56 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's What we need to do is get people to view the ‘internet light’ like the ‘check engine’ light on their car. It could mean ‘your gas cap is loose’ or it could mean ‘your driveshaft just fell out of your car’ but if you want to know, it’s going to cost $250 just for somebody to open the hood and plug in the diagnostic checker. Wouldn’t that be nice….. From: Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com] On Behalf Of Chuck McCown via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 2:53 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's As determined by DHCP adds a horrible layer of complexity for a cheap and simple device. How about ping to 8.8.8.8? From: Josh Luthman via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 12:41 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's Red/green light for successful DNS and ping to a server determined by DHCP Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 1:05 PM, Chuck McCown via Af wrote: What would be the determining factor? Ping DNS server OK? From: Jason McKemie via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 11:03 AM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's A red/green led would probably suffice for this purpose. On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:01 PM, Gino Villarini via Af wrote: We need a “device” that plugs between router and internet connection with a big screed that says Internet OK! Or Internef BAD… filter out calls with customer having issues with wifi Gino A. Villarini President Aeronet Wireless Broadband Corp. www.aeronetpr.com @aeronetpr From: "af@afmug.com" Reply-To: "af@afmug.com" Date: Thursday, November 20, 2014 at 1:47 PM To: "af@afmug.com" Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's *An app for my phone? Yuck *Something that pushes to cutomers letting them know we're having issues? Yuck *Something that let's the customer verify their particular service is good/not? That'd be great! *Web portal for billing, easy peasy Why a node fails probably won't be detectable by a machine - in some cases it's difficult for a person to narrow it down (radio, connectors, cables, ethernet,
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
Pretty sure it was based on revenue stream and the quality of the network. Canopy based systems got more than Trango or UBNT etc. From: Josh Luthman via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 2:45 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's I have to think the company was worth more because of location. I doubt JAB could care less what the quality of tech support was. Another WISP in Utah was another drop in the bucket. Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 On Nov 20, 2014 4:42 PM, "Chuck McCown via Af" wrote: The day is coming when that statement can be verified... ;-) -Original Message- From: Travis Johnson via Af Microserv. You remember, the company that was 10x larger than yours and sold to JAB for more, per sub, than any other company so far. :)
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
I have to think the company was worth more because of location. I doubt JAB could care less what the quality of tech support was. Another WISP in Utah was another drop in the bucket. Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 On Nov 20, 2014 4:42 PM, "Chuck McCown via Af" wrote: > The day is coming when that statement can be verified... ;-) > > -Original Message- From: Travis Johnson via Af Microserv. You > remember, the company that was 10x larger than yours and sold to JAB for > more, per sub, than any other company so far. :) >
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
The day is coming when that statement can be verified... ;-) -Original Message- From: Travis Johnson via Af Microserv. You remember, the company that was 10x larger than yours and sold to JAB for more, per sub, than any other company so far. :)
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
I wasn't responding to get into an argument with you. You are obviously free to do whatever you want, and handle your customers however you see fit. I was simply explaining from my perspective what I am seeing today, and what I saw while building Microserv. You remember, the company that was 10x larger than yours and sold to JAB for more, per sub, than any other company so far. :) I also own part of the fastest growing software companies in Utah. We have 20+ full-time developers and current customers like Nike, Google, eBay, Nordstroms, Toms, Disney and Vistaprint to name a few. The company has been in business for less than a year and already has a valuation of $6,000,000 from a national institutional investor that invested a month ago. I'm pretty familiar with the software development scene, especially in Utah. :) Good luck with your app, I hope it works out for you. Travis On 11/20/2014 2:19 PM, Sterling Jacobson via Af wrote: Wrong on both counts. I used to be in software development, so like anything else, it's who you know. I can get this done for a lot less. And having an app for the customer to view and fix or find problems on their own is a differentiator itself. Every one of my customers I've talked to about this has expressed great interest in not having to call in if they can help it. I'm guessing a few of the older generation won't have a phone or care to use an app, they can always call in. But in general it looks like it will greatly reduce support overhead for the ISP and increase customer satisfaction at the same time. I guess time will tell. I already have this underway, parts are developed already, but if someone wants to help out, let me know! -Original Message- From: Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com] On Behalf Of Travis Johnson via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 2:15 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's Sterling, This sounds like an easy task, but I can tell you as someone that is currently developing software, and is starting December 1 to build a simple iPhone app, software development is very expensive. My app is a pretty simple... easy to use front-end with a cloud based database back-end... yet the quotes I have gotten are $50,000 - $75,000. This is from 3 different development companies all based in Utah. All of them are busy and each has 20+ full-time developers working for them, so they have enough business and must not be totally out of line on their quotes. I said this 10+ years ago, and I'll say it again... customer service is the only thing that makes you different than the big cable and telco companies. Having a live person that can help people troubleshoot and fix issues is the key to keeping people with your service. If you are just going to send them to an app on their phones, you become the same as every other provider... and your service becomes a commodity just like everyone else. Travis On 11/20/2014 1:49 PM, Sterling Jacobson via Af wrote: BUT, the phones now days are smart enough to know when wifi sucks or goes out completely. They fall back to 3/4G. Which is awesome, because it could still talk to the service provider end and tell the customer the status. I think this would work better than a green/red light. The phone App would tell you that your service is correct to the house, but that inside it's not talking. Then walk the customer through a set of standard fix it routines. That would solve most of our calls right there. On the back end it just needs to talk to a server process that can get access to the device on the side of the house. The best would be an embedded speed test in the ONT/CPE that could report back to the App and say they are getting what they are paying for to the side of their house. And then give them suggestions for fixing their crappy wifi. I bet it wouldn't take much to get this done and working with a few larger billing systems and equipment platforms, who's with me?? -Original Message- From: Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com] On Behalf Of Ken Hohhof via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 12:35 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's Part of the problem is so many customers are 100% WiFi now, so unless you have a managed router there, you have 2 big problem areas beyond the demarc - the customer's router and the customer's WiFi. -Original Message- From: Bill Prince via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 1:04 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's Linktechs built a tool a couple years ago that ran on the customer's PC (WIndows only) that would give the customer a "connection health" indication. It would monitor the local gateway, and give both a green light for connected, plus a reading on the latency. You go too much beyond that, and y
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
Lol! I imagine in the App a line with points on it that connect from both ends. Kind of like the Xbox line test. Where it shows green lights on the provider service, the unit on the side of the house, then the router inside their house, and then their device. It might break in the middle, so the phone could show that it sees their wifi, but on 4G it talks to the ISP and shows green dots up to their CPE, then a red dot for their router. It’s not complicated programming on the ISP side. It could even tell you if the customers router IP was registered in the ARP table, or if just the physical connection is made and no MAC or IP etc. I think most of us have a service table for the customer record that has the CPE IP address. Maybe it would need another table in the customer relation to the router, or maybe it’s implicit in the IP address or Gateway IP etc. From: Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com] On Behalf Of Ken Hohhof via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 2:22 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's For VoIP we bridge the ATA ahead of the router. I love it when someone calls on the VoIP phone to tell us “the tower is down”. From: Shayne Lebrun via Af<mailto:af@afmug.com> Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 2:56 PM To: af@afmug.com<mailto:af@afmug.com> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's What we need to do is get people to view the ‘internet light’ like the ‘check engine’ light on their car. It could mean ‘your gas cap is loose’ or it could mean ‘your driveshaft just fell out of your car’ but if you want to know, it’s going to cost $250 just for somebody to open the hood and plug in the diagnostic checker. Wouldn’t that be nice….. From: Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com] On Behalf Of Chuck McCown via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 2:53 PM To: af@afmug.com<mailto:af@afmug.com> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's As determined by DHCP adds a horrible layer of complexity for a cheap and simple device. How about ping to 8.8.8.8? From: Josh Luthman via Af<mailto:af@afmug.com> Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 12:41 PM To: af@afmug.com<mailto:af@afmug.com> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's Red/green light for successful DNS and ping to a server determined by DHCP Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 1:05 PM, Chuck McCown via Af mailto:af@afmug.com>> wrote: What would be the determining factor? Ping DNS server OK? From: Jason McKemie via Af<mailto:af@afmug.com> Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 11:03 AM To: af@afmug.com<mailto:af@afmug.com> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's A red/green led would probably suffice for this purpose. On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:01 PM, Gino Villarini via Af mailto:af@afmug.com>> wrote: We need a “device” that plugs between router and internet connection with a big screed that says Internet OK! Or Internef BAD… filter out calls with customer having issues with wifi Gino A. Villarini President Aeronet Wireless Broadband Corp. www.aeronetpr.com<http://www.aeronetpr.com> @aeronetpr From: "af@afmug.com<mailto:af@afmug.com>" mailto:af@afmug.com>> Reply-To: "af@afmug.com<mailto:af@afmug.com>" mailto:af@afmug.com>> Date: Thursday, November 20, 2014 at 1:47 PM To: "af@afmug.com<mailto:af@afmug.com>" mailto:af@afmug.com>> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's *An app for my phone? Yuck *Something that pushes to cutomers letting them know we're having issues? Yuck *Something that let's the customer verify their particular service is good/not? That'd be great! *Web portal for billing, easy peasy Why a node fails probably won't be detectable by a machine - in some cases it's difficult for a person to narrow it down (radio, connectors, cables, ethernet, surge, etc) but I'd like to see ideas on this of course. I use/suggest an outgoing message. IF the customer is having issues and they do call us, they hear we're having issues and hang up. This means that we're not telling 100 people there are issues when 25 are effecting ending up with 75 calls next month saying we owe them a credit when they had nothing to do with an outage. Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:43 PM, Sterling Jacobson via Af mailto:af@afmug.com>> wrote: What I really want is an integrated system that isn't stuck in the 90's. I want the customer to have an app on their phone that tells them when their network is having issues and why. I want it to also remind them to pay their bill and provide a lazy/easy way to do that. I want that same system to have a
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
For VoIP we bridge the ATA ahead of the router. I love it when someone calls on the VoIP phone to tell us “the tower is down”. From: Shayne Lebrun via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 2:56 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's What we need to do is get people to view the ‘internet light’ like the ‘check engine’ light on their car. It could mean ‘your gas cap is loose’ or it could mean ‘your driveshaft just fell out of your car’ but if you want to know, it’s going to cost $250 just for somebody to open the hood and plug in the diagnostic checker. Wouldn’t that be nice….. From: Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com] On Behalf Of Chuck McCown via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 2:53 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's As determined by DHCP adds a horrible layer of complexity for a cheap and simple device. How about ping to 8.8.8.8? From: Josh Luthman via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 12:41 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's Red/green light for successful DNS and ping to a server determined by DHCP Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 1:05 PM, Chuck McCown via Af wrote: What would be the determining factor? Ping DNS server OK? From: Jason McKemie via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 11:03 AM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's A red/green led would probably suffice for this purpose. On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:01 PM, Gino Villarini via Af wrote: We need a “device” that plugs between router and internet connection with a big screed that says Internet OK! Or Internef BAD… filter out calls with customer having issues with wifi Gino A. Villarini President Aeronet Wireless Broadband Corp. www.aeronetpr.com @aeronetpr From: "af@afmug.com" Reply-To: "af@afmug.com" Date: Thursday, November 20, 2014 at 1:47 PM To: "af@afmug.com" Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's *An app for my phone? Yuck *Something that pushes to cutomers letting them know we're having issues? Yuck *Something that let's the customer verify their particular service is good/not? That'd be great! *Web portal for billing, easy peasy Why a node fails probably won't be detectable by a machine - in some cases it's difficult for a person to narrow it down (radio, connectors, cables, ethernet, surge, etc) but I'd like to see ideas on this of course. I use/suggest an outgoing message. IF the customer is having issues and they do call us, they hear we're having issues and hang up. This means that we're not telling 100 people there are issues when 25 are effecting ending up with 75 calls next month saying we owe them a credit when they had nothing to do with an outage. Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:43 PM, Sterling Jacobson via Af wrote: What I really want is an integrated system that isn't stuck in the 90's. I want the customer to have an app on their phone that tells them when their network is having issues and why. I want it to also remind them to pay their bill and provide a lazy/easy way to do that. I want that same system to have an engineer app that tells us when nodes fail and why. So if a node goes down and it's important, it should show up on my phone and I can take action. One of those actions would be to message to outage impacted customers the ETA to fix etc. Emails from Cacti don't count.
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
Wrong on both counts. I used to be in software development, so like anything else, it's who you know. I can get this done for a lot less. And having an app for the customer to view and fix or find problems on their own is a differentiator itself. Every one of my customers I've talked to about this has expressed great interest in not having to call in if they can help it. I'm guessing a few of the older generation won't have a phone or care to use an app, they can always call in. But in general it looks like it will greatly reduce support overhead for the ISP and increase customer satisfaction at the same time. I guess time will tell. I already have this underway, parts are developed already, but if someone wants to help out, let me know! -Original Message- From: Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com] On Behalf Of Travis Johnson via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 2:15 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's Sterling, This sounds like an easy task, but I can tell you as someone that is currently developing software, and is starting December 1 to build a simple iPhone app, software development is very expensive. My app is a pretty simple... easy to use front-end with a cloud based database back-end... yet the quotes I have gotten are $50,000 - $75,000. This is from 3 different development companies all based in Utah. All of them are busy and each has 20+ full-time developers working for them, so they have enough business and must not be totally out of line on their quotes. I said this 10+ years ago, and I'll say it again... customer service is the only thing that makes you different than the big cable and telco companies. Having a live person that can help people troubleshoot and fix issues is the key to keeping people with your service. If you are just going to send them to an app on their phones, you become the same as every other provider... and your service becomes a commodity just like everyone else. Travis On 11/20/2014 1:49 PM, Sterling Jacobson via Af wrote: > BUT, the phones now days are smart enough to know when wifi sucks or goes out > completely. > > They fall back to 3/4G. > > Which is awesome, because it could still talk to the service provider end and > tell the customer the status. > > I think this would work better than a green/red light. > > The phone App would tell you that your service is correct to the house, but > that inside it's not talking. > Then walk the customer through a set of standard fix it routines. > > That would solve most of our calls right there. > > On the back end it just needs to talk to a server process that can get access > to the device on the side of the house. > > The best would be an embedded speed test in the ONT/CPE that could report > back to the App and say they are getting what they are paying for to the side > of their house. And then give them suggestions for fixing their crappy wifi. > > I bet it wouldn't take much to get this done and working with a few larger > billing systems and equipment platforms, who's with me?? > > -Original Message- > From: Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com] On Behalf Of Ken Hohhof via Af > Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 12:35 PM > To: af@afmug.com > Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's > > Part of the problem is so many customers are 100% WiFi now, so unless you > have a managed router there, you have 2 big problem areas beyond the demarc - > the customer's router and the customer's WiFi. > > > -Original Message- > From: Bill Prince via Af > Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 1:04 PM > To: af@afmug.com > Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's > > Linktechs built a tool a couple years ago that ran on the customer's PC > (WIndows only) that would give the customer a "connection health" > indication. It would monitor the local gateway, and give both a green light > for connected, plus a reading on the latency. You go too much beyond that, > and you will get a bunch of false positives when something beyond your local > network is having some kind of issue (we get our share of these). > > I don't think they got much response from it, and I don't think they offer it > any longer. > > bp > > > On 11/20/2014 9:43 AM, Sterling Jacobson via Af wrote: >> What I really want is an integrated system that isn't stuck in the 90's. >> >> I want the customer to have an app on their phone that tells them >> when their network is having issues and why. >> I want it to also remind them to pay their bill and provide a >> lazy/easy way to do that. >> >> I want that same system to have an engineer app that tells us when >> nodes fail and why. >> >> So if a node goes down and it's important, it should show up on my >> phone and I can take action. >> One of those actions would be to message to outage impacted customers >> the ETA to fix etc. >> >> Emails from Cacti don't count. >> > >
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
Sterling, This sounds like an easy task, but I can tell you as someone that is currently developing software, and is starting December 1 to build a simple iPhone app, software development is very expensive. My app is a pretty simple... easy to use front-end with a cloud based database back-end... yet the quotes I have gotten are $50,000 - $75,000. This is from 3 different development companies all based in Utah. All of them are busy and each has 20+ full-time developers working for them, so they have enough business and must not be totally out of line on their quotes. I said this 10+ years ago, and I'll say it again... customer service is the only thing that makes you different than the big cable and telco companies. Having a live person that can help people troubleshoot and fix issues is the key to keeping people with your service. If you are just going to send them to an app on their phones, you become the same as every other provider... and your service becomes a commodity just like everyone else. Travis On 11/20/2014 1:49 PM, Sterling Jacobson via Af wrote: BUT, the phones now days are smart enough to know when wifi sucks or goes out completely. They fall back to 3/4G. Which is awesome, because it could still talk to the service provider end and tell the customer the status. I think this would work better than a green/red light. The phone App would tell you that your service is correct to the house, but that inside it's not talking. Then walk the customer through a set of standard fix it routines. That would solve most of our calls right there. On the back end it just needs to talk to a server process that can get access to the device on the side of the house. The best would be an embedded speed test in the ONT/CPE that could report back to the App and say they are getting what they are paying for to the side of their house. And then give them suggestions for fixing their crappy wifi. I bet it wouldn't take much to get this done and working with a few larger billing systems and equipment platforms, who's with me?? -Original Message- From: Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com] On Behalf Of Ken Hohhof via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 12:35 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's Part of the problem is so many customers are 100% WiFi now, so unless you have a managed router there, you have 2 big problem areas beyond the demarc - the customer's router and the customer's WiFi. -Original Message- From: Bill Prince via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 1:04 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's Linktechs built a tool a couple years ago that ran on the customer's PC (WIndows only) that would give the customer a "connection health" indication. It would monitor the local gateway, and give both a green light for connected, plus a reading on the latency. You go too much beyond that, and you will get a bunch of false positives when something beyond your local network is having some kind of issue (we get our share of these). I don't think they got much response from it, and I don't think they offer it any longer. bp On 11/20/2014 9:43 AM, Sterling Jacobson via Af wrote: What I really want is an integrated system that isn't stuck in the 90's. I want the customer to have an app on their phone that tells them when their network is having issues and why. I want it to also remind them to pay their bill and provide a lazy/easy way to do that. I want that same system to have an engineer app that tells us when nodes fail and why. So if a node goes down and it's important, it should show up on my phone and I can take action. One of those actions would be to message to outage impacted customers the ETA to fix etc. Emails from Cacti don't count.
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
Can we config it ourselves? I don't want Google's outage to cause every one of my customer lights to go red. Think about the great Belkin outage of 2014. Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 2:52 PM, Chuck McCown via Af wrote: > As determined by DHCP adds a horrible layer of complexity for a cheap > and simple device. > How about ping to 8.8.8.8? > > *From:* Josh Luthman via Af > *Sent:* Thursday, November 20, 2014 12:41 PM > *To:* af@afmug.com > *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's > > Red/green light for successful DNS and ping to a server determined by > DHCP > > > Josh Luthman > Office: 937-552-2340 > Direct: 937-552-2343 > 1100 Wayne St > Suite 1337 > Troy, OH 45373 > > On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 1:05 PM, Chuck McCown via Af wrote: > >> What would be the determining factor? Ping DNS server OK? >> >> *From:* Jason McKemie via Af >> *Sent:* Thursday, November 20, 2014 11:03 AM >> *To:* af@afmug.com >> *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's >> >> A red/green led would probably suffice for this purpose. >> >> On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:01 PM, Gino Villarini via Af >> wrote: >> >>>We need a “device” that plugs between router and internet connection >>> with a big screed that says Internet OK! Or Internef BAD… filter out calls >>> with customer having issues with wifi >>> >>> >>> >>> Gino A. Villarini >>> President >>> Aeronet Wireless Broadband Corp. >>> www.aeronetpr.com >>> @aeronetpr >>> >>> >>> >>> From: "af@afmug.com" >>> Reply-To: "af@afmug.com" >>> Date: Thursday, November 20, 2014 at 1:47 PM >>> To: "af@afmug.com" >>> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's >>> >>> *An app for my phone? Yuck >>> *Something that pushes to cutomers letting them know we're having >>> issues? Yuck >>> *Something that let's the customer verify their particular service is >>> good/not? That'd be great! >>> *Web portal for billing, easy peasy >>> >>> Why a node fails probably won't be detectable by a machine - in some >>> cases it's difficult for a person to narrow it down (radio, connectors, >>> cables, ethernet, surge, etc) but I'd like to see ideas on this of course. >>> >>> I use/suggest an outgoing message. IF the customer is having issues and >>> they do call us, they hear we're having issues and hang up. This means >>> that we're not telling 100 people there are issues when 25 are effecting >>> ending up with 75 calls next month saying we owe them a credit when they >>> had nothing to do with an outage. >>> >>> >>> Josh Luthman >>> Office: 937-552-2340 >>> Direct: 937-552-2343 >>> 1100 Wayne St >>> Suite 1337 >>> Troy, OH 45373 >>> >>> On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:43 PM, Sterling Jacobson via Af < >>> af@afmug.com> wrote: >>> >>>> What I really want is an integrated system that isn't stuck in the 90's. >>>> >>>> I want the customer to have an app on their phone that tells them when >>>> their network is having issues and why. >>>> I want it to also remind them to pay their bill and provide a lazy/easy >>>> way to do that. >>>> >>>> I want that same system to have an engineer app that tells us when >>>> nodes fail and why. >>>> >>>> So if a node goes down and it's important, it should show up on my >>>> phone and I can take action. >>>> One of those actions would be to message to outage impacted customers >>>> the ETA to fix etc. >>>> >>>> Emails from Cacti don't count. >>>> >>> >>> >> >> > >
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
What we need to do is get people to view the ‘internet light’ like the ‘check engine’ light on their car. It could mean ‘your gas cap is loose’ or it could mean ‘your driveshaft just fell out of your car’ but if you want to know, it’s going to cost $250 just for somebody to open the hood and plug in the diagnostic checker. Wouldn’t that be nice….. From: Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com] On Behalf Of Chuck McCown via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 2:53 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's As determined by DHCP adds a horrible layer of complexity for a cheap and simple device. How about ping to 8.8.8.8? From: Josh Luthman via Af <mailto:af@afmug.com> Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 12:41 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's Red/green light for successful DNS and ping to a server determined by DHCP Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 1:05 PM, Chuck McCown via Af wrote: What would be the determining factor? Ping DNS server OK? From: Jason McKemie via Af <mailto:af@afmug.com> Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 11:03 AM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's A red/green led would probably suffice for this purpose. On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:01 PM, Gino Villarini via Af wrote: We need a “device” that plugs between router and internet connection with a big screed that says Internet OK! Or Internef BAD… filter out calls with customer having issues with wifi Gino A. Villarini President Aeronet Wireless Broadband Corp. www.aeronetpr.com @aeronetpr From: "af@afmug.com" Reply-To: "af@afmug.com" Date: Thursday, November 20, 2014 at 1:47 PM To: "af@afmug.com" Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's *An app for my phone? Yuck *Something that pushes to cutomers letting them know we're having issues? Yuck *Something that let's the customer verify their particular service is good/not? That'd be great! *Web portal for billing, easy peasy Why a node fails probably won't be detectable by a machine - in some cases it's difficult for a person to narrow it down (radio, connectors, cables, ethernet, surge, etc) but I'd like to see ideas on this of course. I use/suggest an outgoing message. IF the customer is having issues and they do call us, they hear we're having issues and hang up. This means that we're not telling 100 people there are issues when 25 are effecting ending up with 75 calls next month saying we owe them a credit when they had nothing to do with an outage. Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:43 PM, Sterling Jacobson via Af wrote: What I really want is an integrated system that isn't stuck in the 90's. I want the customer to have an app on their phone that tells them when their network is having issues and why. I want it to also remind them to pay their bill and provide a lazy/easy way to do that. I want that same system to have an engineer app that tells us when nodes fail and why. So if a node goes down and it's important, it should show up on my phone and I can take action. One of those actions would be to message to outage impacted customers the ETA to fix etc. Emails from Cacti don't count.
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
For $200 bucks each I could have a little box powered by ethernet or a wall wart that would: 1. Check a URL of your choice for configuration information every few minutes (what to ping, what to display etc) 2. Ping or test connectivity every few minutes based on the config in the URL above. 3. Perform a basic speed test and give results to you or to the end user every X minutes/hours. 4. Provide you, the service owner with details of the above for metrics. Let me know if y'all want something like this and can put $ forth. ryan On 11/20/14 12:49 PM, Sterling Jacobson via Af wrote: BUT, the phones now days are smart enough to know when wifi sucks or goes out completely. They fall back to 3/4G. Which is awesome, because it could still talk to the service provider end and tell the customer the status. I think this would work better than a green/red light. The phone App would tell you that your service is correct to the house, but that inside it's not talking. Then walk the customer through a set of standard fix it routines. That would solve most of our calls right there. On the back end it just needs to talk to a server process that can get access to the device on the side of the house. The best would be an embedded speed test in the ONT/CPE that could report back to the App and say they are getting what they are paying for to the side of their house. And then give them suggestions for fixing their crappy wifi. I bet it wouldn't take much to get this done and working with a few larger billing systems and equipment platforms, who's with me?? -Original Message- From: Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com] On Behalf Of Ken Hohhof via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 12:35 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's Part of the problem is so many customers are 100% WiFi now, so unless you have a managed router there, you have 2 big problem areas beyond the demarc - the customer's router and the customer's WiFi. -Original Message- From: Bill Prince via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 1:04 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's Linktechs built a tool a couple years ago that ran on the customer's PC (WIndows only) that would give the customer a "connection health" indication. It would monitor the local gateway, and give both a green light for connected, plus a reading on the latency. You go too much beyond that, and you will get a bunch of false positives when something beyond your local network is having some kind of issue (we get our share of these). I don't think they got much response from it, and I don't think they offer it any longer. bp On 11/20/2014 9:43 AM, Sterling Jacobson via Af wrote: What I really want is an integrated system that isn't stuck in the 90's. I want the customer to have an app on their phone that tells them when their network is having issues and why. I want it to also remind them to pay their bill and provide a lazy/easy way to do that. I want that same system to have an engineer app that tells us when nodes fail and why. So if a node goes down and it's important, it should show up on my phone and I can take action. One of those actions would be to message to outage impacted customers the ETA to fix etc. Emails from Cacti don't count. -- D. Ryan Spott | Iron Goat Networks, llc broadband | telco | colo | community PO Box 1232 / 603 W. Stevens Sultan, WA 98284 360-799-0552 | gtalk: rsp...@irongoat.net
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
BUT, the phones now days are smart enough to know when wifi sucks or goes out completely. They fall back to 3/4G. Which is awesome, because it could still talk to the service provider end and tell the customer the status. I think this would work better than a green/red light. The phone App would tell you that your service is correct to the house, but that inside it's not talking. Then walk the customer through a set of standard fix it routines. That would solve most of our calls right there. On the back end it just needs to talk to a server process that can get access to the device on the side of the house. The best would be an embedded speed test in the ONT/CPE that could report back to the App and say they are getting what they are paying for to the side of their house. And then give them suggestions for fixing their crappy wifi. I bet it wouldn't take much to get this done and working with a few larger billing systems and equipment platforms, who's with me?? -Original Message- From: Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com] On Behalf Of Ken Hohhof via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 12:35 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's Part of the problem is so many customers are 100% WiFi now, so unless you have a managed router there, you have 2 big problem areas beyond the demarc - the customer's router and the customer's WiFi. -Original Message- From: Bill Prince via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 1:04 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's Linktechs built a tool a couple years ago that ran on the customer's PC (WIndows only) that would give the customer a "connection health" indication. It would monitor the local gateway, and give both a green light for connected, plus a reading on the latency. You go too much beyond that, and you will get a bunch of false positives when something beyond your local network is having some kind of issue (we get our share of these). I don't think they got much response from it, and I don't think they offer it any longer. bp On 11/20/2014 9:43 AM, Sterling Jacobson via Af wrote: > What I really want is an integrated system that isn't stuck in the 90's. > > I want the customer to have an app on their phone that tells them when > their network is having issues and why. > I want it to also remind them to pay their bill and provide a > lazy/easy way to do that. > > I want that same system to have an engineer app that tells us when > nodes fail and why. > > So if a node goes down and it's important, it should show up on my > phone and I can take action. > One of those actions would be to message to outage impacted customers > the ETA to fix etc. > > Emails from Cacti don't count. >
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
Hmmm, if they used routers that would allow a simple program to be embedded,
the router could ping one of your servers and it could log the pings. Good
record for when the customer went down. And – the best part – ping has payload
capability, so you could embed a good ID number that would depend on NAT or
anything else. You could have your server alert you if ET was not phoning
home.
From: Jerry Richardson via Af
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 1:04 PM
To: af@afmug.com
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
Right…
Was pinging 8.8.8.8 last night – 174ms.
Pinged 8.8.4.4 – 12ms.
From: Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com] On Behalf Of Travis Johnson via Af
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 11:57 AM
To: af@afmug.com
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
Then every time Google's DNS goes down, all of your customers will be
calling... LOL
Travis
On 11/20/2014 12:52 PM, Chuck McCown via Af wrote:
As determined by DHCP adds a horrible layer of complexity for a cheap and
simple device.
How about ping to 8.8.8.8?
From: Josh Luthman via Af
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 12:41 PM
To: af@afmug.com
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
Red/green light for successful DNS and ping to a server determined by DHCP
Josh Luthman
Office: 937-552-2340
Direct: 937-552-2343
1100 Wayne St
Suite 1337
Troy, OH 45373
On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 1:05 PM, Chuck McCown via Af wrote:
What would be the determining factor? Ping DNS server OK?
From: Jason McKemie via Af
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 11:03 AM
To: af@afmug.com
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
A red/green led would probably suffice for this purpose.
On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:01 PM, Gino Villarini via Af
wrote:
We need a “device” that plugs between router and internet connection with
a big screed that says Internet OK! Or Internef BAD… filter out calls with
customer having issues with wifi
Gino A. Villarini
President
Aeronet Wireless Broadband Corp.
www.aeronetpr.com
@aeronetpr
From: "af@afmug.com"
Reply-To: "af@afmug.com"
Date: Thursday, November 20, 2014 at 1:47 PM
To: "af@afmug.com"
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
*An app for my phone? Yuck
*Something that pushes to cutomers letting them know we're having issues?
Yuck
*Something that let's the customer verify their particular service is
good/not? That'd be great!
*Web portal for billing, easy peasy
Why a node fails probably won't be detectable by a machine - in some
cases it's difficult for a person to narrow it down (radio, connectors, cables,
ethernet, surge, etc) but I'd like to see ideas on this of course.
I use/suggest an outgoing message. IF the customer is having issues and
they do call us, they hear we're having issues and hang up. This means that
we're not telling 100 people there are issues when 25 are effecting ending up
with 75 calls next month saying we owe them a credit when they had nothing to
do with an outage.
Josh Luthman
Office: 937-552-2340
Direct: 937-552-2343
1100 Wayne St
Suite 1337
Troy, OH 45373
On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:43 PM, Sterling Jacobson via Af
wrote:
What I really want is an integrated system that isn't stuck in the 90's.
I want the customer to have an app on their phone that tells them when
their network is having issues and why.
I want it to also remind them to pay their bill and provide a lazy/easy
way to do that.
I want that same system to have an engineer app that tells us when
nodes fail and why.
So if a node goes down and it's important, it should show up on my
phone and I can take action.
One of those actions would be to message to outage impacted customers
the ETA to fix etc.
Emails from Cacti don't count.
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
I have been putting in 8.8.4.4 as the primary dns server nowadays since
it seems to get less traffic.
Matthew Jenkins
SmarterBroadband
m...@sbbinc.net
530.272.4000
On 11/20/2014 12:04 PM, Jerry Richardson via Af wrote:
Right…
Was pinging 8.8.8.8 last night – 174ms.
Pinged 8.8.4.4 – 12ms.
*From:*Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com] *On Behalf Of *Travis Johnson
via Af
*Sent:* Thursday, November 20, 2014 11:57 AM
*To:* af@afmug.com
*Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
Then every time Google's DNS goes down, all of your customers will be
calling... LOL
Travis
On 11/20/2014 12:52 PM, Chuck McCown via Af wrote:
As determined by DHCP adds a horrible layer of complexity for a
cheap and simple device.
How about ping to 8.8.8.8?
*From:*Josh Luthman via Af <mailto:af@afmug.com>
*Sent:*Thursday, November 20, 2014 12:41 PM
*To:*af@afmug.com <mailto:af@afmug.com>
*Subject:*Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
Red/green light for successful DNS and ping to a server determined
by DHCP
Josh Luthman
Office: 937-552-2340
Direct: 937-552-2343
1100 Wayne St
Suite 1337
Troy, OH 45373
On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 1:05 PM, Chuck McCown via Af mailto:af@afmug.com>> wrote:
What would be the determining factor? Ping DNS server OK?
*From:*Jason McKemie via Af <mailto:af@afmug.com>
*Sent:*Thursday, November 20, 2014 11:03 AM
*To:*af@afmug.com <mailto:af@afmug.com>
*Subject:*Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
A red/green led would probably suffice for this purpose.
On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:01 PM, Gino Villarini via Af
mailto:af@afmug.com>> wrote:
We need a “device” that plugs between router and internet
connection with a big screed that says Internet OK! Or
Internef BAD… filter out calls with customer having issues
with wifi
Gino A. Villarini
President
Aeronet Wireless Broadband Corp.
www.aeronetpr.com <http://www.aeronetpr.com>
@aeronetpr
*From: *"af@afmug.com <mailto:af@afmug.com>" mailto:af@afmug.com>>
*Reply-To: *"af@afmug.com <mailto:af@afmug.com>"
mailto:af@afmug.com>>
*Date: *Thursday, November 20, 2014 at 1:47 PM
*To: *"af@afmug.com <mailto:af@afmug.com>" mailto:af@afmug.com>>
*Subject: *Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
*An app for my phone? Yuck
*Something that pushes to cutomers letting them know we're
having issues? Yuck
*Something that let's the customer verify their particular
service is good/not? That'd be great!
*Web portal for billing, easy peasy
Why a node fails probably won't be detectable by a machine
- in some cases it's difficult for a person to narrow it
down (radio, connectors, cables, ethernet, surge, etc) but
I'd like to see ideas on this of course.
I use/suggest an outgoing message. IF the customer is
having issues and they do call us, they hear we're having
issues and hang up. This means that we're not telling 100
people there are issues when 25 are effecting ending up
with 75 calls next month saying we owe them a credit when
they had nothing to do with an outage.
Josh Luthman
Office: 937-552-2340
Direct: 937-552-2343
1100 Wayne St
Suite 1337
Troy, OH 45373
On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:43 PM, Sterling Jacobson via Af
mailto:af@afmug.com>> wrote:
What I really want is an integrated system that isn't
stuck in the 90's.
I want the customer to have an app on their phone that
tells them when their network is having issues and why.
I want it to also remind them to pay their bill and
provide a lazy/easy way to do that.
I want that same system to have an engineer app that
tells us when nodes fail and why.
So if a node goes down and it's important, it should
show up on my phone and I can take action.
One of those actions would be to message to outage
impacted customers the ETA to fix etc.
Emails from Cacti don't count.
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
127.0.0.1
On 11/20/2014 1:02 PM, Chuck McCown via Af wrote:
What is the most reliable pingable IP?
*From:* Travis Johnson via Af <mailto:af@afmug.com>
*Sent:* Thursday, November 20, 2014 12:56 PM
*To:* af@afmug.com <mailto:af@afmug.com>
*Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
Then every time Google's DNS goes down, all of your customers will be
calling... LOL
Travis
On 11/20/2014 12:52 PM, Chuck McCown via Af wrote:
As determined by DHCP adds a horrible layer of complexity for a cheap
and simple device.
How about ping to 8.8.8.8?
*From:* Josh Luthman via Af <mailto:af@afmug.com>
*Sent:* Thursday, November 20, 2014 12:41 PM
*To:* af@afmug.com <mailto:af@afmug.com>
*Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
Red/green light for successful DNS and ping to a server determined by
DHCP
Josh Luthman
Office: 937-552-2340
Direct: 937-552-2343
1100 Wayne St
Suite 1337
Troy, OH 45373
On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 1:05 PM, Chuck McCown via Af <mailto:af@afmug.com>> wrote:
What would be the determining factor? Ping DNS server OK?
*From:* Jason McKemie via Af <mailto:af@afmug.com>
*Sent:* Thursday, November 20, 2014 11:03 AM
*To:* af@afmug.com <mailto:af@afmug.com>
*Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
A red/green led would probably suffice for this purpose.
On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:01 PM, Gino Villarini via Af
mailto:af@afmug.com>> wrote:
We need a “device” that plugs between router and internet
connection with a big screed that says Internet OK! Or
Internef BAD… filter out calls with customer having issues
with wifi
Gino A. Villarini
President
Aeronet Wireless Broadband Corp.
www.aeronetpr.com <http://www.aeronetpr.com>
@aeronetpr
From: "af@afmug.com <mailto:af@afmug.com>" mailto:af@afmug.com>>
Reply-To: "af@afmug.com <mailto:af@afmug.com>" mailto:af@afmug.com>>
Date: Thursday, November 20, 2014 at 1:47 PM
To: "af@afmug.com <mailto:af@afmug.com>" mailto:af@afmug.com>>
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
*An app for my phone? Yuck
*Something that pushes to cutomers letting them know we're
having issues? Yuck
*Something that let's the customer verify their particular
service is good/not? That'd be great!
*Web portal for billing, easy peasy
Why a node fails probably won't be detectable by a machine -
in some cases it's difficult for a person to narrow it down
(radio, connectors, cables, ethernet, surge, etc) but I'd
like to see ideas on this of course.
I use/suggest an outgoing message. IF the customer is having
issues and they do call us, they hear we're having issues and
hang up. This means that we're not telling 100 people there
are issues when 25 are effecting ending up with 75 calls next
month saying we owe them a credit when they had nothing to do
with an outage.
Josh Luthman
Office: 937-552-2340
Direct: 937-552-2343
1100 Wayne St
Suite 1337
Troy, OH 45373
On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:43 PM, Sterling Jacobson via Af
mailto:af@afmug.com>> wrote:
What I really want is an integrated system that isn't
stuck in the 90's.
I want the customer to have an app on their phone that
tells them when their network is having issues and why.
I want it to also remind them to pay their bill and
provide a lazy/easy way to do that.
I want that same system to have an engineer app that
tells us when nodes fail and why.
So if a node goes down and it's important, it should show
up on my phone and I can take action.
One of those actions would be to message to outage
impacted customers the ETA to fix etc.
Emails from Cacti don't count.
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
Right… Was pinging 8.8.8.8 last night – 174ms. Pinged 8.8.4.4 – 12ms. From: Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com] On Behalf Of Travis Johnson via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 11:57 AM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's Then every time Google's DNS goes down, all of your customers will be calling... LOL Travis On 11/20/2014 12:52 PM, Chuck McCown via Af wrote: As determined by DHCP adds a horrible layer of complexity for a cheap and simple device. How about ping to 8.8.8.8? From: Josh Luthman via Af <mailto:af@afmug.com> Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 12:41 PM To: af@afmug.com <mailto:af@afmug.com> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's Red/green light for successful DNS and ping to a server determined by DHCP Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 1:05 PM, Chuck McCown via Af mailto:af@afmug.com> > wrote: What would be the determining factor? Ping DNS server OK? From: Jason McKemie via Af <mailto:af@afmug.com> Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 11:03 AM To: af@afmug.com <mailto:af@afmug.com> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's A red/green led would probably suffice for this purpose. On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:01 PM, Gino Villarini via Af mailto:af@afmug.com> > wrote: We need a “device” that plugs between router and internet connection with a big screed that says Internet OK! Or Internef BAD… filter out calls with customer having issues with wifi Gino A. Villarini President Aeronet Wireless Broadband Corp. www.aeronetpr.com <http://www.aeronetpr.com> @aeronetpr From: "af@afmug.com <mailto:af@afmug.com> " mailto:af@afmug.com> > Reply-To: "af@afmug.com <mailto:af@afmug.com> " mailto:af@afmug.com> > Date: Thursday, November 20, 2014 at 1:47 PM To: "af@afmug.com <mailto:af@afmug.com> " mailto:af@afmug.com> > Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's *An app for my phone? Yuck *Something that pushes to cutomers letting them know we're having issues? Yuck *Something that let's the customer verify their particular service is good/not? That'd be great! *Web portal for billing, easy peasy Why a node fails probably won't be detectable by a machine - in some cases it's difficult for a person to narrow it down (radio, connectors, cables, ethernet, surge, etc) but I'd like to see ideas on this of course. I use/suggest an outgoing message. IF the customer is having issues and they do call us, they hear we're having issues and hang up. This means that we're not telling 100 people there are issues when 25 are effecting ending up with 75 calls next month saying we owe them a credit when they had nothing to do with an outage. Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:43 PM, Sterling Jacobson via Af mailto:af@afmug.com> > wrote: What I really want is an integrated system that isn't stuck in the 90's. I want the customer to have an app on their phone that tells them when their network is having issues and why. I want it to also remind them to pay their bill and provide a lazy/easy way to do that. I want that same system to have an engineer app that tells us when nodes fail and why. So if a node goes down and it's important, it should show up on my phone and I can take action. One of those actions would be to message to outage impacted customers the ETA to fix etc. Emails from Cacti don't count.
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
What is the most reliable pingable IP?
From: Travis Johnson via Af
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 12:56 PM
To: af@afmug.com
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
Then every time Google's DNS goes down, all of your customers will be
calling... LOL
Travis
On 11/20/2014 12:52 PM, Chuck McCown via Af wrote:
As determined by DHCP adds a horrible layer of complexity for a cheap and
simple device.
How about ping to 8.8.8.8?
From: Josh Luthman via Af
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 12:41 PM
To: af@afmug.com
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
Red/green light for successful DNS and ping to a server determined by DHCP
Josh Luthman
Office: 937-552-2340
Direct: 937-552-2343
1100 Wayne St
Suite 1337
Troy, OH 45373
On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 1:05 PM, Chuck McCown via Af wrote:
What would be the determining factor? Ping DNS server OK?
From: Jason McKemie via Af
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 11:03 AM
To: af@afmug.com
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
A red/green led would probably suffice for this purpose.
On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:01 PM, Gino Villarini via Af
wrote:
We need a “device” that plugs between router and internet connection with
a big screed that says Internet OK! Or Internef BAD… filter out calls with
customer having issues with wifi
Gino A. Villarini
President
Aeronet Wireless Broadband Corp.
www.aeronetpr.com
@aeronetpr
From: "af@afmug.com"
Reply-To: "af@afmug.com"
Date: Thursday, November 20, 2014 at 1:47 PM
To: "af@afmug.com"
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
*An app for my phone? Yuck
*Something that pushes to cutomers letting them know we're having issues?
Yuck
*Something that let's the customer verify their particular service is
good/not? That'd be great!
*Web portal for billing, easy peasy
Why a node fails probably won't be detectable by a machine - in some
cases it's difficult for a person to narrow it down (radio, connectors, cables,
ethernet, surge, etc) but I'd like to see ideas on this of course.
I use/suggest an outgoing message. IF the customer is having issues and
they do call us, they hear we're having issues and hang up. This means that
we're not telling 100 people there are issues when 25 are effecting ending up
with 75 calls next month saying we owe them a credit when they had nothing to
do with an outage.
Josh Luthman
Office: 937-552-2340
Direct: 937-552-2343
1100 Wayne St
Suite 1337
Troy, OH 45373
On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:43 PM, Sterling Jacobson via Af
wrote:
What I really want is an integrated system that isn't stuck in the 90's.
I want the customer to have an app on their phone that tells them when
their network is having issues and why.
I want it to also remind them to pay their bill and provide a lazy/easy
way to do that.
I want that same system to have an engineer app that tells us when
nodes fail and why.
So if a node goes down and it's important, it should show up on my
phone and I can take action.
One of those actions would be to message to outage impacted customers
the ETA to fix etc.
Emails from Cacti don't count.
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
Then every time Google's DNS goes down, all of your customers will be
calling... LOL
Travis
On 11/20/2014 12:52 PM, Chuck McCown via Af wrote:
As determined by DHCP adds a horrible layer of complexity for a cheap
and simple device.
How about ping to 8.8.8.8?
*From:* Josh Luthman via Af <mailto:af@afmug.com>
*Sent:* Thursday, November 20, 2014 12:41 PM
*To:* af@afmug.com <mailto:af@afmug.com>
*Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
Red/green light for successful DNS and ping to a server determined by DHCP
Josh Luthman
Office: 937-552-2340
Direct: 937-552-2343
1100 Wayne St
Suite 1337
Troy, OH 45373
On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 1:05 PM, Chuck McCown via Af <mailto:af@afmug.com>> wrote:
What would be the determining factor? Ping DNS server OK?
*From:* Jason McKemie via Af <mailto:af@afmug.com>
*Sent:* Thursday, November 20, 2014 11:03 AM
*To:* af@afmug.com <mailto:af@afmug.com>
*Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
A red/green led would probably suffice for this purpose.
On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:01 PM, Gino Villarini via Af
mailto:af@afmug.com>> wrote:
We need a “device” that plugs between router and internet
connection with a big screed that says Internet OK! Or
Internef BAD… filter out calls with customer having issues
with wifi
Gino A. Villarini
President
Aeronet Wireless Broadband Corp.
www.aeronetpr.com <http://www.aeronetpr.com>
@aeronetpr
From: "af@afmug.com <mailto:af@afmug.com>" mailto:af@afmug.com>>
Reply-To: "af@afmug.com <mailto:af@afmug.com>" mailto:af@afmug.com>>
Date: Thursday, November 20, 2014 at 1:47 PM
To: "af@afmug.com <mailto:af@afmug.com>" mailto:af@afmug.com>>
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
*An app for my phone? Yuck
*Something that pushes to cutomers letting them know we're
having issues? Yuck
*Something that let's the customer verify their particular
service is good/not? That'd be great!
*Web portal for billing, easy peasy
Why a node fails probably won't be detectable by a machine -
in some cases it's difficult for a person to narrow it down
(radio, connectors, cables, ethernet, surge, etc) but I'd like
to see ideas on this of course.
I use/suggest an outgoing message. IF the customer is having
issues and they do call us, they hear we're having issues and
hang up. This means that we're not telling 100 people there
are issues when 25 are effecting ending up with 75 calls next
month saying we owe them a credit when they had nothing to do
with an outage.
Josh Luthman
Office: 937-552-2340
Direct: 937-552-2343
1100 Wayne St
Suite 1337
Troy, OH 45373
On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:43 PM, Sterling Jacobson via Af
mailto:af@afmug.com>> wrote:
What I really want is an integrated system that isn't
stuck in the 90's.
I want the customer to have an app on their phone that
tells them when their network is having issues and why.
I want it to also remind them to pay their bill and
provide a lazy/easy way to do that.
I want that same system to have an engineer app that tells
us when nodes fail and why.
So if a node goes down and it's important, it should show
up on my phone and I can take action.
One of those actions would be to message to outage
impacted customers the ETA to fix etc.
Emails from Cacti don't count.
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
I know. I would say that 90+ % of our service calls boil down to some SNAFU with their home router/WiFi. Most of them have been trained to check to see if they can get guest access to the SM, just to be sure their problem is not local (love NAT). bp On 11/20/2014 11:34 AM, Ken Hohhof via Af wrote: Part of the problem is so many customers are 100% WiFi now, so unless you have a managed router there, you have 2 big problem areas beyond the demarc - the customer's router and the customer's WiFi. -Original Message- From: Bill Prince via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 1:04 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's Linktechs built a tool a couple years ago that ran on the customer's PC (WIndows only) that would give the customer a "connection health" indication. It would monitor the local gateway, and give both a green light for connected, plus a reading on the latency. You go too much beyond that, and you will get a bunch of false positives when something beyond your local network is having some kind of issue (we get our share of these). I don't think they got much response from it, and I don't think they offer it any longer. bp On 11/20/2014 9:43 AM, Sterling Jacobson via Af wrote: What I really want is an integrated system that isn't stuck in the 90's. I want the customer to have an app on their phone that tells them when their network is having issues and why. I want it to also remind them to pay their bill and provide a lazy/easy way to do that. I want that same system to have an engineer app that tells us when nodes fail and why. So if a node goes down and it's important, it should show up on my phone and I can take action. One of those actions would be to message to outage impacted customers the ETA to fix etc. Emails from Cacti don't count.
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
As determined by DHCP adds a horrible layer of complexity for a cheap and
simple device.
How about ping to 8.8.8.8?
From: Josh Luthman via Af
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 12:41 PM
To: af@afmug.com
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
Red/green light for successful DNS and ping to a server determined by DHCP
Josh Luthman
Office: 937-552-2340
Direct: 937-552-2343
1100 Wayne St
Suite 1337
Troy, OH 45373
On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 1:05 PM, Chuck McCown via Af wrote:
What would be the determining factor? Ping DNS server OK?
From: Jason McKemie via Af
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 11:03 AM
To: af@afmug.com
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
A red/green led would probably suffice for this purpose.
On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:01 PM, Gino Villarini via Af wrote:
We need a “device” that plugs between router and internet connection with a
big screed that says Internet OK! Or Internef BAD… filter out calls with
customer having issues with wifi
Gino A. Villarini
President
Aeronet Wireless Broadband Corp.
www.aeronetpr.com
@aeronetpr
From: "af@afmug.com"
Reply-To: "af@afmug.com"
Date: Thursday, November 20, 2014 at 1:47 PM
To: "af@afmug.com"
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
*An app for my phone? Yuck
*Something that pushes to cutomers letting them know we're having issues?
Yuck
*Something that let's the customer verify their particular service is
good/not? That'd be great!
*Web portal for billing, easy peasy
Why a node fails probably won't be detectable by a machine - in some cases
it's difficult for a person to narrow it down (radio, connectors, cables,
ethernet, surge, etc) but I'd like to see ideas on this of course.
I use/suggest an outgoing message. IF the customer is having issues and
they do call us, they hear we're having issues and hang up. This means that
we're not telling 100 people there are issues when 25 are effecting ending up
with 75 calls next month saying we owe them a credit when they had nothing to
do with an outage.
Josh Luthman
Office: 937-552-2340
Direct: 937-552-2343
1100 Wayne St
Suite 1337
Troy, OH 45373
On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:43 PM, Sterling Jacobson via Af
wrote:
What I really want is an integrated system that isn't stuck in the 90's.
I want the customer to have an app on their phone that tells them when
their network is having issues and why.
I want it to also remind them to pay their bill and provide a lazy/easy
way to do that.
I want that same system to have an engineer app that tells us when nodes
fail and why.
So if a node goes down and it's important, it should show up on my phone
and I can take action.
One of those actions would be to message to outage impacted customers the
ETA to fix etc.
Emails from Cacti don't count.
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
Red/green light for successful DNS and ping to a server determined by DHCP Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 1:05 PM, Chuck McCown via Af wrote: > What would be the determining factor? Ping DNS server OK? > > *From:* Jason McKemie via Af > *Sent:* Thursday, November 20, 2014 11:03 AM > *To:* af@afmug.com > *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's > > A red/green led would probably suffice for this purpose. > > On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:01 PM, Gino Villarini via Af > wrote: > >> We need a “device” that plugs between router and internet connection >> with a big screed that says Internet OK! Or Internef BAD… filter out calls >> with customer having issues with wifi >> >> >> >> Gino A. Villarini >> President >> Aeronet Wireless Broadband Corp. >> www.aeronetpr.com >> @aeronetpr >> >> >> >> From: "af@afmug.com" >> Reply-To: "af@afmug.com" >> Date: Thursday, November 20, 2014 at 1:47 PM >> To: "af@afmug.com" >> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's >> >> *An app for my phone? Yuck >> *Something that pushes to cutomers letting them know we're having >> issues? Yuck >> *Something that let's the customer verify their particular service is >> good/not? That'd be great! >> *Web portal for billing, easy peasy >> >> Why a node fails probably won't be detectable by a machine - in some >> cases it's difficult for a person to narrow it down (radio, connectors, >> cables, ethernet, surge, etc) but I'd like to see ideas on this of course. >> >> I use/suggest an outgoing message. IF the customer is having issues and >> they do call us, they hear we're having issues and hang up. This means >> that we're not telling 100 people there are issues when 25 are effecting >> ending up with 75 calls next month saying we owe them a credit when they >> had nothing to do with an outage. >> >> >> Josh Luthman >> Office: 937-552-2340 >> Direct: 937-552-2343 >> 1100 Wayne St >> Suite 1337 >> Troy, OH 45373 >> >> On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:43 PM, Sterling Jacobson via Af >> wrote: >> >>> What I really want is an integrated system that isn't stuck in the 90's. >>> >>> I want the customer to have an app on their phone that tells them when >>> their network is having issues and why. >>> I want it to also remind them to pay their bill and provide a lazy/easy >>> way to do that. >>> >>> I want that same system to have an engineer app that tells us when nodes >>> fail and why. >>> >>> So if a node goes down and it's important, it should show up on my phone >>> and I can take action. >>> One of those actions would be to message to outage impacted customers >>> the ETA to fix etc. >>> >>> Emails from Cacti don't count. >>> >> >> > >
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
We have started offering managed routers, and putting in Ubiquity AirRouters. They show up in AirControl and we can upgrade/make changes, run the SA, etc. Pretty cool. -Original Message- From: Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com] On Behalf Of Ken Hohhof via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 11:35 AM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's Part of the problem is so many customers are 100% WiFi now, so unless you have a managed router there, you have 2 big problem areas beyond the demarc - the customer's router and the customer's WiFi. -Original Message- From: Bill Prince via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 1:04 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's Linktechs built a tool a couple years ago that ran on the customer's PC (WIndows only) that would give the customer a "connection health" indication. It would monitor the local gateway, and give both a green light for connected, plus a reading on the latency. You go too much beyond that, and you will get a bunch of false positives when something beyond your local network is having some kind of issue (we get our share of these). I don't think they got much response from it, and I don't think they offer it any longer. bp On 11/20/2014 9:43 AM, Sterling Jacobson via Af wrote: > What I really want is an integrated system that isn't stuck in the 90's. > > I want the customer to have an app on their phone that tells them when > their network is having issues and why. > I want it to also remind them to pay their bill and provide a > lazy/easy way to do that. > > I want that same system to have an engineer app that tells us when > nodes fail and why. > > So if a node goes down and it's important, it should show up on my > phone and I can take action. > One of those actions would be to message to outage impacted customers > the ETA to fix etc. > > Emails from Cacti don't count. >
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
Here you go. http://www.linksprinter.com/ -Louis On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:43 PM, Sterling Jacobson via Af wrote: > What I really want is an integrated system that isn't stuck in the 90's. > > I want the customer to have an app on their phone that tells them when their > network is having issues and why. > I want it to also remind them to pay their bill and provide a lazy/easy way > to do that. > > I want that same system to have an engineer app that tells us when nodes fail > and why. > > So if a node goes down and it's important, it should show up on my phone and > I can take action. > One of those actions would be to message to outage impacted customers the ETA > to fix etc. > > Emails from Cacti don't count. -- -Louis NTInet O: 803-533-1660 X 207 C: 803-997-0004
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
Part of the problem is so many customers are 100% WiFi now, so unless you have a managed router there, you have 2 big problem areas beyond the demarc - the customer's router and the customer's WiFi. -Original Message- From: Bill Prince via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 1:04 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's Linktechs built a tool a couple years ago that ran on the customer's PC (WIndows only) that would give the customer a "connection health" indication. It would monitor the local gateway, and give both a green light for connected, plus a reading on the latency. You go too much beyond that, and you will get a bunch of false positives when something beyond your local network is having some kind of issue (we get our share of these). I don't think they got much response from it, and I don't think they offer it any longer. bp On 11/20/2014 9:43 AM, Sterling Jacobson via Af wrote: What I really want is an integrated system that isn't stuck in the 90's. I want the customer to have an app on their phone that tells them when their network is having issues and why. I want it to also remind them to pay their bill and provide a lazy/easy way to do that. I want that same system to have an engineer app that tells us when nodes fail and why. So if a node goes down and it's important, it should show up on my phone and I can take action. One of those actions would be to message to outage impacted customers the ETA to fix etc. Emails from Cacti don't count.
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
Linktechs built a tool a couple years ago that ran on the customer's PC (WIndows only) that would give the customer a "connection health" indication. It would monitor the local gateway, and give both a green light for connected, plus a reading on the latency. You go too much beyond that, and you will get a bunch of false positives when something beyond your local network is having some kind of issue (we get our share of these). I don't think they got much response from it, and I don't think they offer it any longer. bp On 11/20/2014 9:43 AM, Sterling Jacobson via Af wrote: What I really want is an integrated system that isn't stuck in the 90's. I want the customer to have an app on their phone that tells them when their network is having issues and why. I want it to also remind them to pay their bill and provide a lazy/easy way to do that. I want that same system to have an engineer app that tells us when nodes fail and why. So if a node goes down and it's important, it should show up on my phone and I can take action. One of those actions would be to message to outage impacted customers the ETA to fix etc. Emails from Cacti don't count.
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
OK, thanks for putting me on a tangent, now I will get nothing done... http://www.hackshed.co.uk/arduino-network-uptime-monitor-with-twitter-update s/ -Original Message- From: Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com] On Behalf Of Sterling Jacobson via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 9:44 AM To: 'af@afmug.com' Subject: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's What I really want is an integrated system that isn't stuck in the 90's. I want the customer to have an app on their phone that tells them when their network is having issues and why. I want it to also remind them to pay their bill and provide a lazy/easy way to do that. I want that same system to have an engineer app that tells us when nodes fail and why. So if a node goes down and it's important, it should show up on my phone and I can take action. One of those actions would be to message to outage impacted customers the ETA to fix etc. Emails from Cacti don't count.
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
Several brands of home routers have an Internet light that changes color when the Internet is reachable, for example Netgear and DLink do this. I don’t know about Belkin but they probably phone home to the mothership. I think the method depends on whether the Internet connection is set for DHCP, PPPoE or static IP. With PPPoE it monitors for an active PPPoE session. I think the other two maybe they check if the DNS servers are reachable. This method is not foolproof, because cheap routers tend to lock up and they may lock up with the light saying Internet is good. But it’s better than nothing. As far as notifying customers, ComEd here has an outage map that’s pretty nice. You can bring it up on your phone and the starting location will be your phone location, outage locations are shown with an estimated number of customers affected, problem description (like wires down), status (like crew onsite or being dispatched), and ETA. Not saying that’s what we need, but from a customer perspective, it’s useful. From: Chuck McCown via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 12:05 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's What would be the determining factor? Ping DNS server OK? From: Jason McKemie via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 11:03 AM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's A red/green led would probably suffice for this purpose. On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:01 PM, Gino Villarini via Af wrote: We need a “device” that plugs between router and internet connection with a big screed that says Internet OK! Or Internef BAD… filter out calls with customer having issues with wifi Gino A. Villarini President Aeronet Wireless Broadband Corp. www.aeronetpr.com @aeronetpr From: "af@afmug.com" Reply-To: "af@afmug.com" Date: Thursday, November 20, 2014 at 1:47 PM To: "af@afmug.com" Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's *An app for my phone? Yuck *Something that pushes to cutomers letting them know we're having issues? Yuck *Something that let's the customer verify their particular service is good/not? That'd be great! *Web portal for billing, easy peasy Why a node fails probably won't be detectable by a machine - in some cases it's difficult for a person to narrow it down (radio, connectors, cables, ethernet, surge, etc) but I'd like to see ideas on this of course. I use/suggest an outgoing message. IF the customer is having issues and they do call us, they hear we're having issues and hang up. This means that we're not telling 100 people there are issues when 25 are effecting ending up with 75 calls next month saying we owe them a credit when they had nothing to do with an outage. Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:43 PM, Sterling Jacobson via Af wrote: What I really want is an integrated system that isn't stuck in the 90's. I want the customer to have an app on their phone that tells them when their network is having issues and why. I want it to also remind them to pay their bill and provide a lazy/easy way to do that. I want that same system to have an engineer app that tells us when nodes fail and why. So if a node goes down and it's important, it should show up on my phone and I can take action. One of those actions would be to message to outage impacted customers the ETA to fix etc. Emails from Cacti don't count.
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
Not enough… you need it to ping dns and do speed test every x amount of minutes, display daily avg on screen…. Gino A. Villarini President Aeronet Wireless Broadband Corp. www.aeronetpr.com @aeronetpr From: "af@afmug.com<mailto:af@afmug.com>" mailto:af@afmug.com>> Reply-To: "af@afmug.com<mailto:af@afmug.com>" mailto:af@afmug.com>> Date: Thursday, November 20, 2014 at 2:03 PM To: "af@afmug.com<mailto:af@afmug.com>" mailto:af@afmug.com>> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's Better idea. Have the POE (like a dumber AirGateway) that pings out and gives a light. Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 1:01 PM, Gino Villarini via Af mailto:af@afmug.com>> wrote: We need a “device” that plugs between router and internet connection with a big screed that says Internet OK! Or Internef BAD… filter out calls with customer having issues with wifi Gino A. Villarini President Aeronet Wireless Broadband Corp. www.aeronetpr.com<http://www.aeronetpr.com> @aeronetpr From: "af@afmug.com<mailto:af@afmug.com>" mailto:af@afmug.com>> Reply-To: "af@afmug.com<mailto:af@afmug.com>" mailto:af@afmug.com>> Date: Thursday, November 20, 2014 at 1:47 PM To: "af@afmug.com<mailto:af@afmug.com>" mailto:af@afmug.com>> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's *An app for my phone? Yuck *Something that pushes to cutomers letting them know we're having issues? Yuck *Something that let's the customer verify their particular service is good/not? That'd be great! *Web portal for billing, easy peasy Why a node fails probably won't be detectable by a machine - in some cases it's difficult for a person to narrow it down (radio, connectors, cables, ethernet, surge, etc) but I'd like to see ideas on this of course. I use/suggest an outgoing message. IF the customer is having issues and they do call us, they hear we're having issues and hang up. This means that we're not telling 100 people there are issues when 25 are effecting ending up with 75 calls next month saying we owe them a credit when they had nothing to do with an outage. Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:43 PM, Sterling Jacobson via Af mailto:af@afmug.com>> wrote: What I really want is an integrated system that isn't stuck in the 90's. I want the customer to have an app on their phone that tells them when their network is having issues and why. I want it to also remind them to pay their bill and provide a lazy/easy way to do that. I want that same system to have an engineer app that tells us when nodes fail and why. So if a node goes down and it's important, it should show up on my phone and I can take action. One of those actions would be to message to outage impacted customers the ETA to fix etc. Emails from Cacti don't count.
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
What would be the determining factor? Ping DNS server OK? From: Jason McKemie via Af Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 11:03 AM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's A red/green led would probably suffice for this purpose. On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:01 PM, Gino Villarini via Af wrote: We need a “device” that plugs between router and internet connection with a big screed that says Internet OK! Or Internef BAD… filter out calls with customer having issues with wifi Gino A. Villarini President Aeronet Wireless Broadband Corp. www.aeronetpr.com @aeronetpr From: "af@afmug.com" Reply-To: "af@afmug.com" Date: Thursday, November 20, 2014 at 1:47 PM To: "af@afmug.com" Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's *An app for my phone? Yuck *Something that pushes to cutomers letting them know we're having issues? Yuck *Something that let's the customer verify their particular service is good/not? That'd be great! *Web portal for billing, easy peasy Why a node fails probably won't be detectable by a machine - in some cases it's difficult for a person to narrow it down (radio, connectors, cables, ethernet, surge, etc) but I'd like to see ideas on this of course. I use/suggest an outgoing message. IF the customer is having issues and they do call us, they hear we're having issues and hang up. This means that we're not telling 100 people there are issues when 25 are effecting ending up with 75 calls next month saying we owe them a credit when they had nothing to do with an outage. Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:43 PM, Sterling Jacobson via Af wrote: What I really want is an integrated system that isn't stuck in the 90's. I want the customer to have an app on their phone that tells them when their network is having issues and why. I want it to also remind them to pay their bill and provide a lazy/easy way to do that. I want that same system to have an engineer app that tells us when nodes fail and why. So if a node goes down and it's important, it should show up on my phone and I can take action. One of those actions would be to message to outage impacted customers the ETA to fix etc. Emails from Cacti don't count.
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
A red/green led would probably suffice for this purpose. On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:01 PM, Gino Villarini via Af wrote: > We need a “device” that plugs between router and internet connection > with a big screed that says Internet OK! Or Internef BAD… filter out calls > with customer having issues with wifi > > > > Gino A. Villarini > President > Aeronet Wireless Broadband Corp. > www.aeronetpr.com > @aeronetpr > > > > From: "af@afmug.com" > Reply-To: "af@afmug.com" > Date: Thursday, November 20, 2014 at 1:47 PM > To: "af@afmug.com" > Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's > > *An app for my phone? Yuck > *Something that pushes to cutomers letting them know we're having issues? > Yuck > *Something that let's the customer verify their particular service is > good/not? That'd be great! > *Web portal for billing, easy peasy > > Why a node fails probably won't be detectable by a machine - in some > cases it's difficult for a person to narrow it down (radio, connectors, > cables, ethernet, surge, etc) but I'd like to see ideas on this of course. > > I use/suggest an outgoing message. IF the customer is having issues and > they do call us, they hear we're having issues and hang up. This means > that we're not telling 100 people there are issues when 25 are effecting > ending up with 75 calls next month saying we owe them a credit when they > had nothing to do with an outage. > > > Josh Luthman > Office: 937-552-2340 > Direct: 937-552-2343 > 1100 Wayne St > Suite 1337 > Troy, OH 45373 > > On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:43 PM, Sterling Jacobson via Af > wrote: > >> What I really want is an integrated system that isn't stuck in the 90's. >> >> I want the customer to have an app on their phone that tells them when >> their network is having issues and why. >> I want it to also remind them to pay their bill and provide a lazy/easy >> way to do that. >> >> I want that same system to have an engineer app that tells us when nodes >> fail and why. >> >> So if a node goes down and it's important, it should show up on my phone >> and I can take action. >> One of those actions would be to message to outage impacted customers the >> ETA to fix etc. >> >> Emails from Cacti don't count. >> > >
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
Better idea. Have the POE (like a dumber AirGateway) that pings out and gives a light. Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 1:01 PM, Gino Villarini via Af wrote: > We need a “device” that plugs between router and internet connection > with a big screed that says Internet OK! Or Internef BAD… filter out calls > with customer having issues with wifi > > > > Gino A. Villarini > President > Aeronet Wireless Broadband Corp. > www.aeronetpr.com > @aeronetpr > > > > From: "af@afmug.com" > Reply-To: "af@afmug.com" > Date: Thursday, November 20, 2014 at 1:47 PM > To: "af@afmug.com" > Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's > > *An app for my phone? Yuck > *Something that pushes to cutomers letting them know we're having issues? > Yuck > *Something that let's the customer verify their particular service is > good/not? That'd be great! > *Web portal for billing, easy peasy > > Why a node fails probably won't be detectable by a machine - in some > cases it's difficult for a person to narrow it down (radio, connectors, > cables, ethernet, surge, etc) but I'd like to see ideas on this of course. > > I use/suggest an outgoing message. IF the customer is having issues and > they do call us, they hear we're having issues and hang up. This means > that we're not telling 100 people there are issues when 25 are effecting > ending up with 75 calls next month saying we owe them a credit when they > had nothing to do with an outage. > > > Josh Luthman > Office: 937-552-2340 > Direct: 937-552-2343 > 1100 Wayne St > Suite 1337 > Troy, OH 45373 > > On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:43 PM, Sterling Jacobson via Af > wrote: > >> What I really want is an integrated system that isn't stuck in the 90's. >> >> I want the customer to have an app on their phone that tells them when >> their network is having issues and why. >> I want it to also remind them to pay their bill and provide a lazy/easy >> way to do that. >> >> I want that same system to have an engineer app that tells us when nodes >> fail and why. >> >> So if a node goes down and it's important, it should show up on my phone >> and I can take action. >> One of those actions would be to message to outage impacted customers the >> ETA to fix etc. >> >> Emails from Cacti don't count. >> > >
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
We need a “device” that plugs between router and internet connection with a big screed that says Internet OK! Or Internef BAD… filter out calls with customer having issues with wifi Gino A. Villarini President Aeronet Wireless Broadband Corp. www.aeronetpr.com @aeronetpr From: "af@afmug.com<mailto:af@afmug.com>" mailto:af@afmug.com>> Reply-To: "af@afmug.com<mailto:af@afmug.com>" mailto:af@afmug.com>> Date: Thursday, November 20, 2014 at 1:47 PM To: "af@afmug.com<mailto:af@afmug.com>" mailto:af@afmug.com>> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's *An app for my phone? Yuck *Something that pushes to cutomers letting them know we're having issues? Yuck *Something that let's the customer verify their particular service is good/not? That'd be great! *Web portal for billing, easy peasy Why a node fails probably won't be detectable by a machine - in some cases it's difficult for a person to narrow it down (radio, connectors, cables, ethernet, surge, etc) but I'd like to see ideas on this of course. I use/suggest an outgoing message. IF the customer is having issues and they do call us, they hear we're having issues and hang up. This means that we're not telling 100 people there are issues when 25 are effecting ending up with 75 calls next month saying we owe them a credit when they had nothing to do with an outage. Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:43 PM, Sterling Jacobson via Af mailto:af@afmug.com>> wrote: What I really want is an integrated system that isn't stuck in the 90's. I want the customer to have an app on their phone that tells them when their network is having issues and why. I want it to also remind them to pay their bill and provide a lazy/easy way to do that. I want that same system to have an engineer app that tells us when nodes fail and why. So if a node goes down and it's important, it should show up on my phone and I can take action. One of those actions would be to message to outage impacted customers the ETA to fix etc. Emails from Cacti don't count.
Re: [AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
*An app for my phone? Yuck *Something that pushes to cutomers letting them know we're having issues? Yuck *Something that let's the customer verify their particular service is good/not? That'd be great! *Web portal for billing, easy peasy Why a node fails probably won't be detectable by a machine - in some cases it's difficult for a person to narrow it down (radio, connectors, cables, ethernet, surge, etc) but I'd like to see ideas on this of course. I use/suggest an outgoing message. IF the customer is having issues and they do call us, they hear we're having issues and hang up. This means that we're not telling 100 people there are issues when 25 are effecting ending up with 75 calls next month saying we owe them a credit when they had nothing to do with an outage. Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 12:43 PM, Sterling Jacobson via Af wrote: > What I really want is an integrated system that isn't stuck in the 90's. > > I want the customer to have an app on their phone that tells them when > their network is having issues and why. > I want it to also remind them to pay their bill and provide a lazy/easy > way to do that. > > I want that same system to have an engineer app that tells us when nodes > fail and why. > > So if a node goes down and it's important, it should show up on my phone > and I can take action. > One of those actions would be to message to outage impacted customers the > ETA to fix etc. > > Emails from Cacti don't count. >
[AFMUG] Network Monitoring in the 2010's
What I really want is an integrated system that isn't stuck in the 90's. I want the customer to have an app on their phone that tells them when their network is having issues and why. I want it to also remind them to pay their bill and provide a lazy/easy way to do that. I want that same system to have an engineer app that tells us when nodes fail and why. So if a node goes down and it's important, it should show up on my phone and I can take action. One of those actions would be to message to outage impacted customers the ETA to fix etc. Emails from Cacti don't count.
