XPost: alt.comp.microsoft.windows
From: spam@nospam.com
Unsteadyken wrote:
> Why bother monitoring?
Why do I bother monitoring the Internet connection?
The question came up initially a few days ago when "micky" (who is also here
on Windows) asked for a free ad-free app that speaks a warning that "your
cell signal just dropped" and that verbally advises "your cell signal just
returned" when his phone in his pocket loses and regains tower connectivity
while hiking in the backwoods, where monitoring such things is a safety
concern.
Nobody knew the answer so, being the purposefully helpful kind-hearted
resourceful person I am, I dug around and it took even me a few hours to
find and test a good set of free ad-free gsf-free google-free highly rated
often downloaded app combinations which eventually resolved that issue:
1. You first need to create the text to speech warning alarms/notifications
2. Then you need to find an app that will test the cellular connectivity
3. And then that app has to be able to be set to speak your custom warnings
All using free ad-free apps that _anyone_ can use, as I often tell JP
Gilliver is a requirement since _all_ my kind-hearted tutorials are always
intended to greatly benefit everyone who wants to have the power we have.
Given Usenet is a team sport where volunteers pitch in where they can,
Steve, being an EE, kindly tested it inside an aluminum foil Faraday cage.
With that "lost cellular signal" problem resolved...
During the hours of testing I did out of the goodness of my heart for micky,
I found a few "Internet" testing tools, where they would use either the
Wi-Fi or the Cellular connection (or both, usually settable) as their test.
Of *those* tools, there were two kinds that I found in my searches:
A. Those that simply tested "network" connectivity
B. Those that more deeply probed "Internet" connectivity
Those that probed for actual Internet connectivity, require a domain.
As is almost always the case with cross platform Internet connectivity
solutions, I figured the Windows users must also have solved this problem.
Hence, my question to the two groups at large.
> Is your connection so unstable?
Is my (one?) connection so unstable?
It is when hiking in the backcountry where signal is often flaky at best.
*Kids going hiking for three days from point to point in the mountains*
"USA backcountry hike from Mount Madonna to Loma Prieta involving
topographic geoPDF quadrangles & iOS/Android GPX tracks & waypoints"
However, on any platform, knowledge of Internet connectivity is crucial.
For example, I get my Internet over WISP because I'm so far in the Santa
Cruz mountain range that there is no infrastructure such as no cable, no
water, no natural gas lines, no sewage lines, and even a 40-acre zoning so
that nobody can put more than a single home on 79 acres of land out here.
They do that to keep the land pristine, of course, but my point is that
Internet connectivity is crucial when your WISP AP is 6 miles (10km) away!
AP is 6 miles away
So, to the point of this thread, we run on the radio the default watchdog.
Typical range is about 10 miles
Which tells us when the radio has an issue (along with indicator lights).
Rocket M2 signal strength
As do the Android (but not iOS) devices using excellent debug utilities.
Wi-Fi debug channel graphs
This doesn't exist on iOS
But Android has many debuggers
Even extending to a variety of cellular signal strength debugging tools.
Wi-Fi & Cellular debugging
Given we all have dozens of acres of land, our pools, stables, barns, sheds,
and even our driveway gates are far from the house, so inside our homes we
typically have redundant routers that can handle switching multiple WISPs.
Peplink Balance 30 router
This is a photo of just _some_ of my home access points.
My home Wi-Fi APs
Where you'll note we also have cellular radio repeaters as shown here:
My home Wi-Fi APs
In addition, alignment of our antennas is critical for good connections:
Align Mikrotik radio antenna
Align Ubiquiti radio antenna
We are usually radio savvy in the mountains, just as we get good at water
pump technology and horses and four wheel drive repairs and septic systems
such that we often run tests on the spectrum inside and outside of wi-fi.
Wi-Fi analysis
Spectrum analysis
Many Wi-Fi debug apps
Nonetheless, we're old men who do just fine with what we have at hand.
Desktop in shed with MikroTik
Where, like farmers do with old tractors, we learn to repurpose WISP CPE
WISP router transceiver
Which, even when bought new, cost about the same as crappy consumer routers
Parts costs ~$150
Yet, for the same price, we can connect to a home AP hundreds of feet away
MikroTik -40dBm
For example, the barn desktop doesn't have a Wi-Fi card so out the Ethernet
port is connected a wireless wi-fi pseudobridge courtesy of MikroTik.
Desktop MikroTik pseudobridge
With distances to the barn being a hundred yards from the home router, you
begin to think about how to assemble a network out of available spare parts.
Desktop MikroTik WISP radios
Not desktops, but the laptops at the pool also require long range equipment.
Horns extend laptop Wi-Fi range
Where in the pool shed, we keep a spare linksys router & horn extender.
Laptop horn to router
Sometimes requiring a dish to throw the laptop signal a few hundred yards.
Laptop to dish antenna
[continued in next message]
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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