How to tell if MY internet is down?

[nbstl68]

I often cannot connect to my cameras via the BI app.
I will get the message "Unable to Connect. Please try again. ...Reason: Unable to reach server."

I do not think this is the fault of the BI app most of the time. Usually I will edit and click to refresh my WAN IP address and I'm in ,(aka my DSL provider has changed up my IP again).
But other times that does not correct the issue. Now I have pretty crappy DSL internet service which has regular intermittent connection issues and also a very low, (<.5Mbps) upload speed. So I usually assume my DSL service is the issue.

That brings me to my question.
Is there a way for me to generically test from my phone if MY home's internet service is down, independent of what app, like BI is trying to connect, so I can be sure it is an issue unrelated to BI or any other app I am using?

 

[Old-Time-Tech]

I guess that depends on the type of phone - see if there is a "ping" app available for your phone. If so, you can ping your local router, or any other host on your home network to see if it is "alive".

 

[bp2008]

You could run this program on your Blue Iris server, pinging www.google.com or something, and after a suspected outage, look at the ping graphs to see if there really was an outage. bp2008/pingtracer

 

[tangent]

You could run this program on your Blue Iris server, pinging www.google.com or something, and after a suspected outage, look at the ping graphs to see if there really was an outage. bp2008/pingtracer

FOSS is always a nice option. I've been playing with PingPlotter (which has a very free version) lately to look at issues I've had with ipcamtalk.

EDIT:demo expired, free version much less useful.

 

[nbstl68]

I have android (Samsung S8). I could not find PingPlotter or FOSS for Android

I guess that depends on the type of phone - see if there is a "ping" app available for your phone. If so, you can ping your local router, or any other host on your home network to see if it is "alive".

Would pinging my local router (from my phone while not at home is what I want to do), refer to my WAN IP address & port I have in my BI app?

Not sure what "any other host" would refer to on my home network.

 

[tangent]

FOSS is an acronym for Free Open Source Software aka the software @bp2008 created.

You may not want your router to respond to wan pings, so simply logging on your home network is a good place to start.
It sounds like you're using some kind of dynamic dns, but that it may be a bit slow to update.

 

[Old-Time-Tech]

Thanks for the clarification, so you want to know if your router is reachable from a remote (not home) location. There are many things that can point to a miscommunication or lack thereof with a home router. But if you want to confirm your router is reachable from a remote location, then pinging your WAN IP address will give you a level of comfort. Just double check that your router is pingable from the outside (Internet) because most secure configurations would not allow this. Perhaps a better albeit manual process would be to log into something inside your network remotely - with secured ports and passwords. Either method is not entirely secure, but then again nothing really is, you'd have to "pick your poison" sort of speak.

 

[nbstl68]

thanks for the information.
I guess trying to get my BI app to connect is effectively trying, "to log into something inside your network remotely - with secured ports and passwords."
I tried to ping my WAN on an app but it did not work so maybe it is blocked from pings by default but nothing I set up.

My goal is just to be able at any time to check to find out if my home internet is down when I am away.

Right now if my BI app connects to my cameras that is my assumption it is down but I wanted a more direct rout if possible so I could rule out a BI or home computer server issue vs actual internet outage.

 

[copex]

may help .... Uptime Robot

 

[looney2ns]

thanks for the information.
I guess trying to get my BI app to connect is effectively trying, "to log into something inside your network remotely - with secured ports and passwords."
I tried to ping my WAN on an app but it did not work so maybe it is blocked from pings by default but nothing I set up.

My goal is just to be able at any time to check to find out if my home internet is down when I am away.

Right now if my BI app connects to my cameras that is my assumption it is down but I wanted a more direct rout if possible so I could rule out a BI or home computer server issue vs actual internet outage.

You were given solutions above.

 

[stoneyc]

i would get faster internet if that might be the problem if you have 3 or 4 cameras also sign up for a free no ip account then download there client software it will keep your ip address updated

 

[Snotrocket]

I use the UI3 Web interface on my phone and it works great. I set it as a favorite on my home screen for easy access.

It's better than the app I think.

 

[rowdyplace]

In order to monitor my "server" at home, I use a program called Net Uptime Monitor. This tells me (after the fact) that my Internet was down, when it went down and for how long...

 

[bp2008]

In order to monitor my "server" at home, I use a program called Net Uptime Monitor. This tells me (after the fact) that my Internet was down, when it went down and for how long...

Ooh, that looks like the perfect solution! Good post! Net Uptime Monitor - the simple Internet Connection Monitor

 

[rowdyplace]

Thanks!! I was afraid you might think I was promoting some piece of crap software. This is one of the best tools I ever bought for $10.