[HH] Internet connectivity watchdog timer

[Jack Coats]

I use a Web Power Switch from digital-dataloggers.com too.  Some
friends that are admins
at watkins.edu where they use them extensively.  The autoping does
well, but the folks
at Watkins.edu have some of their prior generation strips also and
control them from
some servers running perl scripts to do the monitoring. ... I would
rather have a cheaper
DIY solution, but the Web Power Switch is great and pretty much bullet proof.

><> ... Jack
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart... Colossians 3:23
"You don't manage people; you manage things. You lead people." —
Admiral Grace Hopper, USN
"It’s easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission" —
Admiral Grace Hopper, USN
"If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the precipitate"
- Henry J. Tillman


On Mon, Oct 24, 2011 at 10:54 AM, Brough Turner <broughturner at gmail.com> wrote:
> Tom,
> If your budget extends to $109 or so, there are commercial solutions that
> would likely meet your need.  We use a Web Power Switch from Digital Loggers
> Inc. at several sites.  They have an auto-ping feature which can power cycle
> specific outlets (up to 8 separately addressible outlets) under various
> conditions.  See:
>    http://www.digital-loggers.com/autoping.html
> If you connected the Web Power Switch on the downstream side of your router
> and had it pinging an address on the upstream side of your radio, then loss
> of connectivity could easily be programmed to power cycle both the router
> and the radio.
>
> Thanks,
> Brough Turner
>
> Mobile: +1 617 285-0433   Skype: brough
> Website | Google+ | Twitter | LinkedIn | Facebook | Blog | netBlazr Inc.
>
>
>
> On Mon, Oct 24, 2011 at 11:43 AM, Tom Metro <tmetro+hhacking at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> Tom Metro wrote:
>> > Here's the challenge: I have available an ASUS RT-N16 router running
>> > Tomato USB firmware attached to a fixed wireless receiver, and I'd like
>> > to have a watchdog timer that resets both when there is a loss of
>> > Internet connectivity.
>>
>> A few years ago I searched for a commercial solution for this and didn't
>> turn up much useful. (A few PCI cards designed for servers. Nothing that
>> would work with a router.)
>>
>> I just ran another search and uncovered that Tripp Lite has a bunch of
>> models that include a "Watchdog system service to restore operation to
>> locked equipment through soft reboot of application/OS or hard power
>> off/on reboot of connected equipment - ideal for unattended kiosk
>> applications."
>>
>> Information about it is sparse, but they have some packaged software to
>> support it (for Windows):
>> http://www.tripplite.com/en/products/model.cfm?txtModelID=2590
>>
>> I called them and confirmed the hardware does implement a watchdog
>> timer. It's just a matter of getting the necessary technical info to
>> create some software to talk to it from the router. By this point I was
>> over the heads of the 1st and 2nd level support people, so they asked
>> that I email a description of the info I wanted and they'd research it
>> and get back to me. Hopefully it isn't information they keep proprietary.
>>
>> Some of their inexpensive models (like the INTERNET350U <$50) support
>> this. According to the marketing info it uses an "HID-compliant USB
>> interface." I see both NUT (http://www.networkupstools.org/) and libhid
>> (http://libhid.alioth.debian.org/) have been ported to similar router
>> platforms.
>>
>> I expect the general UPS driver won't help with the watchdog feature,
>> but the source could be illustrative.
>>
>>  -Tom
>>
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