Date   : Wed, 01 Dec 2010 07:01:16
From   : heyrick.beebsoc@... (Rick Murray)
Subject: [BeebSoc] Ping-pong

Hi,

As some of you may know, my internet is "iffy" due to some rather 
bizarre noise on the electrics. I've got a video of it affecting pretty 
much the entire town^Wvillage^Wbunch-of-houses-around-a-church.

Anyway, as if that isn't enough, I've also noticed our power lines pass 
through trees, and I mean that in its most literal sense. Seems a bit 
odd given last Autumn some EDF subcontracts came and massacred a few 
trees that might be in danger of touching power lines in a decade, yet 
managed to miss this.

Anyway...

I (intermittently) log my Internet connectivity by a program that 
fetches a file from my site and records if it worked of not. This, 
however, does not account for situations where the connection is, 
technically, live, but you'd struggle to run a download faster than 
10kbit/sec.

So I was hoping to recode the monitor to call "ping" and use the results 
of that to plot a "quality" of the connection. To a degree this works 
because when it is iffy, I tend to see something like:
--8<--------
D:\RickMisc>ping www.heyrick.co.uk

Pinging www2.squirrelinternet.co.uk [87.237.56.70] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 87.237.56.70: bytes=32 time=54ms TTL=243
Reply from 87.237.56.70: bytes=32 time=54ms TTL=243
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

Ping statistics for 87.237.56.70:
     Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 2, Lost = 2 (50% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
     Minimum = 54ms, Maximum = 54ms, Average = 54ms
--8<--------


I can ping with a packet of 1024 bytes, but the following consistently 
fails:
--8<--------
D:\RickMisc>ping -l 2048 www.google.com

Pinging www.l.google.com [74.125.230.80] with 2048 bytes of data:

Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

Ping statistics for 74.125.230.80:
     Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),
--8<--------

[here, I am trying Google as HeyRick didn't work either]

I was hoping to send a fragmented packet to record if *both* bits get 
there, and back. But it does not seem to want to work.


In essence, I would like to monitor the 'quality' of my connection 
without the server load of fetching a file and timing it - every minute. 
My current thinking on the matter is:

   1. ping with 1024 bytes
      if all okay and times < 100ms, then:

      2. fetch a 32K file and time it

This ought to allow me to build a report of:

   red          - connection down
   pink         - connection up, but pings time out
   light green  - pings 'lost' (shade depends on how many)
   mid-dark grn - file fetched, depending on time elapsed
   grey         - monitor inactive
   yellow       - recorded when livebox rebooted, not really
                  applicable as backup router isn't crashy...


Does anybody have any suggestions? I've tried a variety of packet sizes, 
but those over the MTU just time out.

For what it is worth, I'm measuring 108kbit/sec on a download at the 
moment. This is about what I'd expect at this time of day (server load).

My actual ratings using the somewhat naff Orange DSL tester were:
   382 / 174    unacceptable
   1085 / 219   unacceptable
   1560 / 212   acceptable
I am supposed to have 2048/256. I think this talks to the exchange 
somehow as retesting one or two times tends to pick things up. However, 
it needs to be done fairly regularly as it seems like if the exchange 
gets a reboot, it all reverts to defaults. And, of course, the DSL 
tester is a crashy piece of crap that just hangs if the line is too bad 
to complete the test correctly. Mmmm... Orange and crashy, where have I 
mentioned that before? <glances@... Livebox>

<sigh>


Best wishes,

Rick.