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It begins with the BBR Line Monitoring Service. It pings your line, to see how long it takes to reach you from their server and return. This provides a lot of helpful information. The ping is graphed in milliseconds, over a series of graphs, in hours, days weeks, and months. A slow ping can mean DNS problems, backbone routing issues, or a problem on your end. Getting no response at all can mean an area wide outage, or an outage with your DSL line.

The BBR Line Monitoring Service can help us identify and single out the problems, since your ISP's site or customer support may not be aware of the issue. It is much easier to check the status page then to wait on hold or fish through an ISPs website.

So what do I need?

  1. A connection that is on 24/7, since that is the most effective way to monitor a connection. Those with Cable/DSL routers can take advantage of this easily, leaving the router on to be monitored. Those with out routers will need to leave their PCs running at all times, staying connected through PPPoE software.

  2. A BBR Line Monitoring Service Account . The service costs 1 Tool Point (approximately $1 per week). The first week is free. After the first week, you'll need to acquire Tool Points to continue participating. Your monitor will be terminated after the first week if you do not buy tool points.

    A very important factor is the way you setup the account. Even if you have a static IP, you must create the account as a dynamic IP. You have to check the dynamic box and enter your static IP. (Forget the "or" - do both) For security and privacy, BBR uses a cookie feature so that if you are logged in, only you can see your static IP graph. But for those that are not logged in, the graph is not visible, it will appear broken. So setting the graph to a dynamic IP will allow everyone to see the graph while the IP will remain hidden. If you have a static IP you do not need to run a DDNS client. Just set the monitor for "dynamic" and then type in your IP address in the "monitor this static address" box.



  3. The next step is to sign up. Send an Instant Message to jazzman916 with the following information:

    Your Username
    City/State
    ISP Name
    Connection Type (Cable, DSL, etc)
    Line type (static/dynamic)
    Line Speed
    Monitor Number (see example below)
    Setup (modem/router)



The Southeast/BBR Line Monitor is for informational purposes only and does not in any way replace official status reports or support from your ISP.


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by jazzman916 See Profile edited by lilhurricane See Profile
last modified: 2011-09-30 23:48:35