prairiesky
join:2008-12-08
Springstein, MB
| outage system
So I'm providing service to a remote area which seems to be greatly affected in one way or another every time a storm goes though. Either the power goes out upstream or like today, where lightning took out a dragon wave radio! This is all on my providers system, which isn't technically my problem, but is because i'm left with no service.
how do you guys tell people that service is down? Right now, I change my voice mail, and let all calls go to it.
I'm using pf sense as my main router, and would really like it if I could have it redirect to a certain information page if there is no connection. Anyone have any thoughts?
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trc120
join:2006-02-01
Mosier, OR | For a quick informational, turn on the captive portal and make a special webpage for the portal stating the outage.
This is only a manual temporary solution however.
Todd
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www.MoWiNet.com - Maximizing the Distance |
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dr mongolia
join:2008-07-03
United State
 ·Cox HSI
| reply to prairiesky
I've never used PF Sense but looks like its based on BSD? If so you could easily do this using ipfw. I do something similar on my routers using iptables. They run a crontab script every minute that checks the uplink and DNS servers. If the check fails, then the script 1) starts a small http server (i use lighttpd), and 2) enters an iptables redirect for all port 80 traffic to the routers ip. The next time the check succeeds, it deletes the iptables redirect and kills the web server. Of course you'll also need an index.html file in the web server's www directory with the outage message.
One thing I learned quick is to mention on the captive portal page that you've already been notified about the outage. Otherwise people will call anyway -- "What's with this webpage I keep getting that says the Internet is down??"
As for the phone, you might want to look at kall8.com. You can get a 1-800 number from them for cheap and have all customer support go through that number. It'll let you play whatever greeting message you want when the customer first dials in, and it's quick/easy to change the message. It also has all the benefits you'd expect from a 1-800 number -- you can completely control call routing, record calls, view usage/statistics, etc.
Whenever we have an outage I call in and change the greeting message -- "Please be advised we are currently experiencing outages in the following areas... [...] We are currently working towards resolution on these issues, but unfortunately we do not have an estimated time of repair." I've found that the second part makes a pretty big difference, because otherwise people will still hang on the line just to ask "how much longer". |
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prairiesky
join:2008-12-08
Springstein, MB | reply to prairiesky
that's exactly what I'm looking for!!
Interested in setting it up for me on 3 routers? |
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dr mongolia
join:2008-07-03
United State
·Cox HSI
| I've got over a decade of intense linux experience but very little with BSD. If you've got a good bit of experience with your routers we could probably figure it out together pretty easily and post the solution here for others, I'm sure it'll help someone else as well. Plus we might get some additional ideas for the portal. |
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prairiesky
join:2008-12-08
Springstein, MB | reply to prairiesky
I can program pfsense, and work in linux a bit. I've got no problems setting up a dummy box to test it on either. I'm sure it would be a great feature to add as a package to pf sense. |
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gunther_01
Premium
join:2004-03-29
Saybrook, IL
| reply to prairiesky
Any way you can do a cheap back up like DSL or Cable modem?
I do a few different things with outages just with the telephone system message and things. I also have another web server I could do what others are talking about. But for me, I am too busy to do most of that as I am trying to get service back up, and or switching to our back up source if it is a head end Internet feed problem. |
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prairiesky
join:2008-12-08
Springstein, MB
| reply to prairiesky
there is no other option out there. The only thing I can think of is a Cell air card. Basically there are 2 providers out there, (god know how, we were first in) and we're both buying our signal from the same place. This place is 4 wireless hops through bush to the nearest fiber and while they're networks are built quite well, dragon waves, ptp 600's etc. They can't do much when the power goes out long term.
There is no dsl, there is Ethernet at a ridiculous cost! $1200/month for 2 meg w/ 60 gigs transfer. So that isn't happening.
other than that, it's air card or satellite |
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iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Golden, CO
·Comcast
 ·Qwest.net
 ·magicjack.com
 ·BeeCreek Communica..
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
| reply to dr mongolia
With regard to the web server, for static stuff (like an outage notification page) nginx uses very, very little CPU and memory so it might be a nice fit for such notifications. That's if nginx is easily usable in BSD...I just run it on a rew Ubuntu VPSes. |
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gunther_01
Premium
join:2004-03-29
Saybrook, IL
| reply to prairiesky
Bum deal. Not much you can do with a lightning strike, but power is something to work on I guess. If I read that right you two companies in this town, or what not, are using the same feed?
If so maybe the two of you can go in on some larger UPS's or direct DC system to prolong equipment uptime during those outages. Air card is definitely possible with windows ICS and a small XP machine. I know it isn't ideal, but I pretty well had to get a back up at some point. I couldn't stand being down very long. Especially the larger I grew. Depends on your customer base and their willingness to be down. |
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prairiesky
join:2008-12-08
Springstein, MB
| reply to prairiesky
That's correct, my competitor and I are using the same feed. We're buying from a wholesale source, which I stupidly told them about sort of. I'm not going to justify their business. I'd rather do my own thing so that I'm still up when they are down, even if it's slow.
I might do the air card trick. I can get a cheap one for $25/month plus .10/meg. My traffic flows really aren't that heavy and if it's down for a while, I'll pay a little overage. |
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gunther_01
Premium
join:2004-03-29
Saybrook, IL
| reply to prairiesky
Depending on your NOC situation, a small form factor PC with slot for a full sized air card with external antenna would be simple. Set up a couple masq rules in your head end router that are commented out until you need them. Add another ethernet IP or interface with IP for your backup.
Your feed goes down, plug in the other Internet feed, or leave it connected. un comment the masq rules, and change your gateway. That's what I had to do for a while LOL. You can also get some boxes that do this for you automatically if you want to add another box or can handle the expense. |
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parkland
join:2009-07-16
Rossburn, MB
| reply to prairiesky
For better power redundancy,
I'd recommend a custom UPS job....
Underground AGM battery, inverter, and a special charge conrtoller. Sort of like my solar power package, but using 120VAC instead of panels, that way you can give it as much run time as you need, using modular components that are more rugged than a UPS.
As for lightning strikes and outages upstream, your aircard idea is awesome, although I'd try to find a way of having an external high gain antenna. This setup would also be awesome to log in remotely and see the system status if things were not working well.
my .02$ |
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