BBR Line MonitoringA closer look at one of our site tools ( old news - 08:00AM Sunday Aug 14 2005) tags: BBR-NewsHave you ever wanted to brag about your broadband connection's stability but lacked the proof? What about those days when your connection seems a little sluggish but you are not sure why? Did you ever get the impression that the ISP call center doesn't believe you really have a problem? Let's take a look at an easy way to compare your DSL, Cable, Satellite or other broadband connection with your neighbor across the street or around the globe. With BroadbandReports Line Monitoring you can have a wonderful diagnostic tool that provides detailed & reliable up-to-the-minute information about your connections. Continuous easy to read graphing setup for your convenience: BroadbandReports Line Monitoring provides you with Hourly, Daily, Long & Short Term reports. These diagnostic reports will arrive weekly in your email inbox and are available online anytime and look just like this one. You'll have an interesting way to instantly see how your line conditions compare with fellow members or neighbors. Some of our individual forums are already on board with Line Monitoring: The SBC Midwest - Ameritech forum has an Unofficial Status Page covering the service areas in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin. RadioDoc and lev can help get you added, step by step instructions can be found in the FAQ: Setup and How to Join Southeast City Chat - which covers States in the Southeastern US including Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Virginia, Tennessee, and Florida here: Southeast Forum Line Monitor Northern California City Chat - which has participants all over The Bay Area of San Francisco and beyond, located here: Northern California Forum Line Monitor We are also providing line monitoring for the active BellSouth Forum as shown here: BellSouth Forum Line Monitor So what do you need to get started? • 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 without routers will need to leave their PCs running at all times, staying connected through PPPoE software. • 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. *Note: Your monitor will be terminated after the first week if you do not buy tool points.. Here is a great way to help support the site while enjoying a super way to monitor your connection with the tools that only the pros use! For more information or assistance - or for inclusion to one of the above forums, please contact either: jazzman916 or lilhurricane. We'll be happy to get you started! 
The BBR Line Monitoring is for informational purposes only and does not in any way replace official status reports or support from your ISP. Thanks to RadioDoc and others who were integral in building the original concept.
*** The information in this article was put together by jazzman916 and lilhurricane. Related:- Weekend Open Thread
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  TheDreamer
join:2002-01-17 Manhattan, KS
·AT&T Southwest
| Good tool to show why my connection is bad, too. I liked using it to show my transfers were going badly at home....like before I got the WRT54GS w/Sveasoft, the ping times would vary depending on what was going on and it could make for a dramatic graph.
It could also illustrate a gripe with periodic outages.
Though not it seems to only be useful if you provide all 3 graphs to show that the blue spikes aren't at my end, but are at the monitoring sites.
The Dreamer -- You may be a dreamer, but I'm The Dreamer, the definite article you might say! | |
|  |  bored_in_nh
join:2003-01-04 Stamping Ground, KY | Re: Good tool to show why my connection is bad, too. It's a shame that this site promotes this tool, but Adelphia techs, both in the Adelphia forum and on the phone, dismiss it as inaccurate and misleading. -- Honor Indian Treaties | |
|  |  |   hobgoblin Sortof Agoblin Premium join:2001-11-25 Orchard Park, NY clubs:
1 edit | Re: Good tool to show why my connection is bad, too. Due to the configeration of certain networks the tool can and does give inaacurate and misleading results.
I dont believe any ISP should build a Troubleshooting plan around BBR as fine as the site is.
Hob -- "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
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|  |  |  |   Traal
join:2000-10-19 Mesa, AZ
·BroadVoice
| Re: Good tool to show why my connection is bad, to said by hobgoblin :Due to the configeration of certain networks the tool can and does give inaacurate and misleading results. I dont believe any ISP should build a Troubleshooting plan around BBR as fine as the site is. An ISP will do itself a disservice if it configures its network in a way that causes common troubleshooting tools to produce misleading results. Unless it educates the public why the results are misleading and/or takes the time and effort to provide better tools, it will continue to get bad publicity. -- /* The green code always compiles. */ | |
|  |   gheezer Compooters R Us Premium join:2002-12-20 Henrietta, NY
| Ever since the Nachi virus hit... Which caused so much damage using the ICMP protocol....networks around the world have taken to applying rate limits and filters on ICMP traffic at the edge of their networks. Simple ping usually works ok, but long streams of ICMP often triggers the filtering rules and can lead to erroneous data.
Maybe a small packet UDP tool wouldn't be subject to such filtering and rate limiting, but as long as ICMP is used, there will be situations where the resultant output is erroneous and possibly misleading.
GOLFnSUN , the kid on the phone probably doesn't HAVE direct access to the network and therefore is incapable of correctly diagnosing a core network issue, and they would DEFINATELY not be allowed to configure, modify, or re-engineer said network. The Kid on the phone usually does have some tools at his/her disposal to advise callers that there are known issues. beyond that, helping the caller with their own PC is about the extent of their capability. I say cut the kid some slack..he/she's doing the best they can. -- Join the NAVY, see the world....It's mostly water! | |
|  RadioDoc 58ef2c0 Premium,ExMod 2000-03 join:2000-05-11
·AT&T Midwest
1 edit | Geee thanks for ignoring us... (Edit: problem mentioned in this part of post has since been corrected by site management so it's irrelevant now.)
As a monitoring user for over five years now (two DSL connections and two web servers), let me tell you that this tool has become unreliable for anything but tracking trends in your own line over a very long time period. Lately the lines it monitors have been far more stable than the monitor watching them. Do NOT assume that your line has a problem unless there are several others in your area not showing the same latency spike, packet loss or connection defect. Until someone gets serious about fixing the issues with the monitors--especially the west coast servers--beware if you are east of the Mississippi. -- Let me see you make decisions, without your television. | |
|  |  Turbocpe Premium join:2001-12-22 IA
1 edit | Re: Geee thanks for ignoring us... Unfortunately I have to agree. The monitors haven't been reliable for me, and it appears packet loss is common on all the ones I've seen. The SJC line monitor shows packet loss often, and in fact, all the line monitors under the ISP I use (Mediacom/mchsi) all entries show some percentage of packet loss from that monitor. Been that way for some time now. The New Jersey shows some percentage of packet loss for most of the line monitors on Mediacom users here as well.
The lack of interest factor when presenting them to an ISP is something else I agree with that was mentioned by another in this topic. In the past, I've presented mine to my ISP a couple times to show all 3 show packet loss a few times. My ISP's only response has been that it is possible that networks out of their control are responsible, so they dismiss them rather quickly. | |
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