Subject: (usr-tc) Identifying Modem Problems

From: Kevin Hemsley <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 15 Sep 2000 19:12:49 +0000

We currently use a variety of methods to monitor service quality, including
SNMP polls and analysis of call statistics, MRTG graphing, etc.  In addition
to these, I  would like to find a tool to repetitively dial POPs to test for
various things: Ring-No-Answers, TCP/IP connectivity, Busy signals, etc.
Although rare, we have had cases where customers have found significant
problems that we had not yet identified.  Problems that I feel we should
have been able to identify faster than we did.  I was about to embark on a
Visual C++ project to build a tool to test POPs and alert us of anomalies.
Before I do, I wondered if anyone has seen software that already performs
these types of tasks?

Ultimately, it would be nice to have users with a dialer that automatically
reported dial-in statistics back to a server each time it successfully
connected.  This would provide real-time statistics from potentially
thousands of  "sensors".  The problem is that I haven't found a product that
has a price tag that we would even consider.  Is anyone using anything like
this?

----------------------------------
Kevin Hemsley
Systems Engineer
Microserv Computer Technologies, Inc.
[email-masked]
KB7TYA

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From: Mike Andrews <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 17 Sep 2000 09:25:45 +0000

Are you listening to SNMP traps?  Most of the problem detection you're
looking for can be done with that... fast-busies and ring-no-answers
usually show up as an SNMP trap also.  If for example you're running the
old DSP code with the infamous modems-failing-in-pairs problem, when a
customer hits a bad modem, the DSP will send a trap.  (I think -- it's
been a while.)  Ring-no-answer definitely sends a trap, something like
"inbound call failure" or "watchdog timeout" or some kinda packet bus
failure.  You can get traps when T1's go down or just get noisy
too... just gotta turn 'em on.

Of course the real challenge is finding SNMP trap listening software that
doesn't suck and that doesn't cost a fortune, which at least for Win32 I
have yet to find...

Regular busies should only happen if you're full, and MRTG oughta be able
to give you at least a rough count of used modems...  for testing IP
connectivity, there's always ping :)

Calling out to all your dialups should be easy enough, except that your
client modem isn't likely to be able to tell the difference between a fast
busy and a regular busy, so you don't know if you're full or if you've got
a dud DSP or PRI without checking a second source of info.  It's an
interesting idea though.

The only problem with doing that kinda thing at the client end is that
there's not a lot it can tell you when you're connected.  You could maybe
ping the other end and maybe get the (inaccurate as hell) initial connect
speed from Windows, but that's about it.  I'm not a Win32 programmer (I'm
a Perl+Unix guy) so I'm not even sure how you'd get that much.  There's
stats you can get from the modem after you hang up, but to get that your
program would have to know about every common chipset out there (USR,
Conexant, Lucent, Motorola, PCTel, Ambient, Multitech...) and the AT
commands to pull the stats up.

Mike Andrews (MA12) * [email-masked] * http://www.bit0.com/
VP, sysadmin, & network guy, Digital Crescent Inc, Frankfort KY
Dialup/ADSL/ISDN/T1 Internet access for Frankfort KY and surrounding counties
www.fark.com: If it's not news, it's Fark.  (Or something like that.)

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