[146658] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: Query : seeking a (low cost & secure) turnkey plug-and-play
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Kristian Kielhofner)
Thu Nov 17 16:04:13 2011
In-Reply-To: <5738C4CB-0114-40B7-9B6D-946F1DFD0104@stumpy.com>
Date: Thu, 17 Nov 2011 16:03:07 -0500
From: Kristian Kielhofner <kris@kriskinc.com>
To: "A. Chase Turner" <chase@stumpy.com>
Cc: nanog@nanog.org
Errors-To: nanog-bounces+nanog.discuss=bloom-picayune.mit.edu@nanog.org
On Thu, Nov 17, 2011 at 7:58 AM, A. Chase Turner <chase@stumpy.com> wrote:
> I am seeking a $100 turnkey micro hardware appliance to plug into a LAN h=
ub (behind a consumer-level cable modem) whose only purpose in life is to s=
end heartbeat (and simple quality of service metrics) to a pre-configured c=
entral aggregation service on the WAN.
>
> Key requirement is the micro hardware appliance will be installed by non-=
technical elderly end-users -- so, it must be pre-configured and literally =
plug and play without need for the person installing the appliance to open =
a web browser to configure. =A0And it must be a secure, good-reputation sta=
nd-alone hardware appliance ... because the heartbeat cannot / must not be =
a service installed on the end-user's computer where it becomes a support b=
urden (e.g., did the end-user turn off their computer? =A0Is their antiviru=
s software blocking the outgoing heartbeat? That the end-user needs to ente=
r a username/password/destination to enable the heartbeat, etc)
>
> There is a commercial turnkey solution that meets all the requirements ex=
cept one -- that the solution cannot exceed $100 per remote appliance =A0:
> =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0http://www.myconnectionserver.com/learnmore/quality.html
>
> Question to the list: do you know of an alternative hardware solution und=
er $100 that would suffice -- and be of such quality that an incumbent inte=
rnet service provider will not thumb their nose at me when I call in to rep=
ort remote users are down based upon the loss of heartbeats from the remote=
users?
>
> MOTIVATION FOR THE ABOVE
>
> Ten elderly neighbors to my mother in a rural area suffer frequent intern=
et outages from their one (and only) incumbent cable internet service provi=
der. =A0All of them have learned they will encounter one of the following r=
esponses :
>
> =A0"You are the only one reporting a problem"
> OR
> =A0"We need three reports before we take action"
> OR
> =A0"We fixed it. =A0You need to re-boot your modem. =A0(moments later aft=
er rebooting cable modem). =A0It must be your computer that is the problem.=
"
> OR
> =A0"We know there is a problem. =A0We'll send a crew out to repair the is=
sue next week"
>
> These 10 elderly neighbors are fuming ... and they recently formed a call=
tree -- so that when one person suffers an internet outage, they call othe=
r neighbors in the call tree to see if they too have an outage ... and if s=
o, each calls in an outage report (often 20 minutes of being placed on hold=
)
>
> The call tree is working (somewhat) to improve accountability and respons=
e by the cable service provider ... but it is a waste of their time as ther=
e is no formal "record" of outage events to spur the provider to provide re=
funds for unscheduled service outages. =A0 Thus, I am seeking a turnkey qua=
lity of service micro appliance that automates (and documents) service outa=
ge notifications .. so as to allow me (living in a city and my being on a d=
ifferent internet service provider) to take on the role of calling the rura=
l cable service provider and claim (with authority) that I know that 10 ind=
ividuals systems (who have the heartbeat appliance installed) are down and =
that the cable service provider needs to fix the issue...
>
>
OpenWRT running on one of these:
http://embeddedtimes.blogspot.com/2011/09/tp-link-tl-wr703n-tiny-linux-capa=
ble.html
I ordered mine from the Volume Rates link:
http://www.volumerates.com/product/genuine-tp-link-tl-wr703n-150m-11n-mini-=
wifi-wireless-router-for-instant-wifi-connection-99273
You could order all 10 for around $180 + shipping (straight from Hong
Kong). I have two, they're pretty awesome and potentially useful for
all kinds of things...
--=20
Kristian Kielhofner
