Lots of us have old computers that sit around collecting dust, or possibly even plugged in and running, “Just in case”. Lots of us have Comcast and are thus aware of the Unreliable Nature of Comcast. When you fall into both categories, I suggest you take it upon yourself to implement a monitoring system similar to mine.

It’s very simple: Set up the computer in a place where you can monitor it from your central pivot (i.e. near your mainly-used chair and primary workstation) and provide it with connectivity to your home network (and thus to the Internet).

Next, open four CMD / Shell / DOS windows. In each one, instantiate a continuous ICMP Ping to each of the following locations:
1. Your router, usually 192.168.1.1
2. Your modem, usually 192.168.100.1
3. Your server, or another computer on your network
4. Google, 72.14.253.103

The command-line parameter (read: “argument”) for a continuous ping is /t. Thus, if you want to ping Google continuously, you would enter the command: ping -t 72.14.253.103. I suggest using the IP instead of the DNS name to eliminate issues when resolving the hostname. After all, you are having intermittent Internet connectivity issues, right?

We know for a fact that Google will almost certainly be online; and that if it ever goes down the SNMP response to our ICMP packet will come from outside the local network and probably somewhere on AT&T or Level3. Thus opening these four windows on one screen provides simple network monitoring on a multi-network, inter-subnet basis.

For example, if you start seeing Ping timeouts to google, but your modem’s “Connected” or “Online” or “Cable” light is still on, you may need to power-cycle your router. Also, your modem may be in a location that’s difficult to access from your seat (Hey, that’s your own fault). This way you have easy access to the information.