Introducing Extended reports

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(Note: FailPoints has been consolidated as part of OutagesIO)

If you are not aware, Echo Networks offers different versions of our Internet monitoring services and some of the features go well beyond Internet troubleshooting and monitoring.

Over the last several months, we've been working in the background combining code from these different versions to get to a unified base that could allow us to be more efficient in how we fix bugs, enhance and add new features. This has also opened the door to our being able to offer consumers, small business and IT people some exciting new features that only Enterprise customers enjoyed.

The difference between OutagesIO and FailPoints are mainly in how they are billed and having the ability to manage very large numbers of locations for organizations that need to ensure all of those locations are constantly up and running.

In terms of features, Enterprise members have an overview map that shows any and all locations experiencing problems along with being able to access remote locations without having to open firewall ports. Our Remote Access Service called RAS allows IT personnel to remotely access firewalls, routers at locations where they cannot or do not want to install additional software or where there are no PCs such as equipment rooms.

While some features will remain for Enterprise only, OutagesIO members will inherit new features when an agents reports are upgraded to Extended. The cost of extended reports is only $7.00/Month, a cost that can easily be passed on to customers or absorbed by saving time and money when using OutagesIO. You can also enable and disable Extended reports on an as needed basis.

Extended reports add all of the following new features.

Agents menu item

No matter if Basic or Extended, everyone now gets an exciting new feature. When you click on the Agents menu you will find columns called Nickname, Avg speed, Outages, Uptime and Downtime. You will also notice a time range selector on the top right hand side.

If you have one or more agents, you can now filter and sort based on how many outages your agent/s experienced or to easily see which locations are experiencing low bandwidth if speed testing is enabled. You can quickly see which agents/locations are experiencing the most problems and what type.

If you install agents at friends homes/offices in the same area, you'll have the ability to know exactly which providers are experiencing issues that affect more than your own location.

Historical / Trends

When Extended is enabled for an agent, a new menu called Historical become available. In the Basic reports, the last 50 events are shown because for most people that is enough information to know when, where and with whom they are having problems. For those that need to dig a little deeper however, more information is needed.

The historical menu offers an ongoing history of alerts, hops, outages, pings, speed testing and network stats. Each of these items show a full history of all activities since monitoring began with the agent. Unlike the Basic dashboard, the historical pages let you set a range up to one year to see what's happened and you can sort and filter as needed to find exactly what you are looking for. You will also see both a graph and a text version of the records to make it easier to isolate the data you are seeking.

Low bandwidth / alerts

Extended reports open an option called low bandwidth alerts in the Configure/Speed test page. The new feature allows the owner of this agent to receive alerts when speeds drop below a certain level. Set the bandwidth that is being paid for this location, then set a a low bandwidth limit.

For example, let's assume a location is supposed to be getting 50Mbps. After setting what this location should be getting, you then set a minimum limit that this location should get. Finally, set how often you would like the speed test run. If you set the limit to 20Mbps, a notification will be sent when bandwidth drops below 20Mbps.

You can also pick what you would like to be alerted to, baseline speed, outages, latency or slowdown.

Notifications

Basic reports: In the default Basic type agent and if enabled, notifications can be sent any time the agent is no longer able to communicate over the Internet. You have full control over enabling or disabling notifications. Up to three notifications are sent out to prevent spamming your inbox after which, you must manually re-enable inactive notifications.

Extended reports: When an agent is set to Extended, more control over notifications becomes possible. Here you can pick and choose the alerts you would like to receive along with specific events.

For example, you may find that inactive notifications are too frequent for your needs but you would still like to know if a location has stopped communicating. The next status after Inactive is Disconnected.

Perhaps you would prefer to be notified only about confirmed outages. Or perhaps you wish to set a certain combination, all under your control.

Here is the breakdown on some statuses.

ACTIVE = up to 19 sec

Agent is communicating

INACTIVE = from 20 sec to 29 min 59 sec

Agent has not communicated for around 20 seconds or so

DISCONNECTED = from 30 min to 29 days 23 hours 59 min 59 sec

Agent has not communicated for around 30 minutes or so.

ABANDONED = from 30 days on

After 90 days, an email is sent warning that Abandoned agent will be removed in 30 days.

You can read more about statuses here;
Howto: Internet outages, alerts and agent statuses

An agent running Extended reports gives you better control over what you would and would not like to be notified about.

OutagesIO Support