Information and Support

The update fixes a number of small bugs, normalizes the version number, and adds a powerful new feature for the Windows agent.

Windows wireless (Wi-Fi) adapter monitoring

Our new Wi-Fi Monitoring Tool is here to make troubleshooting wireless network issues easier and faster.

Whether you’re an IT support professional helping remote workers or just trying to keep a home network running smoothly, this tool gives you real-time insights into critical network performance details like signal strength, packet loss, and latency.

With this information, you can quickly pinpoint and fix problems without the usual trial-and-error approach.

Designed to be practical and straightforward, this tool is perfect for tackling common Wi-Fi frustrations like weak connections, slow speeds, or devices switching between access points.

It’s especially helpful for remote troubleshooting, letting you see exactly what’s happening with a user’s connection so you can save time and avoid unnecessary on-site visits.

Whether you’re managing a corporate network or optimizing your home setup, this tool gives you the details you need to keep Wi-Fi working its best.

While this is in our Windows only agent at this time, it will be introduced into our Linux version in the near future.

Blog article posted here

When going to this page, the first item you'll see is any ports down and needing attention in the 'Currently down' box. If the box shows zero, then all of your ports are up and available.

If any are down, this number will show how many and next to this, in the 'Down ports details', the ports that need attention.

Below this section, you'll find three simple graphs that give you a visual representation of how your monitored ports are performing.

The first graph shows which ports are the most problematic, then the average time that certain ports are down and finally, the average amount of time each port is down.

The next section is your raw data showing filterable details.

IP address
Some people have changing IP addresses and are likely using DDNS services. This column shows what the IP address was at the time of the port outage which could be useful information in some cases.

Note that yellow colored IP address entries mean that the IP changed while the port was still being monitored as being down. This is reflected in no entries being entered into the last three columns and the next new line is the continuation of the port being monitored using the new IP address.

Protocol
Currently, only TCP is supported. UDP could be added if there is enough demand for it.

Port
The port being monitored.

Port status
In most cases, this will show 'closed' as this was the result of the last scan. On some cases, the port may show as 'open' meaning that the scan may have occurred in a way that allowed the port to be seen as back online depending on the last scan timing.

Port service
This indicates the typical well known service name for the port. In some cases, this can be ignored if you are doing something custom.

First down
Shows when the port was first found to be unreachable.

Last down
Shows the last scan date/time when the port continued to be actively monitored as being down. In some cases, depending on the next scan timing, both the Last down and one of the remaining three ports could have the same date/time. This simply means the event ended with one of the following conditions.

Back up
The port was found to be back up or online and available again.

Cleared
Not used in this application. Allows for a software based entry.

Removed
The port was removed from the scanning list and is no longer being monitored.

Note that scanning times are based on your settings which must be kept in mind when looking at reports. In other words, a scan may have happened 30 seconds ago or will happen in the next five minutes, depending on your settings. The scanning cannot be done in real time as this would be an inappropriate use of the Internet and scanning policies.

Note also that we use a TCP based scanning method to again be Internet friendly.

OutagesIO Introduces our host monitoring feature

Do you offer web / online services on the Internet? Do you install security systems, TeleHealth hardware, or other devices at remote locations and are responsible for ensuring those assets are always available?

If you have services or devices that must be reached 24/7, then you know how important it is to be alerted quickly if something becomes unreachable. In some cases, it may even be critical.

If you run a Windows or Linux host, then our new Host monitoring service goes beyond simply making sure your services are up. If you install an agent on your host, you gain monitoring from inside and outside.

We are now completing phase one of our new host monitoring feature.

As with most features we introduce into the service, the one thing we need is member feedback. Without it, we must make decisions on how certain things will work, imposing reasonable limits that should work for most.
When designing, it is always better to have input so we can better understand how our members will be using the features.

Your input is needed here

While designing the host monitoring service, one unknown is how to notify users about problems. Our goal is always to give users as much control as possible with a balance meant to ensure other members are not affected.

For now, we have implemented the following logic.

1 You can be notified on a per port basis if needed.
2 TCP only and possibly adding UDP if there is enough need for it.
3 Notification settings
No
When DOON
When UP
Both when DOWN and back UP

If enabling Notify, be sure to set Host monitoring in your Notifications.
We currently limit outgoing emails to 3 to prevent spamming mail servers and getting our services blocked which would affect other members.

Too often, when members leave, instead of disabling their notifications, they tend to flag incoming emails as spam. After a while, the mail service starts blocking emails from our network potentially causing other members to no longer receive their notifications.

Our logic is that anyone monitoring for problems would probably want to check their dashboard for more details after any event and so one to three emails should be more than enough to notify someone about problems.

After the limit has been sent, emails are then stopped until they are reset.

The feature is brand new and there may be bugs or logic problems we could not find while testing so appreciate your feedback.

You can find the feature by going to your Configure menu, then clicking on Host monitoring.

Please feel free to share your thoughts on this new feature so that we can make it as usable as possible for you.

https://support.outagesio.com/topic/303/host-monitoring-monitor-hosts-online-services-from-inside-and-out

Host / online services monitoring with a twist

Typical host monitoring services monitor your services from one or more remote locations, alerting you to services/applications becoming unreachable. This means a test is being run from an external source to your resources.

OutagesIO goes one step further. By installing our Windows/Linux agent directly on your host, and enabling host monitoring, you not only monitor to ensure that your services are online but also how your hosting provider is performing, ensuring reliable hosting services.

Installing an agent on your host is not covered in this help but help is provided when you create an agent from your dashboard. If you rent a small rack for example, then you could opt for our hardware agent.

Enable/Disable
When enabled, with ports set, OutagesIO will begin monitoring the ports you want to be alerted about if they become unreachable.
When you disable the feature, the ports will remain but monitoring will be suspended.

How often
While we all must monitor anything we make available online, checking it every few seconds can waste resources. Instead, it is better to set a reasonable response time depending on the nature of our services.

We suggest using a delay such as every half hour or every hour while using shorter delays when testing something.

Port
Enter here the port of the service/application that you wish to monitor.

Protocol
Select TCP or UDP depending on what you are monitoring.

Using both unless you understand how UDP works is a waste of resources. Only those using specifically UDP ports should enable UDP.

Note: This early version does not allow selecting UDP.

Notify
Do you wish to be notified if this port becomes unreachable?

This option is tied to your Notifications options. If you enable Notify, then you must also set your Notifications.

No means you will check events in your dashboard regularly.

When DOWN means you want to be notified.

Clear
To clear a port and its settings from the list, simply click on the Clear button and it will be removed from your scan list when you click on Save.

Save
After setting each port to be monitored or clearing ports, click the Save button to keep this configuration.

@jfadams321, we are happy to help you. We don't want to see these agents got to waste.
Can you please contact us using the support form on our www.outagesio.com site and we'll be happy to get in touch with you.

The Prestaging dashboard is the first step toward monitoring your Internet.

After installing your agent, you want to make sure that it is correctly communicating with our service before setting up a subscription for it.

If there is a problem, the dashboard will show a link to help, and you can post in our forums if needed.

Once your agent is fully communicating, a green bar will show letting you know that you can now license it to start receiving and showing its reports.

Note that a username and password were automatically created for you in our forums using the same information you used on this site.

Simply log in to post questions or if you need any help.

A new version has been released which addresses false reports of gateway outages instead of external ones in certain cases.

Please upgrade as soon as possible.

A bug recently came to our attention where in some cases, outages were being reported as being local but were not.

After some long hours of testing, we think we have found the problem and a fix. However, we need your help to confirm that the problem is solved.

If you are interested in providing us feedback, we would be happy to provide you with a test version for your platform.

For Windows only members, please respond here with your agent ID and we'll send you a link with the details.

Once the Windows version is known to work, we will release the other platforms which are usually auto updates for those members.

This is the Prestaging page.

This page replaces what used to be known as the Community reports.

This page is to ensure that your agent is communicating properly before upgrading to create the dashboard and start receiving/showing data.

Note that when first installed, it takes a little time (days) for data to start showing in all sections of your dashboard.

Missing hops warning

Before a new agent can be licensed, it must be communicating correctly with our network.

When installed correctly, the OutagesIO agent will troubleshoot your Internet service and provider automatically, logging all problems and showing them in your dashboard.

No hops and/or no pings

If you do not see 'sending updated hops' in the Recent Events, Agent Communications section or pings in the Pings graph section, it means your agent is not working correctly.

One of the tests involved in connectivity monitoring is source/destination ICMP.
If your agent cannot fully communicate with our network, it will not be able to log and confirm problems for you.

The most common reason for this problem is failing to use the Administrator account when installing our software.

MUST install with full admin privileges

If installed on Windows, you must be logged in with FULL administrator privileges.

Installing without full administrator rights typically prevents the installer from updating the Windows firewall to give the agent ICMP access to the Internet.

This would prevent the agent from running some of the tests required to detect Internet problems.

Some reasons why ICMP could be blocked include;

Firewall/virus scanner

The Windows machine running the agent may be blocking ICMP with its firewall or virus scanner. The rule may not have been added during the installation stage.

Network firewall

No matter if using our PC software or our hardware agent, the local network router/modem firewall may be blocking ICMP.

How do I know when my agent is working properly?

You will know when your agent is communicating correctly once you see 'sending updated hops' in the Recent Events section of your dashboard and pings coming into the Pings graph further down the same page.

Once your agent is communicating correctly, you will be able to see the 'License your agent' option to finalize the installation and start monitoring your Internet and service provider.

If you have problems solving this issue, please feel free to post in our forums and we will try to help you.

Notice to our valued members

To offer all members a feature-rich experience, we're transitioning our Community reports into a staging view.

The change is that the Community reports as you see them now will no longer be in this view. Instead, the page will become the staging view, to ensure that an agent is configured, ready to communicate, and therefore ready to be licensed.

Licensing means upgrading to our Extended reports with a subscription, unlocking all the features designed to elevate your experience.

Why the Change?

We're committed to continuously improving and adapting to meet our customers demands.

Our Community view does not provide all of what OutagesIO can do for you while our Extended reports have everything we offer. We would prefer that all of the work we put into this service be seen and available to everyone.

We find that many people use the service to solve their problems and then leave without providing us any feedback whatsoever. Feedback and input is what we thrive on and need to continue improving our services.

In addition, our costs keep going up, and providing a free community version at this time is no longer possible. This is something we will review in the future as we have always wanted to offer a free version of our services to help consumers.

This evolution reflects our dedication to delivering top-tier service and sustainable growth, benefiting our members.

What This Means for You

More features, more value: With our subscription model, you'll gain access to advanced tools and reports, making troubleshooting a breeze, including automated speed testing.

A commitment to quality

Your subscription supports ongoing enhancements and ensures we can keep delivering the high-quality service you deserve.

New Pricing, Same Exceptional Service

Our adjusted pricing will become $5.95/month, a small change for a big upgrade in service and features that remain below our previous rate.

Subscriptions will be grandfathered

Any new subscriptions started before the pricing change of Dec 15th, 2023, will continue at the $4.00 rate until canceled by the member. When the pricing changes, all new agent subscriptions will be at the new pricing.

Your subscription is an investment in a hassle-free, effective solution that saves you time and frustration by automating what can be a time-consuming task, monitoring your Internet and provider for performance data.

Subscriptions help us to support members, improve, and add features in an economy where we have seen practically all of our costs going up, some, multiple times.

We're excited to make these changes and we hope you will be also.

Warm regards,
OutagesIO Support Team

We recently became aware of a download issue affecting our Windows .MSI agent. This issue was thankfully reported by a member of our community. Without their help, we would not have known about this issue for some time.

We appreciate your help in reporting any problems you encounter with our services. You can report problems using the "Report problem" button or our forums. No problem report goes unnoticed, and we work hard to fix problems as quickly as possible.

Thank you for your continued support.

Hi, if you try again, I think you'll find that it's working now.

I'll post something about it in a minute.

Thank you very much for reporting this.

We're happy to share that a new version of our agent, 1.79.2302, is now available!

What's exciting about this is that it took us a while, but now, all our platforms have the same version number.
This matters because, in the past, some features were available on some platforms but not on others. Now, all the new features we've released over the past two years are included in every platform.

For example, when you run automated speed tests, you'll not only see your download speeds but also your upload speeds and how fast your internet responds (latency) during the test.

We used to miss recording very short outages (less than 10 seconds) on some platforms, but now we'll catch even one-second outages.

We've also fixed bugs and made improvements, even if you can't see them directly. The end result is that our tracking is better, and the results you get are more reliable.

Windows agent

As usual, to update Windows versions, simply visit your dashboard, click on Manage, and then Re-install to get the new version. Be sure any old version has been removed before running the new install or that the installer removed it automatically.

Linux agent

For Linux and others, always check this forum section for updates or create a new software agent to see if the starter.sh file is the same as your version is.

To update, use the 'Create software agent' function from the Agents page. If the starter.sh is newer, copy the code into your existing starter.sh, making sure to keep any changes you had previously made.
Kill any currently running agent then run the new starter.sh which will download the newest version automatically.

Ongoing development behind the scenes

Even though you might not notice it, our OutagesIO developers are always working hard to support both our paid members and our free Community members.

The costs of developing and maintaining our service keep going up, but we've kept our prices very low.

We'd really appreciate it if long-time members who have enjoyed our Community reports for years consider getting a subscription. This helps us keep providing assistance to anyone who needs it with our free community version.

Thank you for being a part of OutagesIO.com!

All versions of our software now have downloads, uploads and latency in the results.

This is something that had not been unified across all versions until now.

We recently added a wireless access point function to some of our hardware agents. If you have a hardware agent, when you visit the Configure, Wireless page, you'll find a newly updated page.

Every network is different. If you have a wireless enabled hardware agent, and with Extended reports, then you now have an additional mode of operation available to you, the Access Point.

Wired Mode
Wired mode is always the preferred mode unless you specifically wish to monitor WiFi services or it is the only option you have. It is particularly useful when you want to keep a close eye on the stability and performance of your wired network. It helps you ensure smooth operations, troubleshoot issues promptly, and maintain a reliable connection.

WiFi Mode
Switching to wireless mode allows the agent to monitor wireless Internet services, including LTE 4G/5G connections. This mode is ideal for situations where you need comprehensive monitoring capabilities across different types of network connections. Whether you rely on wired or wireless services, the agent keeps a vigilant eye on your WiFi Internet connectivity, providing valuable insights and alerts.

Wired with Access Point Mode
If you add our smart devices but lack a local WiFi access point, the hardware agent offers one. By enabling this option, the agent becomes an access point itself, allowing your smart devices to connect and access the Internet.

This feature is particularly useful in locations where either there is no access point available, or you prefer not to use the local one and want to connect wireless devices.

In Access Point mode, the agent will use its LAN interface as the default route and offer a WiFi hotspot. There must be a DHCP server on the LAN upstream and enough IPs for the number of devices you will connect.

All dashboard driven

To configure your hardware agent to use your wireless network, you'll use these settings. Once saved, the agent will automatically change from wired to wireless mode. You will know the agent is now using your wireless by checking its LAN IP in your dashboard.

To configure your hardware agent to offer an access point, you'll use these settings. Again, once saved, the agent will automatically make the changes in the background.

Don't miss out, order your hardware agent today and use it with our free service or upgrade to take advantage of our new Access Point feature.

Our (yellow, V2) hardware agent has been updated to our newest firmware.

The new agent adds a lot of new features and one of those is the addition of upload speeds and latency during speed testing along with the usual download speed.

For those that didn't get the update due to missing email, we also reached out to you using a gmail account. If you check there, you'll find instructions on how to get your agent back online and running the new firmware.

If you own one of our yellow hardware agents, then you probably know that you can connect a video camera to the device. Once connected, you can view the video on your LAN or you can open a firewall port to view the video from remote.

We recently started testing the ability to take snapshots and is something you can play with any time if you own a hardware agent. The agent is yellow and you'll see a model number ending in V2 on the back label. If you have that, you have these features.

Since we're only testing, there are some limitations such as being able to store only 5 images at a time, and deleting them as needed.
We've also fixed the image size for now but these and many other functions could be enabled.

Possible limitations;

-Could not take snaps a high rates as this would not only fill databases but use up a lot of data and bandwidth.

Possible uses include;

-Timed image snaps for security checks.
-Motion based snaps for security alerts.
-Series of snaps to show a time based occurrence without using video.

What other ideas might you have for a feature like this?
How could you put something like this to good use?
What kinds of limitations would be acceptable to you?

Note that at this time, it can take up to 30 seconds for an image to be shown in your dashboard and that's because we're not sending the request for a snapshot in real time so the request gets to the agent only when it's checking in for config changes every 15 seconds or so.

We're feeling good about the upcoming year and want to end this one with a special offer for our members.

Right now, prices have been lowered to only $4.00 month or $48.00 for the year.

Take advantage of this special offer as we don't know how long it will last.

Happy holidays!

This is one of our most important releases to date.

It not only fixes a number of issues but should also be much more reliable as a service.

Please use the Manage function to upgrade asap.

The new version has been improved in the following ways.

-Improved thread management was a core requirement in order to prevent the potential loss of occasional data being sent to dashboard.

-Improved Windows service function to prevent the service from potentially stopping on some Win machines.

-For those using Extended reports, automated speed testing now shows downloads, uploads and latency.

We are working on an update for all our supported platforms and each will be released after testing is completed.

Our goal is to get to a 'final' version where most if not all of the updates from that point on would be if an operating system changes and we need to update the agent.

This page shows any and all IoT devices you have installed and which agent dashboard each is assigned to.

Each device can have its own Nickname or friendly name to more easily remember what and where the device is.

In the above image, you see this member has four IoT devices. The member just received his devices and has activated them to their account.

Only one device is associated to an agent dashboard and the member will associate the rest with either the same agent or another.

Clicking on the Actions, Dashboard icon takes you directly to the devices details. Here you'll find both information about the device and its settings along with control options.

Clicking on the Actions, Update icon allows you to change a few settings as described below.

In addition to having the ability to control the device from this page, controls are also made available in the dashboard of the agent that you have assigned the device to.

The purpose behind assigning the device to an agent dashboard has two functions.

First, most people will want to control smart devices installed at the same location where the Internet is being monitored. As such, controls are made available in the same dashboard of the agent that is at the same location.

Second, the OutagesIO network will recognize when an IoT device has not communicated in a certain amount of time based on your Telemetry Period.

This can help to confirm that your Internet monitoring agent is reliably observing disconnections and other problems.
Therefore, running both an agent and at least one IoT device at the same location can help improve overall monitoring results.

Columns are explained as follow.

Telemetry period
The device is set to check in every x seconds/minutes. When it checks in, it sends its current status to update the database about any changes.

This is also the period of time that is used for OutagesIO to recognize that the device has not checked in.
If the device has not checked in at least twice, it will be flagged as having an Offline status.

At this point, either the Internet connection is experiencing problems or the device itself has lost network access.

For Community level reports, the Telemetry Period is set to the OutagesIO default of five minutes.
For Extended level reports, a drop down allows changing the Telemetry Period if needed.

This is important when monitoring a critical location where faster reporting may be needed.

Status
Based on the above checks, the status will be either Online or Offline if it has not checked in as stated in the Telemetry Period.

ID
This is the ID of the IoT device. When posting for help, please include the ID so that support can look it up to help you.

Nickname
You may set a Nickname by clicking on the edit pencil icon that can be used to identify this device using a friendly name.

Model
The model is used by OutagesIO to keep track of the various hardware that we sell.

Time zone offset
All devices are set to UTC time and converted to your time based on the timezone that the agent was set for.

Actions
Mousing over the icons will show their function.
The first one is the dashboard of the device and the second is the edit option to change Nickname and optionally change the Telemetry Period.