[atlas]While debugging my dad's network at home...

Hi,

> Anyway, what I think would be really cool for probe hosts is if the probe
> could give a little bit more information about the network where it is in
> and present that in a way understandable to the user.  For example:
> 
>   * Probe has local address      Yes/No
>   * Probe sees local gateway     "
>   * Probe has Internet access
>   * Pings to XX works
>   * DNS query works
>   * IMAP server responds
>   * SMTP server responds
>   * Popular website responds
>   * SIP server responds
>   * ...

Note: there are a bunch of inputs here that would have to be pre-defined by
the user. I'm not convinced that a casual user, for whom this would be
useful, would ever define these in advance.

> with the list pre-configured for the ISP of the user (or some way to
> configure that yourself).
> 
> On the probe, run a webserver such that http://10.0.0.139 points you
> to the list showing you a list of "yes"/"no"'s.

This would mean that the probe offers some externally accessible services.
That doesn't sound too scary for firewalled/NATed ones, but generally
enabling this would mean handling permissions, ACLs and such.  And a whole
lot of probe capacity taken away for something that may never be used.

One could drive this through the website, execute the tests on demand, but
that wouldn't work while a genuine network problem is happening.

> Advantages:
> 
> * For the end user: if all items are yes, then that shows that there
>   is nothing wrong on the user side and no action has to be taken.
> 
> * For the helpdesk when debugging the problem: the answer to a number
>   of routine questions is there, without having to explain how to
>   check things.

I agree with these advantages. Still, we'll have to see if they outweigh the
disadvantages.

Cheers,
Robert

> Henk
> 
>