[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.

The probe data is known for each ISP, so a probe can be pre-configured by
an ISP.   Lots of ISPs send modems to their users, the probe can be included
in this shipment.   Also, this particular ISP sends an engineer (for a fee)
to the user to configure his connection.   In that case, the probe can be
configured on the spot.

>> 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 is true.

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

Well, yes, in this case you limit the test suite, though I still think
that the remaining tests would be useful.

Henk

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Henk Uijterwaal                           Email: henk.uijterwaal(at)ripe.net
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