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How the Raspberry Pi Can Automatically Tweet Complaints About Your Slow Internet (ibtimes.co.uk)
An anonymous reader writes: Contacting your internet provider to complain about slow browsing speeds is a tiresome chore which none of us enjoy, but one man has found a solution. He has configured a Raspberry Pi computer to automatically tweet a complaint to Comcast when his internet falls below 50Mbps, well below the 150Mbps he pays for. Wouldn't it be nice if ISPs wrote a rebate check each month to reflect the percentage of their promised throughput that was actually available?
I'm not sure I would use a Raspberry Pi to do this myself tbh - when I was using one as a DLNA server, ethernet throughput was horrific even on a 100MBit switch, so much so that I moved the whole set to something else. Wasnt that specific board or OS either.
Can't trust the results when you can't trust the device producing the results imho.
Not too sure about the rest of the world, but in South Africa the adverts in fine print say "UP TO (x)Mbps".
So if your service is slower, it still falls into their accepted limits ...
I'm not sure I would use a Raspberry Pi to do this myself tbh - when I was using one as a DLNA server, ethernet throughput was horrific even on a 100MBit switch, so much so that I moved the whole set to something else.
If I remember right all of the ports on the Raspi (except for the GPIO pins) go through USB 2 connections, and even then I get the impression it doesn't come anywhere near the usual throughput for USB 2. This is why people regularly recommend against using the Pi for things like a home-made NAS: it's not just that you can't connect a HDD directly through SATA, even if you connect through USB file transfer speeds are poor.
For a simple speed test the Raspberry Pi might well suffice. I'd be interested in this Internet monitor if it could perform a few more checks. We offer WiFi in a few of our rental properties, and it's frustrating when the tenants complain about intermittent connectivity issues or slowness: by the time I get to the property, the problems have of course magically disappeared. Besides I don't want to get up at all hours to go and check the equipment. Would be great to have a Raspberry Pi monitoring the WiFi and wired connections and performance, logging the results.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
Would be great to have a Raspberry Pi monitoring the WiFi and wired connections and performance, logging the results.
Attach an ESP-01 to the Raspberry Pi. Write all your WiFi test code on the ESP. Access it through the serial interface. The stock firmware might actually suffice, since it does WiFi stuff with AT commands. The ESP is $2.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
My advertised speed is 50 and I get 150 (and yeah, it's Comcast).
My advertised speed is 6, but my WISP was giving me about 1 and about 10% packet loss for over a week, and arguing with me about it. Using ye olde ping command I could see clearly that the problem was in their network (probably in the first radio shack, there are 4 microwave hops before their actual uplink) and they STILL argued with me about it extensively.
It's nice that you're not having problems, but why don't you smeg off and let the people who are have a discussion?
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Certainly there's nothing special about a Raspberry Pi for such purposes, but they are common and inexpensive. I just wish that Pi Zeros were actually available. I've got some old webcams I'd love to turn into security cameras...
PHEM - party like it's 1997-2003!
Yes, and there are better tools for the job. If you're doing something network intensive, the beaglebone black has capabilities similar to the pi, but an ethernet interface that doesn't go through USB and which can max out 100Mbps for about the same price as the pi. (It's also more open, but the pi is better for graphics-intensive applications. Pick the right tool for the job.)