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How the Raspberry Pi Can Automatically Tweet Complaints About Your Slow Internet (ibtimes.co.uk)

Posted by timothy on from the should-be-built-into-every-modem dept.

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?

18 of 154 comments (clear)

  1. Unbelievable! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    This Raspberry Pi device has to have something really special inside! I am shocked.

  2. Yeah, automated tweeting to PR mouthpiece... by SeaFox · · Score: 4, Funny

    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'd like a pony, too.

    #stupidstory #shouldstayinfirehose #thankstimmy

    1. Re:Yeah, automated tweeting to PR mouthpiece... by Richard_at_work · · Score: 4, Interesting

      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.

    2. Re:Yeah, automated tweeting to PR mouthpiece... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      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.

    3. Re:Yeah, automated tweeting to PR mouthpiece... by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 3, Interesting

      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...
    4. Re:Yeah, automated tweeting to PR mouthpiece... by drinkypoo · · Score: 3, Interesting

      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.'"
    5. Re:Yeah, automated tweeting to PR mouthpiece... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 3, Informative

      I've noticed that some ISPs sometimes cheat on these tests anyway. For example, my connection sometimes benchmarks at 150Mb/sec down, but actually there is massive packet loss on some protocols (e.g. VPN, seems basically anything UDP related is screwed except for DNS) and downloads never get anywhere near.

      I'm sure my ISP would call it traffic management, and it just so happens that speedtest.net servers are heavily optimized for throughput and low ping times.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    6. Re:Yeah, automated tweeting to PR mouthpiece... by virtual_mps · · Score: 3, Interesting

      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.)

    7. Re:Yeah, automated tweeting to PR mouthpiece... by Lumpy · · Score: 2

      Why?

      Just use the ESP-01 with NodeMCU and let it do the whole job on it's own. no need for anything else attached to it except power Works great for a tiny $7.00 (with power supply) wifi canary.

      When the public wifi goes offline or has a problem getting out, it then connects to the private lan and then issues the email to tech support.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  3. Re:Promises, promises by Mashiki · · Score: 2

    I'm sure what they promise in the fine print is to do their best to try and deliver you atleast some fraction of the advertised bandwidth some of the time.

    For the most part yep. There may be a minimum required speed in some places, but overall there isn't anything in law that actually says that they "have to" unlike the old dial-up days, where phone lines had to maintain a minimum of 2400 baud, then 9600 baud and later 14.4k. The law is way behind on this stuff, then again the law was way behind roughly 12 years in the case of dial-up when the minimum requirements were introduced into either law/consumer protection codes/industry requirement codes/etc. Give it another 4-5 years and you'll probably start seeing something happen.

    --
    Om, nomnomnom...
  4. Re:Oblig by MPBoulton · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You must be new here....

    Doesn't this miss the point? ISP's will carry on with this sort of behaviour if everyone just lies down and takes it.

    The regulators should of course be doing more, but this sounds like a very useful way to at least increase the hassle the ISP must go through to provide less than a third of their advertised speed.

  5. Advertised Speed by MadX · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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 ...

  6. Promised throughput by NormalVisual · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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?

    They do if you want to negotiate a SLA that guarantees it, but that tends to be kinda expensive for the average residential customer. Otherwise you get best-effort.

    --
    Please stand clear of the doors, por favor mantenganse alejado de las puertas
  7. Re: Oblig by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.'"
  8. Re: Mildly interesting but, by n0creativity · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't get the RasPi hate in this thread. The Pi is clearly not intended for applications such as a high powered NAS, but I've got 3 RasPi 2's running OSMC\Kodi as media centers on my TVs and they do awesome streaming full HD movies and TV shows from my 16TB piecemeal server! Of course, once 4k becomes more prevalent, I'm going to have to make a change, but for now my family uses them happily on a daily basis. Does anyone complain when their hammer sucks at tightening screws? Use the right damn tool for the job!

  9. Well, to be fair... by Dr.+Manhattan · · Score: 3, Interesting
    ...having an inexpensive, low-power, general-purpose machine around to automate some tasks is actually rather nice. I've got a Pi plus a USB drive as a bittorrent server/client hung up on the wall in my basement. My wife's little website/email account is set to forward to gmail, and that's how she accesses it. But the emails build up and can hit the storage limit. So, presto, a little command-line POP3 client and a cron job later, the account never fills up again.

    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!
  10. Re:Oblig by Lunix+Nutcase · · Score: 2

    Except ISPs only advertise an *up to* speed. Nowhere does any ISP so you can get maximum bandwidth 24/7.

  11. Re: Mildly interesting but, by pak9rabid · · Score: 2

    I don't get the RasPi hate in this thread.

    Because the neckbeards here have grown into conservative luddites. See also: Uber, systemd, any programming language that isn't C or Perl, etc, etc, etc....