a blog by Brie Gordon

Occasionally, I experience some network latency and packet loss through my ISP, Comcast. When this happens, I let them know about it - and you should, too.

Before you do that, though, there are some things that you should do, as dumb as they may sound. They *will* help you get through to your ISP.

Reboot your computer. Reboot your router. Reboot your modem. (For the last two, unplugging the power cable should suffice; don't forget to plug it back in.)

Finally, you should gather some data to give them. I like to do this by setting up some pings to places in different geographical locations. I've written a script (tested on Linux and FreeBSD) to get this ping party started. FreeBSD users may have to change the interpreter to #!/usr/local/bin/bash first.

Here is the script:

#!/bin/bash

#### uhoh ###
# ISP Trouble Script #
# Author: Brie A. Gordon
# brie@unixsysadmin.org
# I run this when I'm having trouble with Comcast.

# Replace the line below with the IP of your router.
gnome-terminal -e "ping 10.100.1.1" -t "router" &

# Located in Pittsburgh
gnome-terminal -e "ping cmu.edu" -t "pgh" &

# My ISP
gnome-terminal -e "ping comcast.com" -t "ISP" &

# Located in Australia
gnome-terminal -e "ping news.com.au" -t "australia" &

# Located in California
gnome-terminal -e "ping dreamhost.com" -t "california" &

#Located in Germany
gnome-terminal -e "ping joker.com" -t "germany" &

As long as you were smart enough to choose a web host that allows SSH, I've thought up an easy/lazy way to do this!

From your local machine:

rsync -e ssh -av yourusername@webhostserver.com:~/ Dropbox/

Type your password when prompted then sit back and watch.

(This assumes that the folder you are in on your local computer has a Dropbox folder and that the files you want to back up are in your home folder on your web hosts' server.)

Holler at brie@unixsysadmin.org or http://www.unixsysadmin.org/contact.html with your thoughts.