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Awhile back I read somewhere that there was an app that some people had used which basically logged/tracked when their internet was functional and when it was "down".

Some said that they had even used the info to get their ISP to refund them for downtime.

I reach out to my fellow Dakkaites as my Google-fu is fail8ng me today.


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My girlfriend just upgraded her service yesterday. Its like $55/mo for "up to" 12mb down.

Her budget is tight and if she can get some kind of credit for when its not working right it would help.

Stupid small towns and our limited options!

Look for *isp name* status monitor might bring something up.

Did you try literally the first google result for "track internet availability" ?

You indeed usually can get credits from your ISP if you can back up outage times and it also helps with pushing tier 2 if they're recalcitrant. Keep in mind the level of support you will get is directly correlated to how pushy you are.

I swear lmgtfy keeps getting more and more condescending as time goes on.

I was trying, and wasn't coming up with much of anything....blame being up 24 hrs for that I suppose...usuallt I don't need nor ask for that kind of help as I can google well.

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Not sure about if it was ignored or if it just wasnt clear.

I need an android APP....because she doesn't use a laptop/pc. Her primary connection is via her Android. She uses Chromecast and her TV.

When you say her android, do you mean a phone, or a chromebook, or literally just a chromecast plugged into a TV?

Galaxy S6 smart phone that she casts to the Chromecast plugged into the TV.

Her provider is Frontier.

Her problem has been that the internet will go out randomly several times a day, or run especially slow.

The service tech (local guy we know well, who knows his stuff) cane and seitched out the outside box to upgrade to the 12mb. He also said that there were a couple of things that weren't working right (like a cord that was cut and had water backing up into it). He addressed those.

And while she has had definite improvement...she is still having occasional issues like she was before (just not as frequent).


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And not sure if it matters, but her dsl modem/etc is like...5 or 6 years old. I have wondered if that may be the problem in itself at times. I know they say thst they just work until they don't..but there are some changes in 5 to 6 years.

Tracking your network connectivity via a phone is going to be very problematic in terms of battery life on said phone. Additionally, it won't monitor times when her ISP has dropped but she still has a cellular connection passing data unless she turns off mobile data. That being said, I believe you can configure this app to do what you want. I've never used it but it looks like you can set interfaces and logging.

A better possibility might be getting a Kindle FIre ($39) and sideloading the same app as above.

An more powerful option would be setting up a Rasperry Pi as a network monitor. This is cheap (maybe $60 all in), but can be complex if you have limited technical skills - although there is a tutorial for doing just about everything and you can do pretty incredible network stuff with it.


So far as the modem, I've been buying my own for 20 years and I've seen it go both ways - I've had some that just flat out would stop connecting, and then one just a few years ago that just started flaking out. If she owns the modem, and she should, it couldn't hurt to replace it; they aren't very expensive.

Also, depending on how the connectivity tracker worked, when it used mobile data it could get rather expensive if you don't have an unlimited plan.

 Ouze wrote:
Tracking your network connectivity via a phone is going to be very problematic in terms of battery life on said phone. Additionally, it won't monitor times when her ISP has dropped but she still has a cellular connection passing data unless she turns off mobile data. That being said, I believe you can configure this app to do what you want. I've never used it but it looks like you can set interfaces and logging.

A better possibility might be getting a Kindle FIre ($39) and sideloading the same app as above.

An more powerful option would be setting up a Rasperry Pi as a network monitor. This is cheap (maybe $60 all in), but can be complex if you have limited technical skills - although there is a tutorial for doing just about everything and you can do pretty incredible network stuff with it.


So far as the modem, I've been buying my own for 20 years and I've seen it go both ways - I've had some that just flat out would stop connecting, and then one just a few years ago that just started flaking out. If she owns the modem, and she should, it couldn't hurt to replace it; they aren't very expensive.

Thanks Ouze!

What would you recommend for a modem? I was thinking about that for her, actually. I found some new Linksys for around $80. She does not own her modem :/

I do have an older Kindle I don't use...that may be a possibility.

I read about the Pi and sounds like a cool option (one guy configured it to Tweet his ISP when the network went down...lol)....but she isnt that tech savvy and I just dabble.

I can't make a recommendation for a DSL modem - I've only been on cable for a long time (in which case it's hard to beat the SB6141 for your typical user) or a 6183 (for a power user).

If anyone reading this is renting their modem from their ISP, then I implore you to buy your own. My sister was paying $6 a month for a modem rental and had been for 5 years; she functionally paid $360 for a $40 modem. If your argument is "what if it breaks" (which was her argument):

1.) They have a 1-2 year warranty minimum
2.) At $6 a month, you could literally throw the modem in the garbage every 7 months, buy a new one, and still be saving money. And of course, I've really never owned a modem that didn't work for at least 5 or 6 years.