Ping Node Server - False Negatives

[Teken]

I didn't see a specific forum for this Ping Node Server or a catch all for general Polyglot. So figured since this is a question why not pose it here!  This little Ping tool is very cool and believe given enough development can turn out to be a real killer. Now, having said this I have found the tool doesn't seem to reflect reality as several network appliance which absolutely can be pinged and replies back.

Always shows as not reachable from the Ping Node Server?!?

Given there isn't any obvious settings besides time between short vs long pings I'm not sure what else could be done. Anyone else using this Ping Node Server please do chime in with your experience and let me know if there is some kind of work around. Also, is it just me but the fact you can't define a custom ping time for individual devices a little odd vs a global setting?

Is it somewhere and I missed it?

[dbuss]

I didn't see a specific forum for this Ping Node Server or a catch all for general Polyglot. So figured since this is a question why not pose it here!  This little Ping tool is very cool and believe given enough development can turn out to be a real killer. Now, having said this I have found the tool doesn't seem to reflect reality as several network appliance which absolutely can be pinged and replies back.
Always shows as not reachable from the Ping Node Server?!?
Given there isn't any obvious settings besides time between short vs long pings I'm not sure what else could be done. Anyone else using this Ping Node Server please do chime in with your experience and let me know if there is some kind of work around. Also, is it just me but the fact you can't define a custom ping time for individual devices a little odd vs a global setting?
Is it somewhere and I missed it?

I use it to ping certain cellphones when they connect to the network. I then have a routine that announces that person has arrived. To keep the routine from running every time the phone reconnects to the network, I have a program to disable the routine for a period of time after the first ping.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

[markv58]

3 hours ago, Teken said:

I didn't see a specific forum for this Ping Node Server or a catch all for general Polyglot. So figured since this is a question why not pose it here!  This little Ping tool is very cool and believe given enough development can turn out to be a real killer. Now, having said this I have found the tool doesn't seem to reflect reality as several network appliance which absolutely can be pinged and replies back.

Always shows as not reachable from the Ping Node Server?!?

Given there isn't any obvious settings besides time between short vs long pings I'm not sure what else could be done. Anyone else using this Ping Node Server please do chime in with your experience and let me know if there is some kind of work around. Also, is it just me but the fact you can't define a custom ping time for individual devices a little odd vs a global setting?

Is it somewhere and I missed it?

The timeout for the ping is the short poll time, the long poll is not used.

I have problems pinging my iPhone, it shows off network most of the time. Everything else works fine.

What are these network appliances?

Edit: Just updated the Ping NS, this may resolve the issue. v1.0.7

Edited February 16, 2020 by markv58

[Teken]

2 hours ago, markv58 said:

The timeout for the ping is the short poll time, the long poll is not used.

I have problems pinging my iPhone, it shows off network most of the time. Everything else works fine.

What are these network appliances?

Edit: Just updated the Ping NS, this may resolve the issue. v1.0.7

@markv58

Just updated the Ping Node Server now and will report back my experience. May I ask and perhaps make a few enhancement request to get the most out of this fantastic tool?

Feature Request:

- Long Poll: Please consider implementing this for more flexibility

- Multi Poll: I would really like to see this tool have the ability to define each new node with a custom short / long poll. As some network appliance do not need to be pinged as consistently or often as others.

- Last Ping: Be able to see when the last successful / failed ping was completed with time stamp

- Ping Time: Be able to see and track the average, minimum, maximum ping time as this will give more insight regarding latency and possible congestion / bandwidth issues.

- Packet Loss: Be able to see the percentage of packet loss if any. Again this would offer more insight as to factual metrics of that appliance.

What Are These Toys:

- Many of these network appliances are related to home automation, security, and force protection elements in my home. Items such as 1 wire, water meter, energy monitors, security cameras, HVAC, fire wall, weather monitors, switches, UPS, fire protection, etc.

[Teken]

Sadly, I must report the latest Ping v1.07 update has not corrected the false negatives. 

[markv58]

@Teken You may be trying to use Ping to do things beyond what it was intended to do. It was created to monitor other Polyglot devices, router, modem, BlueIris PC. Some devices may not respond to the single ping request or may require something to wake them up.

You may want to look at this, Zabbix https://www.zabbix.com/network_monitoring , for a more robust monitoring solution. I've just started looking into it and may give it a shot to dig deep into the network metrics.

[garybixler]

@markv58   Hi, was just wondering if I can run more that one Ping NS? It would need to be on a Rpi running polglot. I have the need to ping some devices more often than others.  Geo Fencing for example.

I think I discovered a slight problem. If scanning goes false it never shows true again even though it appears to be scanning.

Might I suggest being able to turn a host's scanning ON/OFF from a scan button and also available in programs.

Thanks

Gary

Edited May 13, 2020 by garybixler

[markv58]

On 5/10/2020 at 9:56 AM, garybixler said:

@markv58   Hi, was just wondering if I can run more that one Ping NS? It would need to be on a Rpi running polglot. I have the need to ping some devices more often than others.  Geo Fencing for example.

I think I discovered a slight problem. If scanning goes false it never shows true again even though it appears to be scanning.

Might I suggest being able to turn a host's scanning ON/OFF from a scan button and also available in programs.

Thanks

Gary

Sorry for the delay, busy and haven't been on the forum all week.

You can run as many Ping instances as you want as long as they are on different devices. You should be able to turn the scan off or on for each host manually or in a program.

There seems to be an issue with Ping running on Polisy, I'm working through that as time permits. I'm not having problems but another user is so I will be pushing updates as that progresses. Ping on RPi is working flawlessly, I've not been able to make it crash with even vigorous testing.

For some reason I wasn't following this thread but am now so keep me posted.

[garybixler]

@markv58  Hi, just a little feedback. I have had Ping stop running. Nothing showed up on the Ping log.

Thanks

Gary

[markv58]

23 minutes ago, garybixler said:

@markv58  Hi, just a little feedback. I have had Ping stop running. Nothing showed up on the Ping log.

Thanks

Gary

I've found Ecobee and Harmony stopped for no apparent reason at times and on others on rare occasion.

I will be adding an option to Ping for some deeper debug logging to try and capture what is going on.

[markv58]

@garybixler An update for Ping will be available shortly. There was an additional bug that somehow wasn't noticed by anyone, that is fixed along with the option to add debugging info to the log. Please check the Configuration Help section on the Ping Node Server Configuration page to activate logging if you are having issues.

[bfish]

is shortpoll parameter in seconds or in minutes?  (Guessing seconds, but thought I saw minutes somewhere but now can't find it)  Thanks!

[markv58]

@bfish Short and long polls are seconds.

[JBanaszak]

Hi Mark @markv58,

An FYI that my Ping nodeserver has started "running off the rails."  I noticed as it was not recovering from a missed ping to an external address.  When I checked both the Ping and Polyglot logs it seems to be writing the following continuously:

"2020-10-13 08:28:54,691 MQTT       polyinterface      INFO     polyinterface:_connect: MQTT Subscribing to topic: udi/polyglot/connections/polyglot -  MID: 1712 Result: 0
2020-10-13 08:28:54,692 MQTT       polyinterface      INFO     polyinterface:_connect: Sent Connected message to Polyglot
2020-10-13 08:28:54,701 MQTT       polyinterface      INFO     polyinterface:_subscribe: MQTT Subscribed Succesfully for Message ID: 1711 - QoS: (0,)
2020-10-13 08:28:54,704 MQTT       polyinterface      INFO     polyinterface:_subscribe: MQTT Subscribed Succesfully for Message ID: 1712 - QoS: (0,)
2020-10-13 08:28:55,810 MQTT       polyinterface      INFO     polyinterface:_connect: MQTT Connected with result code 0 (Success)
2020-10-13 08:28:55,812 MQTT       polyinterface      INFO     polyinterface:_connect: MQTT Subscribing to topic: udi/polyglot/ns/6 -  MID: 1368 Result: 0
2020-10-13 08:28:55,812 MQTT       polyinterface      INFO     polyinterface:_disconnect: MQTT Unexpected disconnection. Trying reconnect.
2020-10-13 08:28:55,813 MQTT       polyinterface      INFO     polyinterface:_connect: MQTT Subscribing to topic: udi/polyglot/connections/polyglot -  MID: 1369 Result: 0
2020-10-13 08:28:55,814 MQTT       polyinterface      INFO     polyinterface:_connect: Sent Connected message to Polyglot
2020-10-13 08:28:55,828 MQTT       polyinterface      INFO     polyinterface:_subscribe: MQTT Subscribed Succesfully for Message ID: 1368 - QoS: (0,)
2020-10-13 08:28:55,833 MQTT       polyinterface      INFO     polyinterface:_subscribe: MQTT Subscribed Succesfully for Message ID: 1369 - QoS: (0,)"

Etc., etc.  I can send the log package if helpful (with debug turned on). 

I deleted the nodeserver and started from scratch to duplicate the problem.  I could not stop this activity by stopping the nodeserver, I had to delete it again.

Let me know if I can provide any other information.  Thanks as always!!!!!

Jim

Edited October 13, 2020 by JBanaszak

[markv58]

@JBanaszak That can happen on rare occasion. The nodeserver needs to be restarted but can be difficult to reset. Watching the log, hit the restart button and then immediately hit the stop button several times until the ns stops. Hit start and if the error is cleared you should have a normal log. If you get the connected then unexpected disconnect message repeatedly try again.

[JBanaszak]

@JBanaszak That can happen on rare occasion. The nodeserver needs to be restarted but can be difficult to reset. Watching the log, hit the restart button and then immediately hit the stop button several times until the ns stops. Hit start and if the error is cleared you should have a normal log. If you get the connected then unexpected disconnect message repeatedly try again.

Thanks Mark I’ll give it a try.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[JBanaszak]

Hi @markv58, I hope all is well!  My Ping Nodeserver has run off the rails again.  I tried the fix above but could not restart or stop the nodeserver, so I deleted it.  I re-installed, added two IP nodes, and the disconnect/reconnect behavior continued.  I will PM the log package from the reinstall.  

This seems to have started since updating to Polyglot Version 2.2.13.  Let me know if I can provide any more information.

Thanks!  Jim

[markv58]

4 hours ago, JBanaszak said:

Hi @markv58, I hope all is well!  My Ping Nodeserver has run off the rails again.  I tried the fix above but could not restart or stop the nodeserver, so I deleted it.  I re-installed, added two IP nodes, and the disconnect/reconnect behavior continued.  I will PM the log package from the reinstall.  

This seems to have started since updating to Polyglot Version 2.2.13.  Let me know if I can provide any more information.

Thanks!  Jim

Pushed an update, v1.0.15, should fix the problem on Polisy. Does not seem to effect RPi installs.

[JBanaszak]

Update to close out this issue, the problem was related to my Polisy not being on the latest operating system as discussed in the link below.  Thanks to @markv58 for working with me to resolve the problem!