Re: Modem as a service?

[Henry Yen]

On Mon, Dec 07, 2015 at 11:54:17AM -0600, Larry Sheldon wrote:
> I'll join the confusion--I thought the OP wanted to test for power 
> availability at the distant site by seeing if a modem there would answer 
> the phone there.  That it HAD to be a modem in that case makes no sense 
> to me.
> 
> I'm of the line now and have been for a while and maybe y'all don't do 
> things the way we did--we always had an answering machine (two or three 
> in some places*) that always answered on the first ring and gave some 
> kind of status report that was updated hourly on on event).  If it did 
> not answer, the power was out.

At a client wiring closet, the super-conscientious rack maintainer one day
decided that it was good practice to replace consumer-standard batteries
during his quarterly cleaning rounds.

Answering machines have replaceable batteries. Modems do not.

-- 
Henry Yen    Aegis Information Systems, Inc.
Senior Systems Programmer   Hicksville, New York
(800) AEGIS-00 x949 1-800-AEGIS-00 (800-234-4700)

Re: Modem as a service?

[Jon Lewis]

On Mon, 7 Dec 2015, Larry Sheldon wrote:

I'll join the confusion--I thought the OP wanted to test for power 
availability at the distant site by seeing if a modem there would answer the 
phone there.  That it HAD to be a modem in that case makes no sense to me.


Presumably, the modems are already there (setup to answer) as a means to 
access the OOB console servers in the case of a network outage.  "Does it 
answer" is just a simple way to tell "is the power out, and everything's 
dead, or is there a network problem that's caused us to lose visibility?"



--
 Jon Lewis, MCP :)   |  I route
 |  therefore you are
_ http://www.lewis.org/~jlewis/pgp for PGP public key_

Re: Modem as a service?

[Larry Sheldon]

On 12/6/2015 16:17, Karl Auer wrote:

On Sun, 2015-12-06 at 16:36 -0500, James R Cutler wrote:

On Dec 6, 2015, at 2:19 PM, James Laszko  wrote:

... we don’t need to actually connect to the OOB modem on the other side, we 
just need a NO ANSWER/ANSWER kind of response. …


Forget modems - to probe via some kind of analog connection, just get
a single instrument wireless telephone with answering capability.  For
a bonus, put some kind of identifier in the answering message:  No
power > no answer; power > answer.


I must be thick - how does that solve the problem? The OP wants to know
if a modem at a remote site will answer the phone. Maybe I misunderstood
the problem.


I'll join the confusion--I thought the OP wanted to test for power 
availability at the distant site by seeing if a modem there would answer 
the phone there.  That it HAD to be a modem in that case makes no sense 
to me.


I'm of the line now and have been for a while and maybe y'all don't do 
things the way we did--we always had an answering machine (two or three 
in some places*) that always answered on the first ring and gave some 
kind of status report that was updated hourly on on event).  If it did 
not answer, the power was out.


*at one site we had one that gave general status--what's up, what's 
down, what's generally interesting (outages scheduled soon, where we are 
in the daily batch cycle).  We had another listing southern region 
outputs ready for pick-up and one listing northern region stuff.



--
sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes? (Juvenal)

Re: Modem as a service?

[Jamie Gwatkin]

You could easily do this using Twillio. We've done the same thing to test
if a PBX is up.


On Mon, Dec 7, 2015 at 1:22 PM, Jon Lewis  wrote:

> On Mon, 7 Dec 2015, Larry Sheldon wrote:
>
> I'll join the confusion--I thought the OP wanted to test for power
>> availability at the distant site by seeing if a modem there would answer
>> the phone there.  That it HAD to be a modem in that case makes no sense to
>> me.
>>
>
> Presumably, the modems are already there (setup to answer) as a means to
> access the OOB console servers in the case of a network outage.  "Does it
> answer" is just a simple way to tell "is the power out, and everything's
> dead, or is there a network problem that's caused us to lose visibility?"
>
>
> --
>  Jon Lewis, MCP :)   |  I route
>  |  therefore you are
> _ http://www.lewis.org/~jlewis/pgp for PGP public key_
>



-- 
*Jamie Gwatkin* / Software Developer - DevOps
ja...@workshopx.com 


Inspire creation.
www.workshopx.com

*Our companies*

CanvasPop  / CanvasPop API
 / DNA11  /
Crated  / PopKey 

Modem as a service?

[James Laszko]

We are looking to automate testing of OOB modem connections when our NMS 
detects a site connection failure.  Rather than have a live body call a modem 
number (or even a fax) to see if it answers (to determine if there is a 
potential site power issue), we'd like to be able to utilize some "Modem as a 
service" to automate this.  I've exhausted my Google skills trying to see if 
anything like this exists.  Anyone have any experience?



Thank you,


James Laszko
Mythos Technology Inc
jam...@mythostech.com<mailto:jam...@mythostech.com>

Re: Modem as a service?

[b]

What about a $20 android phone, when it detects a power loss (stops charging), 
send an sms.

On Mon, Dec 07, 2015 at 12:03:48PM +1100, Karl Auer wrote:
> On Sun, 2015-12-06 at 18:13 -0600, Josh Reynolds wrote:
> > You could always just use UPS equipment that can send out alerts on power
> > outages and low bat voltage. Or, use equipment that supports dying gasp.
> 
> The equipment you have needs to be able to send the alert, which means
> SMS or email-capable equipment needs to stay powered up long enough to
> do that.
> 
> There might be a product idea here, if no-one's done it already:
> Something like a RaspBerry Pi, running off a lithium battery, with a
> recharge circuit and something to detect a power outage. Add a 3G/4G
> card to send an SMS alert, put it all in a box, plug it into power. Only
> configuration needed is setting the SMS target(s)... If you made it
> network addressable (on 3G/4G) it could send emails as well.
> 
> Regards, K.
> 
> -- 
> ~~~
> Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au)
> http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer
> http://twitter.com/kauer389
> 
> GPG fingerprint: 3C41 82BE A9E7 99A1 B931 5AE7 7638 0147 2C3C 2AC4
> Old fingerprint: EC67 61E2 C2F6 EB55 884B E129 072B 0AF0 72AA 9882
> 
> 

Re: Modem as a service?

[Bacon Zombie]

Have you looked into scheduled scans with WarVOX?
On Dec 6, 2015 7:39 PM, "James Laszko" <jam...@mythostech.com> wrote:

We are looking to automate testing of OOB modem connections when our NMS
detects a site connection failure.  Rather than have a live body call a
modem number (or even a fax) to see if it answers (to determine if there is
a potential site power issue), we'd like to be able to utilize some "Modem
as a service" to automate this.  I've exhausted my Google skills trying to
see if anything like this exists.  Anyone have any experience?



Thank you,


James Laszko
Mythos Technology Inc
jam...@mythostech.com<mailto:jam...@mythostech.com>

Re: Modem as a service?

[Karl Auer]

On Sun, 2015-12-06 at 16:36 -0500, James R Cutler wrote:
> > On Dec 6, 2015, at 2:19 PM, James Laszko  wrote:
> > 
> > ... we don’t need to actually connect to the OOB modem on the other side, 
> > we just need a NO ANSWER/ANSWER kind of response. …
> 
> Forget modems - to probe via some kind of analog connection, just get
> a single instrument wireless telephone with answering capability.  For
> a bonus, put some kind of identifier in the answering message:  No
> power > no answer; power > answer.

I must be thick - how does that solve the problem? The OP wants to know
if a modem at a remote site will answer the phone. Maybe I misunderstood
the problem.

Regards, K.

-- 
~~~
Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au)
http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer
http://twitter.com/kauer389

GPG fingerprint: 3C41 82BE A9E7 99A1 B931 5AE7 7638 0147 2C3C 2AC4
Old fingerprint: EC67 61E2 C2F6 EB55 884B E129 072B 0AF0 72AA 9882

RE: Modem as a service?

[James Laszko]

Nah, it wasn't you!  :)

The solution I think we're going to go with is leveraging our existing SIP 
infrastructure and write scripts to dial out to the OOB Modem / Fax machines at 
the sites that are disconnected from the network.  If they both don’t answer, 
we'll assume a power outage.  If one or the other does answer, it'll queue up 
for human interaction.

I wrote a script in Perl in about 15 minutes to do this.  God, I'm not sure if 
I'm stuck thinking inside or outside the box anymore!


Thanks for the replies and insights,


James


-Original Message-
From: NANOG [mailto:nanog-boun...@nanog.org] On Behalf Of Karl Auer
Sent: Sunday, December 06, 2015 14:17
To: nanog@nanog.org
Subject: Re: Modem as a service?

On Sun, 2015-12-06 at 16:36 -0500, James R Cutler wrote:
> > On Dec 6, 2015, at 2:19 PM, James Laszko <jam...@mythostech.com> wrote:
> > 
> > ... we don’t need to actually connect to the OOB modem on the other 
> > side, we just need a NO ANSWER/ANSWER kind of response. …
> 
> Forget modems - to probe via some kind of analog connection, just get 
> a single instrument wireless telephone with answering capability.  For 
> a bonus, put some kind of identifier in the answering message:  No 
> power > no answer; power > answer.

I must be thick - how does that solve the problem? The OP wants to know if a 
modem at a remote site will answer the phone. Maybe I misunderstood the problem.

Regards, K.

--
~~~
Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au)
http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer
http://twitter.com/kauer389

GPG fingerprint: 3C41 82BE A9E7 99A1 B931 5AE7 7638 0147 2C3C 2AC4 Old 
fingerprint: EC67 61E2 C2F6 EB55 884B E129 072B 0AF0 72AA 9882

RE: Modem as a service?

[Josh Reynolds]

You could always just use UPS equipment that can send out alerts on power
outages and low bat voltage. Or, use equipment that supports dying gasp.
On Dec 6, 2015 4:31 PM, "James Laszko" <jam...@mythostech.com> wrote:

> Nah, it wasn't you!  :)
>
> The solution I think we're going to go with is leveraging our existing SIP
> infrastructure and write scripts to dial out to the OOB Modem / Fax
> machines at the sites that are disconnected from the network.  If they both
> don’t answer, we'll assume a power outage.  If one or the other does
> answer, it'll queue up for human interaction.
>
> I wrote a script in Perl in about 15 minutes to do this.  God, I'm not
> sure if I'm stuck thinking inside or outside the box anymore!
>
>
> Thanks for the replies and insights,
>
>
> James
>
>
> -Original Message-
> From: NANOG [mailto:nanog-boun...@nanog.org] On Behalf Of Karl Auer
> Sent: Sunday, December 06, 2015 14:17
> To: nanog@nanog.org
> Subject: Re: Modem as a service?
>
> On Sun, 2015-12-06 at 16:36 -0500, James R Cutler wrote:
> > > On Dec 6, 2015, at 2:19 PM, James Laszko <jam...@mythostech.com>
> wrote:
> > >
> > > ... we don’t need to actually connect to the OOB modem on the other
> > > side, we just need a NO ANSWER/ANSWER kind of response. …
> >
> > Forget modems - to probe via some kind of analog connection, just get
> > a single instrument wireless telephone with answering capability.  For
> > a bonus, put some kind of identifier in the answering message:  No
> > power > no answer; power > answer.
>
> I must be thick - how does that solve the problem? The OP wants to know if
> a modem at a remote site will answer the phone. Maybe I misunderstood the
> problem.
>
> Regards, K.
>
> --
> ~~~
> Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au)
> http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer
> http://twitter.com/kauer389
>
> GPG fingerprint: 3C41 82BE A9E7 99A1 B931 5AE7 7638 0147 2C3C 2AC4 Old
> fingerprint: EC67 61E2 C2F6 EB55 884B E129 072B 0AF0 72AA 9882
>
>
>

Re: Modem as a service?

[Hal Ponton]

Apologies,

Should have listed the following link as this is suited for the US market 
whereas the other is European.

http://www.tekview-solutions.com/powertxtduo.php

Regards,

Hal Ponton

Senior Network Engineer

Buzcom / FibreWiFi

Tel: 07429 979 217
Email: h...@buzcom.net

> On 7 Dec 2015, at 01:18, Hal Ponton  wrote:
> 
> There are already devices that are doing this like PowerTxT, it may be based 
> off another company I may add but we are using them for OOB monitoring of 
> power for remote sites.
> 
> They have just enough power in the capacitors to send a text message to a 
> master number or gateway for an NMS.
> 
> Have a look at http://www.tekview-solutions.com/powertxt.php
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Hal Ponton
> 
> Senior Network Engineer
> 
> Buzcom / FibreWiFi
> 
> Tel: 07429 979 217
> Email: h...@buzcom.net
> 
>> On 7 Dec 2015, at 01:07, b  wrote:
>> 
>> What about a $20 android phone, when it detects a power loss (stops 
>> charging), send an sms.
>> 
 On Mon, Dec 07, 2015 at 12:03:48PM +1100, Karl Auer wrote:
 On Sun, 2015-12-06 at 18:13 -0600, Josh Reynolds wrote:
 You could always just use UPS equipment that can send out alerts on power
 outages and low bat voltage. Or, use equipment that supports dying gasp.
>>> 
>>> The equipment you have needs to be able to send the alert, which means
>>> SMS or email-capable equipment needs to stay powered up long enough to
>>> do that.
>>> 
>>> There might be a product idea here, if no-one's done it already:
>>> Something like a RaspBerry Pi, running off a lithium battery, with a
>>> recharge circuit and something to detect a power outage. Add a 3G/4G
>>> card to send an SMS alert, put it all in a box, plug it into power. Only
>>> configuration needed is setting the SMS target(s)... If you made it
>>> network addressable (on 3G/4G) it could send emails as well.
>>> 
>>> Regards, K.
>>> 
>>> -- 
>>> ~~~
>>> Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au)
>>> http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer
>>> http://twitter.com/kauer389
>>> 
>>> GPG fingerprint: 3C41 82BE A9E7 99A1 B931 5AE7 7638 0147 2C3C 2AC4
>>> Old fingerprint: EC67 61E2 C2F6 EB55 884B E129 072B 0AF0 72AA 9882
>>> 
>>> 

Re: Modem as a service?

[Jeremy Austin]

On Sun, Dec 6, 2015 at 4:03 PM, Karl Auer  wrote:

>
> There might be a product idea here, if no-one's done it already:
> Something like a RaspBerry Pi, running off a lithium battery, with a
> recharge circuit and something to detect a power outage. Add a 3G/4G
> card to send an SMS alert, put it all in a box, plug it into power. Only
> configuration needed is setting the SMS target(s)... If you made it
> network addressable (on 3G/4G) it could send emails as well.


Almost exactly my scenario.

While you're at it, add IP/serial links to console servers and tunnel in.
I've got this as the only OOB option for sites with no copper. Low
bandwidth 3G plan.

-- 
Jeremy Austin
Whitestone Power & Communications
(907) 895-2311
(907) 803-5422
jhaus...@gmail.com

Re: Modem as a service?

[Karl Auer]

On Sun, 2015-12-06 at 18:13 -0600, Josh Reynolds wrote:
> You could always just use UPS equipment that can send out alerts on power
> outages and low bat voltage. Or, use equipment that supports dying gasp.

The equipment you have needs to be able to send the alert, which means
SMS or email-capable equipment needs to stay powered up long enough to
do that.

There might be a product idea here, if no-one's done it already:
Something like a RaspBerry Pi, running off a lithium battery, with a
recharge circuit and something to detect a power outage. Add a 3G/4G
card to send an SMS alert, put it all in a box, plug it into power. Only
configuration needed is setting the SMS target(s)... If you made it
network addressable (on 3G/4G) it could send emails as well.

Regards, K.

-- 
~~~
Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au)
http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer
http://twitter.com/kauer389

GPG fingerprint: 3C41 82BE A9E7 99A1 B931 5AE7 7638 0147 2C3C 2AC4
Old fingerprint: EC67 61E2 C2F6 EB55 884B E129 072B 0AF0 72AA 9882

Re: Modem as a service?

[Hal Ponton]

There are already devices that are doing this like PowerTxT, it may be based 
off another company I may add but we are using them for OOB monitoring of power 
for remote sites.

They have just enough power in the capacitors to send a text message to a 
master number or gateway for an NMS.

Have a look at http://www.tekview-solutions.com/powertxt.php

Regards,

Hal Ponton

Senior Network Engineer

Buzcom / FibreWiFi

Tel: 07429 979 217
Email: h...@buzcom.net

> On 7 Dec 2015, at 01:07, b  wrote:
> 
> What about a $20 android phone, when it detects a power loss (stops 
> charging), send an sms.
> 
>> On Mon, Dec 07, 2015 at 12:03:48PM +1100, Karl Auer wrote:
>>> On Sun, 2015-12-06 at 18:13 -0600, Josh Reynolds wrote:
>>> You could always just use UPS equipment that can send out alerts on power
>>> outages and low bat voltage. Or, use equipment that supports dying gasp.
>> 
>> The equipment you have needs to be able to send the alert, which means
>> SMS or email-capable equipment needs to stay powered up long enough to
>> do that.
>> 
>> There might be a product idea here, if no-one's done it already:
>> Something like a RaspBerry Pi, running off a lithium battery, with a
>> recharge circuit and something to detect a power outage. Add a 3G/4G
>> card to send an SMS alert, put it all in a box, plug it into power. Only
>> configuration needed is setting the SMS target(s)... If you made it
>> network addressable (on 3G/4G) it could send emails as well.
>> 
>> Regards, K.
>> 
>> -- 
>> ~~~
>> Karl Auer (ka...@biplane.com.au)
>> http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer
>> http://twitter.com/kauer389
>> 
>> GPG fingerprint: 3C41 82BE A9E7 99A1 B931 5AE7 7638 0147 2C3C 2AC4
>> Old fingerprint: EC67 61E2 C2F6 EB55 884B E129 072B 0AF0 72AA 9882
>> 
>> 

Re: Modem as a service?

[joel jaeggli]

On 12/6/15 10:37 AM, James Laszko wrote:
> We are looking to automate testing of OOB modem connections when our
> NMS detects a site connection failure.  Rather than have a live body
> call a modem number (or even a fax) to see if it answers (to
> determine if there is a potential site power issue), we'd like to be
> able to utilize some "Modem as a service" to automate this.  I've
> exhausted my Google skills trying to see if anything like this
> exists.  Anyone have any experience?

Typically that sort of thing would be implemented as an event handler
driven by the nms

Internet outdial used to be a thing, but probably these days that means
dropping your own modem someplace.

> 
> 
> Thank you,
> 
> 
> James Laszko Mythos Technology Inc 
> jam...@mythostech.com<mailto:jam...@mythostech.com>
> 
> 




signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature

Re: Modem as a service?

[James R Cutler]

> On Dec 6, 2015, at 2:19 PM, James Laszko  wrote:
> 
> ... we don’t need to actually connect to the OOB modem on the other side, we 
> just need a NO ANSWER/ANSWER kind of response. …

Forget modems - to probe via some kind of analog connection, just get a single 
instrument wireless telephone with answering capability.  For a bonus, put some 
kind of identifier in the answering message:  No power > no answer; power > 
answer.


James R. Cutler
james.cut...@consultant.com
PGP keys at http://pgp.mit.edu

RE: Modem as a service?

[James Laszko]

It looks like WarVOX has been rolled into Metasploit….  I guess using SIP 
trunking could accomplish the same thing – we don’t need to actually connect to 
the OOB modem on the other side, we just need a NO ANSWER/ANSWER kind of 
response.  I will investigate SIP software to accomplish this, unless someone 
has quick pointers?  ☺


Thank you,


James

From: Bacon Zombie [mailto:baconzom...@gmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, December 06, 2015 10:59
To: James Laszko
Cc: nanog@nanog.org
Subject: Re: Modem as a service?


Have you looked into scheduled scans with WarVOX?
On Dec 6, 2015 7:39 PM, "James Laszko" 
<jam...@mythostech.com<mailto:jam...@mythostech.com>> wrote:
We are looking to automate testing of OOB modem connections when our NMS 
detects a site connection failure.  Rather than have a live body call a modem 
number (or even a fax) to see if it answers (to determine if there is a 
potential site power issue), we'd like to be able to utilize some "Modem as a 
service" to automate this.  I've exhausted my Google skills trying to see if 
anything like this exists.  Anyone have any experience?



Thank you,


James Laszko
Mythos Technology Inc
jam...@mythostech.com<mailto:jam...@mythostech.com><mailto:jam...@mythostech.com<mailto:jam...@mythostech.com>>