Introducing the latest feature on Keep Connect’s V4 firmware – Custom Monitoring Pipelines. These advanced monitoring capabilities elevate the standard Keep Connect experience, offering limitless possibilities.
Custom Monitoring Pipelines empower users to design their monitoring processes through distinct stages called ‘Frames.’ Each Frame comes with a range of modes and settings, providing precise control over Keep Connect’s operations.
For an in-depth look at the introduction of Custom Monitoring Pipelines, check out our blog post “Introducing Custom Pipelines in Keep Connect“.
Keep Connect Standard Monitoring #
Before delving into various Pipeline Setups, let’s first take a quick look at how Keep Connect operates before the introduction of Monitoring Pipelines.
- Keep connect monitors your internet health every few minutes (5 mins) by reaching a primary domain (google.com). If the primary domain is unreachable, it will try again in one minute the second domain (cnn.com). If both fails Keep connect will conclude internet is out and thus will initiate restart your router
- Upon restarting, it will wait for a few minutes (3 mins) before attempting to reconnect to your Wi-Fi network and verifying internet access
- If the connection is still down, Keep Connect will persistently restart your router (repeating step 1) until it detects a functional internet connection (Max Continuous Restarts = 3).
- After exhausting the maximum allowable restarts (let’s say Keep Connect restarts your router 3 times), it enters a waiting period of several hours (4 hours) before initiating another round of (up to 3 restart) attempts..
- This looping process continues until Keep Connect successfully restores the internet connection to resume monitoring your internet health.
- Once reconnected to your Wi-Fi with a healthy internet, it promptly sends out a notification.
While the highlighted text above represents customizable values, it doesn’t really change the way Keep Connect monitors your network devices.
"Comprehensive Monitoring" #
Let’s begin with the most straightforward Custom Monitoring Recipe: Comprehensive Monitoring. If you find yourself uncertain about which frames to include, why not incorporate them all? Comprehensive Monitoring utilizes ALL available check frames:
- Frame 1 Wifi Check: Pinging the default gateway (e.g., 192.168.1.1).
- Frame 2 & 3 KC Roundtrip: Two URL Check Frames that examine Keep Connect Cloud Server.
- Frame 4 Url Check: (e.g., reach google.com).
- Frame 5 Ping Check: (e.g., ping cnn.com).
- Power Cycle Frame.
As detailed in the Custom Pipeline Monitoring blog post, it’s essential to understand that frames are checked in order, with KC Roundtrip Frames needing to fail first for the pipeline to proceed to the URL Check. The Wifi Check frame does not have to fail to advance to the next frame. By default, it still advances even on success to allow KC to check the next frames. The pipeline runs every 5 minutes by default, starting a new cycle once the previous one finishes.
The concept behind comprehensive monitoring is simple: compared to Keep Connect Standard Monitoring, it conducts additional checks beyond the Primary and Secondary Domain checks. It now encompasses checks for Wifi network connection, Keep Connect cloud server, a URL, and ping. If ALL checks fail, the pipeline resorts to the Power Cycle Frame, initiating a power cycle for the network device connected to Keep Connect.
Import File for Comprehensive Pipeline. #
"Peripheral Surveillance Monitoring" #
With the introduction of the Custom Monitoring Pipeline feature in Keep Connect, the device has evolved into a more versatile tool capable of monitoring not only routers or network devices but also other WiFi-connected devices. One notable example is a WiFi surveillance camera, which may experience disruptions when either the WiFi broadcast of the router is limited or the camera itself gets disconnected from the network. This issue can often be resolved by power cycling the camera.
Here’s how it works: Begin by identifying the static local IP (e.g. 192.168.1.29) of the WiFi camera (ensure the camera’s IP is set static in your router). Plug the camera into Keep Connect and set up Keep Connect to connect to the router’s WiFi broadcast (the same network the WiFi camera is connected to) using default settings. After the initial setup, switch the monitoring in the app from the default KC Roundtrip to Custom Monitoring Pipeline and configure the following Frames:
- Ping Check Frame: Replace the default value (google.com) with the local static IP address of the WiFi camera (e.g. 192.168.1.29). Add a delay of 60 seconds in “Delay Before Proceed.”
- 2nd Ping Check Frame: Check the same local static IP again after a minute to see if it’s reachable without issuing a reboot. Add another 60 seconds delay
- 3rd and Final Ping Check Frame: Conclude the pipeline before determining that Keep Connect cannot find the local static IP of the camera.
- Power Cycle Frame: Issue a reboot to the camera plugged into Keep Connect.
This way, when Keep Connect is unable to reach the IP address of the WiFi camera, it will conclude, after a series of checks, that the camera has dropped from the WiFi network and will initiate a reboot.
Import File for “Peripheral Surveillance Monitoring”. #
"Guest Network Monitoring" #
Setting up Guest Network Monitoring involves a straightforward adjustment – the exclusion of Wifi Check Frames present in Standard Monitoring. This adaptation is essential because most guest networks restrict devices from pinging the guest network gateway and other devices’ local IP within the same network. The challenge arises because Keep Connect’s Standard Monitoring includes wifi checks by pinging the gateway IP (e.g., 192.168.1.1). If these checks fail, it may trigger a reboot, leading to a loop of wifi checks and potential network disruptions.
For users with access to the App’s Custom Monitoring feature, a simple modification to the pipeline can be made, which is disable the “gateway ping” setting under the Wifi Check Frame. We will still keep the Wifi Check Frame in the pipeline as the Wifi Check Frame can still determine if it has wifi connection or not, the gateway pings are just an additional Wifi Check.
The adjusted configuration looks like this:
- Frame1 Wifi Check, disable gateway ping
- Frame2 URL Check, at google.com with a delay of 1 min
- Frame3 URL Check, at cnn.com with a delay of 1 min
- Frame4 Ping Check, at youtube.com with a delay of 1 min
- Frame 5 Ping Check, at instagram.com with no delay
- Power Cycle Frame
This adjustment ensures that Keep Connect focuses solely on monitoring internet connectivity without entangling itself in the intricacies of wifi network checks.
Import File for “Guest Network Monitoring”. #
"Fast Reset and Recovery" #
Fast Reset and Recovery involves configuring Keep Connect to swiftly detect internet loss, execute a power cycle, and restore power to the router more rapidly than standard monitoring.
To implement this, simply adjust the general Pipeline Setting “Run Interval: (Seconds)” from the default 300 seconds (or 5 minutes check interval) to 0 seconds. Additionally, maintain the “Delay Before Proceed: (Seconds)” at the default 0, ensuring an immediate transition to the next frame after a failure, leading to a quicker power cycle. Lastly, reduce the “Power Cycle Time: (Seconds)” Setting from the default 30 to 10 for a faster power supply restoration from the wall socket.
The Pipeline (with check interval of 0 seconds) will be simply like below:
- Frame1 Wifi Check, defaults
- Frame 2 and 3 KC Roundtrip Frames, defaults
- Power Cycle Frame, Power Cycle Time = 10 seconds
While Fast Reset and Recovery swiftly restores your internet upon detecting a loss, it’s important to note that this test may not be as thorough as other pipeline setups. These setups conduct interval checks on each frame and the overall pipeline, ensuring a thorough determination of internet loss before initiating the power cycle.
Import File for “Fast Reset and Recovery”. #
On a final note, it’s important to understand that the Pipeline’s default execution interval is set at 5 minutes. This implies that after completing a round of frame checks, the pipeline will wait for another 5 minutes before initiating the next set of checks, constituting its standard operational cycle.
At the commencement of the Pipeline, each subsequent check frame, by default, is executed immediately if the preceding check frames have failed. However, you have the flexibility to adjust this behavior using the “Delay Before Proceed: (Seconds)” setting. This adjustment becomes crucial in scenarios where your internet experiences a brief slowdown or interruption lasting only a minute or so, rendering a reboot unnecessary. By introducing a delay, say 1 minute after each frame, you ensure that the internet loss is substantiated before proceeding to the next set of checks. It’s worth noting that such delays will extend the overall duration of the checks before reaching the decision to reboot your network router/device.
Learning the Custom Monitoring Pipeline might seem challenging initially, but once you grasp it, you’ll unlock its limitless capabilities. Whether you prefer faster or slower checks, a simple or thorough inspection, the Custom Monitoring Pipeline empowers you to tailor the monitoring process to your specific preferences.
