x10ping

(ver 1.514)


How to get x10ping:


 

Supported X10 hardware:

 Currently the following X10 hardware is supported: CM11A/C12U, JDS Startgate/TimeCommander/TimeCommnader-Plus and also any device supported by ActiveHome Interface (CM15, CM19A, VT37A, etc). However, you will need to have ActiveHome installed if you plan to use any of the cm15-etc enumerated above.  

 
What is x10ping and why use it?

 

 Have you ever had a network device such as a router, DSL modem, pc, etc. which will hang every now and then? The nonly way to get it up and running is to powercycle it? To make it worst it happens when you are away?

x10ping is your answer.

 

Note: With this application you will also need an X10 controller such as CM11A(US)/CM12U(Europe) and x10 appliances  as needed.

 

 X10Ping is an application written to monitor network devices by pinging them and when found down over a defined period of time powercycle them. It's a light application with a GUI interface, notification, scheduling and logging capabilities.

 

 

Get started:

 

   Download the binary installation package from here and install it. Currently supported platforms are Windows 98, 2000 and XP. It could work on other windows distributions however I didn't test on it. Also the source code is written platform independent (with wxWidgets) and could probably be compiled on other platforms such as Linux and MacOS.

 

After you completed the installation, start the x10ping application.

 

Configuration:

 

1.      First, set on which serial port is your X10 controller installed. To do this go to File->Config and there in the first tab(X10) you will find a select option labelled "X10 Serial Port Number:". There chose your serial port number. IF your x10 controller doesn’t have a serial port (like cm1a) you don’t need to select any specific port – just leave it as it is. Next step is to select your controller type. Then, once you press "OK" in config windows you should see a message in the logs saying that the port/interface was successfully open. Else, check your serial/usb port configuration.

 

 

   Then, if you whish you can tweak the global setting for the “worker” thread (main loop which does the device pinging). For more details about this setting see step 3 bellow.

 

 

  If, you wish that x10ping will start on widows startup then you need to check this option on. Please, note that the application wont start as a service.

 

 

  Here, you configure your notification means. Set your outgoing mail server and your source/destination email addresses. For audio notification there is a default wav file in the x10ping package. However you can pick yours.

 

 

2.      Plug your device to be monitored: router, pc, whatever can be pinged through an X10 appliance module or similar.

 

3.      Press "ADD Device" button. Fill in first, the IP address or host name for your device. Then next select the X10 house id and device id of your appliance and press "OK".  For the moment there is only one method implement to check the host, ping. Then select what kind of notification you want: no notification, visual, audio or by email.

 

 

   In the next tab “Schedule” you can specify if you want to perform monitoring only into a specific time.

 

 

    In the “Advanced” tab the following options are available:

 


   Repeat this step (and previous) if you have multiple devices. You can also add multiple host set to powercycle by the same x10 appliance.

 

4.      You might want to adjust the "loop" parameters. This can be done from menu File->Config and there go under "Worker" tab. The parameters and their relevance are as follow:

 

  

 

5.      After you completed the configuration press the start monitoring button and you are set. Failures to ping advice together will a count down with show up in red in logs. Also the status is shown in list colours and text (red=down, green=up, cyan=powercycle).

 

 

6.      You can also control your device without starting the loop. To do this select the device you want from the list, right click on it and then select what action to be taken from the popup menu.

 

 

7.      You can now minimize the application and this will hide the window and add an icon on the task bar. To restore the window do double left click on the icon.

 

 

   Other functionalities helpful in setup are the two buttons "Clear Device" and "Edit Device". The first will remove one or more selected devices from the list. The second will let you edit the parameters of one selected device.

 

   Alternatively you can edit by hand the config file found under the application install folder, ex. "c:\Program Files\x10ping\". There are two files:

 

-          "x10ping.cfg" with the options you found under File->Config. See example:

 

[X10]

SerialPort=4

X10ControllerModel=1

 

[Network]

LoopCheckDelay=2000

DevicePingRetry=3

X10DelayAfterOFF=5000

X10DelayAfterON=2000

 

[Runtime]

RunOnStartup=0

MonitorOnStartup=0

 

[Notify]

EmailServer=smtp.larryo.org

EmailFrom=i@larryo.org

EmailTo=larrylart@o2.ie

EmailAuth=0

EmailAuthUser=larry

EmailAuthPasswd=la2

AudioFile=./bunny_troubles.wav

  

-          "x10ping_dev.cfg" stores your list of devices. See below an example:

 

[192.168.1.22]

X10HouseId=1

X10DeviceId=1

LastKnownNetDeviceState=0

DeviceCheckMethod=1

FailuresToAction=2

ActionLogic=1

ActionFunction=4

ActionNotify=3

RebootTime=1005

CheckTimeFrame=1

CheckStartTime=12:00

CheckEndTime=20:00

 

[www.larryo.org]

X10HouseId=1

X10DeviceId=5

LastKnownNetDeviceState=4

DeviceCheckMethod=1

FailuresToAction=2

ActionLogic=1

ActionFunction=1

ActionNotify=4

RebootTime=1500

CheckTimeFrame=0

CheckStartTime=-01:-01

CheckEndTime=-01:-01

 

Known bugs:

 

   There are no known bugs at the moment. However, if you find any please send them to me at i@larryo.org. Any suggestions on how to improve this application are also welcome.

 

 

 

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