UltraMon for HomeSeer2 - Feature Requests

[Ultrajones]

UltraMon for HomeSeer2:
<LI> Written in VB.Net 2003.
<LI> All 100% managed code.
<LI> Multi-threaded.

How It Works:
<LI> Obtains a list of devices owned by the plug-in, then sends an ICMP ping to each device.
<LI> The Plugin updates the HomeSeer device string, status and value depending on the up/down status of the device.
<LI> You can specify the number of ping attempts, minutes between checks and if the device status should also include the device type.
Example: A HomeSeer device type of Computer would have Computer OnLine as a status which would display a computeronline.gif image instead of just online.gif.

Other Features:
<LI> Ability to wake up a computer via WOL packet.

Valid device statuses are:
<LI> Unknown - Device value of 0 (Not yet tested)
<LI> OnLine - Device value of 1 (1 or more consecutive ping successes)
<LI> Troubled - Device value of -1 to -5 (1 to 5 consecutive failures)
<LI> OffLine - Device value of -6 (6 or more consecutive failures)

Default Options:
<LI> Monitoring is on.
<LI> Five minutes between checks.
<LI> Ping device 2 times before declaring a device unreachable.
<LI> Ping packet size of 64 bytes.
<LI> Monitoring begins 60 seconds after HomeSeer starts.
<LI> Ping timeout of 1 seconds.
<LI> Doesn't add device type to DeviceString status. (e.g. OnLine instead of Computer OnLine)
<LI> Flag device failed after 5 consecutive failures.

Planned features not yet complete:
<LI> Ability to discover all devices on subnet.

This plugin is about 95% complete. I would like to know what other features you would like to see in this plugin.

Regards,
Ultrajones

[Schaap]

Would be nice to have ...

- The possibility to monitor services (website, mail, etc) I think of something like the "Radar Website monitor" (see http://www.apicalsoft.com/) but then integrated within HS and UltraView.

Ronald

[Ultrajones]

Would a simple tcp connection to be enough? That tests if the web site is actually listening on TCP port 80.

[wuench]

Why not just make the TCP port an option? Then we could monitor any application and it wouldn't be web specific. Also, some devices use SSL which would be port 443.

[Schaap]

Would be nice to have 2

Would a simple tcp connection to be enough? That tests if the web site is actually listening on TCP port 80.

Well better than nothing, but if the webserver is running but the website not you simply get a correct connect with the error page. I would prefer a bit more test, e.g. the answer should contain a (configurable) string, which makes clear that the website/ service is actualy up.

Besides some websites are only answering when called by Url not by IPort and some websites are not on port 80

Regards,

Ronald

[pp]

Ultra,
Most use the device name or fixed ip for device lookup status. I would like to see the option of maybe using mac addresses to find device status.

[zimmer62]

I must be a little confused. I've installed the plugin, and added a few devices... but I don't have any options for any devices. how does ultramon know what I'm talking about when I add a device of computer.... shouldn't it want an ip address to ping? or does it only work from the device name?

[zimmer62]

Okay, I guess I got my first device to work, I wasn't patient enough.

I would like to see the ability to have a name, then associate either an ip or mac address along with that name.

In the ultramon setting area, I'd like to see a list of all devices and their status under the status button.

possibly an option on that screen to get a particular devices status right now instead of waiting for the time period

and go check the status right away when adding a new device, so when checking it it's not unknown

[Ultrajones]

Ultra,
Most use the device name or fixed ip for device lookup status. I would like to see the option of maybe using mac addresses to find device status.

AFAIK, using the mac address to find a device would only work on the same subnet the device is attached to.

Have you considered using manual DHCP assignments for your networked devices? I use the Linksys WRT54G's with Sveasoft firmware which allows me to find my networked devices by either the short name or fully quallifed domain name (fqdn).

[pp]

What is SVeasoft firmware? I update my router with linksys updated firmware is there another one I can use?

[Ultrajones]

There are actually several. I subscribe to Sveasoft so I get their recent releases (currently Talisman/Basic 1.0.5)

See:
http://www.sveasoft.com/
http://www.wrt54g.net/

Using Sveasoft's firmware allows me to rediect syslog (including iptables output) to UltraLog and a Microsoft SQL 2000 DB. I am seeing about 20,000+ entries daily from 3 WRT54G's. :-)

[Ultrajones]

I uploaded a new test version.

New features:
- Wake On Lan feature added
- Device summary feature added
- Other code improvements

See http://board.homeseer.com/showpost.p...63&postcount=7

Regards,
Ultrajones

[polycron]

I've had a few problems with the test plugin. I entered all of the MAC addresses and my 3 (turned on) computers came back with IP addresses and hostnames correctly. The status was successful for all three. All of my other devices came back unsuccessful due to "Did not resolve". This included 3 other computers that were turned off (one of which is setup for WOL), a replayTV, two ethernet cameras, a linksys router (with sveasoft upgrade) and an Xbox.

I went into the .INI file and added the IP addresses for the devices that did not resolve. The status did not change for any of the devices. For fun, I tried the WOL option on one of the computers that was turned off. After putting in the IP address into the INI file it successfully woke the computer up however the status never did update to successful.

I then edited my hosts file and added the names of the devices and thier corrisponding IP addresses and the devices I added now show up with a status of success. I am not sure why my system was not recognizing the hostnames since they were added to my DHCP tables in the router. In any case, I see two issues:

1) Setting up the initial devices by MAC address may not be successful for some people who are unable to resolve the hostname and IP address with this method. (possibly a problem with the devices themselves?)
2) Using host names to initiate your ping may not work for people who have an "unclean" network such as mine appears to be. (IP address pinging works fine)

- Jeff

[Ultrajones]

I've had a few problems with the test plugin. I entered all of the MAC addresses and my 3 (turned on) computers came back with IP addresses and hostnames correctly. The status was successful for all three. All of my other devices came back unsuccessful due to "Did not resolve". This included 3 other computers that were turned off (one of which is setup for WOL), a replayTV, two ethernet cameras, a linksys router (with sveasoft upgrade) and an Xbox.

The plug-in relies on the Windows operating system for name resolution. The machines that were on resolved to a name using netbios. The others that were turned off didn't resolve because they were not defined in either DNS, your host files or resolvable via netbios. I suggest you use static DHCP for all your devices, then add the names and IP addresses to your hosts file.

Note: I loaded up Sveasoft 1.1 and it appears they can resolve anything defined as a static IP. My suggestion is you download the latest Sveasoft firmware (Talisman 1.1) and define a static IP for all your devices. Once that task is complete, your HomeSeer PC should be able to resolve all your hosts using DNS.

I went into the .INI file and added the IP addresses for the devices that did not resolve. The status did not change for any of the devices. For fun, I tried the WOL option on one of the computers that was turned off. After putting in the IP address into the INI file it successfully woke the computer up however the status never did update to successful.

The IP address in the ini file is only used to send a WOL packet. Other than that, the IP address is the last known IP for the HomeSeer device.

I then edited my hosts file and added the names of the devices and thier corrisponding IP addresses and the devices I added now show up with a status of success. I am not sure why my system was not recognizing the hostnames since they were added to my DHCP tables in the router.

This is due to the fact the dnsmasq is broken in the Sveasoft firmware. It should be fixed in their 1.1 release.

In any case, I see two issues:

1) Setting up the initial devices by MAC address may not be successful for some people who are unable to resolve the hostname and IP address with this method. (possibly a problem with the devices themselves?)

I found the best method to get the mac is to fire up the machine, then once it comes "on line" issue an "arp -a" from the command line.

2) Using host names to initiate your ping may not work for people who have an "unclean" network such as mine appears to be. (IP address pinging works fine)

You should be fine once you install the latest Sveasoft firmware and define a static IP for all your devices.

Regards,
Ultrajones

[rhodesep]

Schedule WOL via event

Guess this is just a question about WOL. I know it has been added to UltraMon. I had an event scheduled daily to turn on a PC using UltraWOL and it works just fine.

I can't figure out how to schedule the same event using UltraMon?