NetSetMan Support

Wollsnoopy

Member

Registered: 2015-12-07

Posts: 3

More features for AutoActivation

Hi.
My situation:
NSM 4.0.4, Windows 7 Pro x64, NSM service activated.
I'm using two routers to connect to internet:
- Router no. 1 for LTE by provider A
- Router no. 2 for DSL by provider B
The LTE connection is my standard connection. Often the connection fails for longer time. Therefore I have as a backup the DSL connection. If the LTE connection fails, I manually switch to DSL. That works fine. If the LTE connection is available again I swich back to LTE manually.
In version 4 of NSM there is the AutoActivation feature. I tried to use switching as described before with the condition "Network Location":
- For "Profil LTE": If Network Location LTE is available activate Profil LTE
- For "Profil DSL": If Network Location LTE is not available activate Profile DSL

This settings don't work, because NSM doesn't notice, that the external WAN connection of the LTE router fails. If I manually try to change to profil DSL, NSM switchs automatically back to profil LTE, because the router itself is reachable but not the WAN side of the router.

I think it would be helpful for some situations (like mine), to check this condition and activate an alternative profil.

Wollsnoopy

NetSetMan Support

Administrator

Registered: 2005-08-06

Posts: 1,878

Re: More features for AutoActivation

I tried to use switching as described before with the condition "Network Location":
- For "Profil LTE": If Network Location LTE is available activate Profil LTE
- For "Profil DSL": If Network Location LTE is not available activate Profile DSL

This settings don't work, because NSM doesn't notice, that the external WAN connection of the LTE router fails. If I manually try to change to profil DSL, NSM switchs automatically back to profil LTE, because the router itself is reachable but not the WAN side of the router.

I'm not completely sure about your hardware setup but I assume that even if your LTE connection fails it's still physically connected to your system. Therefore Windows considers that network location still to be present. This is regardless of whether your LTE device is functional or not.

NetSetMan requires some technical condition to decide whether to switch a profile or not. I'm not sure which one it could be in your case. One part of the solution might be to use the Ping condition instead and ping some remote IP to see if it's responding (Internet available) or not (Internet not available). That way you could easily switch from LTE to DSL. However, assuming that your DSL connection is always online it wouldn't switch back to LTE. At this point you need to ask yourself which technical condition might be available switching to LTE. If the LTE connection is always present but not not always functional the only way to find out if it's currently working or not would be to switch to it and try it out. This however cannot be represented by a condition.

Wollsnoopy

Member

Registered: 2015-12-07

Posts: 3

Re: More features for AutoActivation

Yes, I agree to your comments. With the actual options I have no chance to change automatically between my two profiles fully automatically.
Therefore I asked here for "More features for AutActivation".
I think about the way some routers/firewall with two WAN ports handles such problems:
My two profiles have different gateway and DNS settings. When it would be possible to PING not generally but separate for each profile, it would be possible to check, whether the WAN network behind each router is working. Then NSM should know, which network is actual reachable and a automatic switching to the backup network and automatic switching back should be possible.

Wollsnoopy

NetSetMan Support

Administrator

Registered: 2005-08-06

Posts: 1,878

Re: More features for AutoActivation

PING not generally but separate for each profile

The AutoSwitch preferences are individual for each profile, so the Ping actually is performed separately.

it would be possible to check, whether the WAN network behind each router is working

How exactly would this be possible from a technical point of view?
To find out if the network behind a router is working you have to be in that network. You can only check whether your current network is connected to the Internet or not.

Wollsnoopy

Member

Registered: 2015-12-07

Posts: 3

Re: More features for AutoActivation

OK, you are right! I got lost in the woods ;-)
For an external router/firewall device it is possible to check each WAN port separatly. For NSM it isn't!
I think, you can close this topic.

Thanks for the great program and your fast response.

Wollsnoopy