The Fingbox has been monitoring my network for some time now. I reviewed this network device in November. Since then, Fing – the companion app went through several updates bringing new functions. Recent Fingbox updates can back your case up against ISPs.
Fingbox updates
One one of the most useful updates was scheduled network tests. I no longer had to create RaspberryPi scripts and run it on a schedule, then worry about extracting data on my own. I might write about it one day if people are interested.
Fingbox updates bring six schedules per day, to check the speed of your internet connection. This update quickly got followed up by feedback, requesting the logs being available outside of the Fing app. Currently, you can request the email with a detailed summary of your internet performance. I just got my first email and I thought I would share (some) the data with you.
Frankly speaking, I was expecting bare logs in the email. It’s nice to see the extra data, especially downtime and daily average values. It saves a lot of time. I no longer have to revert back to an excel file to get some number crunching going.
ISP issues? Fingbox got you covered!
There is nothing more annoying than dealing with ISPs. Network faults are hard to prove to customer support. The network usually fixes itself before I get through the 30 min of wait music to speak to someone.
Thanks to the pretty decent summary you can report the faults, speed issues and back it all up with a nicely presented email summary. The Fingbox is actually clever enough to figure out the difference between being disconnected from the router and not having internet at all. I unplugged the Fingbox for over 24h which didn’t count towards the downtime.
If your internet is particularly bad, you could use this data to get yourself a better deal, or even cancel the contract altogether.
More Fingbox updates this year
Apparently the API and some 3rd party support on its way. I asked them nicely for Tasker, but for now, they all keep quiet about what’s slated this year. The Fingbox development has been going well and I’m looking forward to the incoming API.
I’m really pleased with the Fingbox so far. While you could argue that you could get that information on the cheap, using a combination of a Raspberry Pi and a router, the Finbox comes in a very neat, user-friendly package. All I need now is IFTTT or Twitter integration to tag my ISP automatically when the network goes down!
