Usually I like to monitor as much as possible. but unfortunately my cable provider does not allow to access the cable modem via SNMP, so I had to find a different way to retrieve at least some basic information. After a bit of googling I figured out how to access the web interface of the Scientific Atlanta modems. The model here is a EPC2203 - seems to work for various models, though.
These modems do not only provide access to the traffic within the cable network on their internal networking port (ever tried tcpdump on that?), but they also have their own IP (192.168.100.1). To be able to access the modem you should add something like
post-up ip addr add 192.168.100.2/31 dev extern0 true
to the configuration of the interface which is connected to the cable modem. Make sure you're not using the same network internally - or find a proper way to handle it. If you access http://192.168.100.1/ then, you'll be able to retrieve some basic information form the modem. If you google a bit longer, you might even be able to do more stuff!
But to monitor the power levels and signal-to-noise ratio, this is all we need. I'm using
Munin usually, as the web interface is just much easier to setup than the
collectd CGI (hint, hint!!). Drop the following two scripts into the Munin plugins folder. wget, sed and grep is all they need, so it should be easy to get them working.
cablemodem signalnoise.sh
#!/bin/sh
# Copyright (c) 2010 Bernd Zeimetz <bzed@debian.org>
#
# Permission to use, copy, modify, and/or distribute this software for any
# purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above
# copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies.
#
# THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES
# WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
# MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR
# ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES
# WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN
# ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF
# OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
PATH=/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin
export PATH
if [ "$1" = "config" ]; then
echo graph_title cable modem signal to noise ratio
echo 'graph_args --base 1000'
echo 'graph_vlabel dB'
echo 'graph_category network'
echo 'graph_info This graph shows the signal to noise ratio of the Scientific-Atlanta cable modem.'
echo "signalnoise.label ratio"
echo "signalnoise.info Signal to noise ratio"
echo 'signalnoise.draw LINE2'
echo 'signalnoise.type GAUGE'
exit 0
fi
wget -q -O - http://192.168.100.1/system.asp \
grep 'Signal to Noise' \
sed 's,.* ,signalnoise.value ,;s, dB.*,,'
cablemodem powerlevel.sh
#!/bin/sh
# Copyright (c) 2010 Bernd Zeimetz <bzed@debian.org>
#
# Permission to use, copy, modify, and/or distribute this software for any
# purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above
# copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies.
#
# THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES
# WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
# MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR
# ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES
# WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN
# ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF
# OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE
PATH=/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin
export PATH
if [ "$1" = "config" ]; then
echo graph_title cable modem power level
echo 'graph_args --base 1000'
echo 'graph_vlabel dBmV'
echo 'graph_category network'
echo 'graph_info This graph shows receive and transmit power levels of the Scientific-Atlanta cable modem.'
echo "receive.label receive"
echo "receive.info Receive power level"
echo 'receive.draw LINE2'
echo 'receive.type GAUGE'
echo "transmit.label transmit"
echo "transmit.info Transmit power level"
echo "transmit.draw LINE2"
echo "transmit.type GAUGE"
exit 0
fi
wget -q -O - http://192.168.100.1/system.asp grep dBmV \
sed -e 's,.* ,,;s, dBmV.*,,' \
-e '1s/^/receive.value /' \
-e '2s/^/transmit.value /'
Guess you can easily figure out when I had issues with my cable connection.
Guess you can easily figure out when I had issues with my cable connection.
Being a rather patient and peaceful guy, I acknowledge that perfection is a difficult goal and I rarely rant publicly about troubles I ve stumbled upon.
