Greetings!
Welcome to the first crowdfunding campaign for the Internet Connection Informant, the ultimate broadband connection monitoring and management system.
A Quick List Of Features
Informant is arguably the most comprehensive connection monitor and manager in its price range, with a feature set that goes on and on and on, but the first few features are probably the most critical:
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Super Easy To Install. Informant's installation process is about as easy as it gets. Plug your modem's AC power cable or adapter into one outlet on the back of the unit, plug your router's power cable or adapter into the other outlet, connect a network cable from the unit to your router, and plug in Informant's power cable. Informant takes it from there.
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Super Easy To Use. Using Informant for its basic purpose doesn't require networking expertise. In fact, Informant was carefully designed to be as hands-off as possible. Of course, if you want to do more with Informant, you can, but that's entirely up to you.
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Totally Automatic Setup & Operation. Informant automatically detects your networking equipment and where it resides on your network, automatically configures itself accordingly, and automatically begins testing; your first basic "up/down" connection test will happen within a few moments and your first comprehensive connection test will be on the next quarter-hour.
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Your Information Is Private. Informant does not send anything out aside from test data such as DNS lookup requests and "pings." Informant does not monitor anything done by the users on a network, only the Internet connection to and from the network. The testing system is open-source, so you can inspect the program code and see for yourself.
If those aren't already enough to invite contributing and picking a perk (or two or three), let's get into some of the good stuff:
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Quick Tests Every 30 Seconds. Informant will perform a simple "is it up or not?" test once every 30 seconds (by default), by performing a "ping" (ICMP ECHO request) against up to five "ping"-friendly IP addresses. If this test fails, Informant logs the failure and restarts your modem and router.
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Comprehensive Tests Every 15 Minutes. Informant's comprehensive tests check for DNS lookup problems, slow website access, and also whether your modem and router are responsive or lagging. Results are recorded and reported.
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Latency/Route Monitoring. Informant can regularly test latency and routing (via "ping" and traceroute) up to 32 IP-address/port combinations. Know when a favorite game server, website, etc. is lagging or unreachable.
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Front-Panel OLED Display. See what Informant thinks of the connection, get status info, and see what the URL is for Informant's built-in website (next item!) directly from Informant.
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Built-In Mobile-Friendly Website. Informant includes a built-in web server, and the website it serves gives access to test results (see the next feature!), administration and configuration controls such as a one-click "restart modem/router" button, and more. Informant's website is also mobile-aware and responsive, so it works with almost any display size from mobile phone to 4K monitor and beyond.
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Charts! Charts Everywhere! Informant saves the results of up to 32,768 tests, and presents the data as charts. Check your connection's condition for the last 24 hours, last week, last month, or break tests down by the hour or day to see if your connection does strange things at specific times.
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Integrated Security. Informant does not send information outside your network except what it requires for testing, and its website won't allow access to outside IP addresses. As an additional safeguard, any device that wants to access administration and configuration controls must register itself with Informant by repeating a security code Informant will display, thus requiring direct physical access to the unit.
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Power Failure Detection and Recovery. Informant has its own internal power bank that allows the unit to detect a power failure, shut itself down gracefully, watch for the power to be restored, and restart everything once power has stayed up long enough to appear reasonably stable. All of this is automatic.
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No Subscriptions and No Apps Required. No monthly fees! We plan to offer additional services on a subscription basis at a later date, but these are entirely optional.
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Open-Source Testing Software. Informant's test scripts are written in Python and a programming API is provided. Inspect the program code yourself! Create your own tests! Try out tests written by others!
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Aggressive Attention To Safety. Informant includes a number of safeguards and fault detection systems for electrical safety, such as fused AC mains power input, industrial high-power relays, state-change lockouts, and AC mains voltage sensing. Informant also includes temperature sensing with overheat detection.
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Quiet Operation. With an aluminum chassis and fanless operation, Informant can reside quietly almost anywhere.
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We Support & Encourage Right To Repair. Informant's schematics, diagnostic and repair information, and testing system source code will all be available from Informant's website, and spare/replacement parts will also be available to keep your Informant up and running.
There's a lot more we can get into, as Informant's feature list is already extensive, and we plan to add more features and functionality during and after the campaign
Who Informant Is For
For Seniors
Informant's ability to automatically detect and report connection problems, and automatically restart networking equipment as needed, makes modern Internet-connected life a lot easier for Seniors. No need for messing with power cables when something acts up!
For the Family IT Person
If you're the "computer person" for your family, just imagine never again having to use the phrase "did you try unplugging it and plugging it back in?" Informant handles this for you. Plus, Informant supports VPN access, so you can reach into the family network from anywhere and monitor and/or manage the connection remotely.
For Small Businesses
Informant removes the need to babysit a company's broadband Internet connection. With a basic "up/down" test happening every 30 seconds (by default), Informant eliminates having to worry about unexpected downtime, or worse, not even knowing about the downtime for who knows how long. Stored test results make finding connection problems, and reporting them to your service provider, a lot easier.
For Travellers
Let Informant keep your connection up and running while you're not there, so you can reach your home network's servers and services.
For Everyone!
If you have a broadband Internet connection, Informant is for you. Informant can work with cable, DSL, or fiber, and supports most of the "officially supported" broadband modems in use throughout North America.
Risks & Challenges
This campaign is the gateway to our first production batch for Informant. As such, we've tried to do all of our homework to ensure minimum risk to all involved. Our target goal ensures that we can produce Informants in sufficient numbers to exploit the benefits of economy of scale and thus keep the per-unit production costs low enough to keep the asking price low, and this being a fixed-funding campaign means that we don't receive a cent unless we clear the cost hurdles from the very beginning.
Timeline
The process thus far:
- 29 Mar 2017: The first fully-functional proof-of-concept codebase is developed.
- 14 Oct 2017: The first fully-functional prototype is built.
- 11 Feb 2018: The second fully-functional prototype is built.
- 5 Aug 2018: The third fully-functional prototype is built. (This is the demo model shown in this campaign.)
- 1 Oct 2018: This crowdfunding campaign begins.
The process yet to come:
- November-December 2018: Development continues on a pre-production version, and tooling and equipment are acquired.
- January-May 2019: Certification and safety testing are conducted on pre-production units, and the production design is finalized.
- June 2019: Mass production begins.
- July 2019: The first wave of completed units ship to backers.
Naturally, the future plans are subject to change.
Stretch Goals
$500,000 Goal
If we reach this level, we'll design and offer three-outlet and four-outlet models in addition to this campaign's two-outlet. Control more devices from anywhere in your network!
$750,000 Goal
If we reach this level, we'll design an additional model that can perform separate WiFi connection testing, and can restart a router or WAP as required using a third or fourth outlet. Test your wireless connection as well as your wired!
$1,000,000 Goal
If we reach this level, we'll expand Informant from North America AC mains power only to as many other countries as we can.
Other Ways You Can Help
Of course we welcome any financial support you wish to give to our project. We also welcome any other forms of support you can offer, such as sharing this campaign on your social media accounts, or even telling friends and neighbors about that neat little box that resets your connection for you.
We even welcome the time you've spent reading our campaign information, and thank you for giving us a little bit of your day!