Using ConstantCare

Our ConstantCare dashboard contains everything network owners need to see about individual Device Agents. For example, an internet service provider’s (ISP’s) customer support staff can use ConstantCare to understand the service provided to a single home so that they can resolve users’ queries faster. Support staff can quickly see how key metrics have performed over time, run an instant test to check current performance, and see if there's been any dropouts or disconnections.

Below, we explain what you can view on the ConstantCare dashboard.

Note: to get to the dashboard from the home screen, you need to type in a user’s details, such as the MAC address, router serial number, agent ID, etc.

Speed, Latency and Loss

We monitor users’ broadband connections by frequently running scheduled tests between their Device Agents (e.g., router) and the nearest test server.

These tests check the quality of their internet service by measuring download speed, upload speed, latency, and packet loss.

On the Tests tab of the ConstantCare dashboard, these core metrics are displayed as an average along the top of the dashboard. When selected, the test’s performance is displayed as a time series chart, so you can see changes to internet performance over time.

Disconnections

The disconnections widget is useful for troubleshooting when and how long your customers’ internet has been disconnected. The test agent constantly checks to see if their internet connection is active. If there are any disconnections, they are plotted on this chart.

The chart does not update while the agent is offline but will automatically update once there is a connection.

Instant Tests

An instant test measures five metrics including download speed, upload speed, latency, jitter, and packet loss. Measurement results are streamed in real time and displayed on the dashboard.

Skipped Scheduled Tests

Click the Skipped tests button above the instant tests widget to view any skipped tests.

Typically, Device Agents are scheduled to test the internet connection every hour, although custom test schedules can be configured.

Sometimes scheduled tests are skipped to avoid negatively impacting the users’ internet experience and impairing our measurement results.

By only testing when the connection is idle we can eliminate any unknown factors such as background network activity to ensure the test results are accurate and comparable. For this reason, limits are set for network activity and CPU load; if these limits are exceeded the test will not run.

See Testing Thresholds for more information about why we skip some tests.

Additional Charts

Customers can customize their ConstantCare dashboard by adding charts for application tests of popular services, or other metrics such as DNS response time, or Jitter.

Click the +Add charts button to bring up the optional charts wizard.

Cisco Real Speed Tests

On the Real Speed tests tab of the dashboard, you can view any Cisco Real Speed test results, and see how many previous tests have run in the selected date range. ISP/enterprise staff cannot run the tests themselves but can provide the URL to their users to run the test while on the phone, for example, which will update the Cisco Real Speed results on-screen in real time.

Mobile Device Limits

Where data is available, each device used for a Cisco Real Speed test is listed and the expected device limitation displayed as a range. We flag each device which looks like its speed is being limited by the hardware, not the available speed on the network.