SPUG: Perl alert system which will call me

Richard Seymour UW-NPL SEYMOUR at npl.npl.washington.edu
Fri Aug 30 12:57:59 CDT 2002


> From: Matthew.Bustad [mailto:mbustad at Myrio.com]
>  Usually you just send email to your phone or pager.

On Fri, 30 Aug 2002, Peter Darley wrote:
> The problem with this is that I won't know what part of the system is down,
> and if the network is down it would be foolish to rely on email.  Plus I
> don't have a pager, or an email address for my phone.

Um... buy a pager?   Paging service is about $120/year.  If you
spend one extra day trying to wedge in a more complex solution, it's
not  cost-effective. Simple non-email Pager systems can accept/display
touch-tone numeric codes to tell you -what- is wrong.

Since you want to isolate your alert system from network failures 
you still are going to be depending upon the phone system.
(what -are- you going to do if\\ when the alert system does down?),

We have vital systems with a web of layered (i.e. piles of partial) solutions...
including the last resort: a RadioShack $99 tape-based, battery-powered
phone dialer.
If the rest of the building collapses, a normally-actively-held-open relay
drops out and an off-site phoneline is dialled (three numbers, message
repeats to each).

You could have your system Email you.
If it determined that Email wasn't going to work, it could invoke
 a Draconiam system like our final link (or -always- call you with
the canned message to "check your Email"... if you didn't -get- email,
you'd know it was the network)

have fun
--dick

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