The ( ) is the network of devices such as vehicles, and home appliances that contain , , , , and which allows these things to connect, interact and exchange . (Thank you for that definition, Wikipedia!) Internet of things IoT electronics software sensors actuators connectivity data Most people are aware, more or less, of the meaning of and its importance. It has become the and with 5G and other technologies coming in the near future, the number of IoT devices constantly increases. Today we can find more and more “smart” devices (besides our laptops and smartphones) that can connect over the internet, be remotely controlled and monitored making, well most of the times, our lives easier and connected (to practically anything). IoT newest trend While the first word of the acronym IoT is “Internet” (the global network of interconnected computer networks linking devices worldwide), . not all IoT devices need to be connected to the Internet, or — at least, not always An from the is a (local) network of that and send the collected data, via some protocol i.e. 802.11 (mostly known as WiFi), to a nearby base station. In this example, . If we suppose that the base station is the local office of the staff team we could also assume that periodically they gather the data to another facility or even process it there, on site. Of course, the base station could have been connected to the internet, but that doesn’t necessarily take from its functionality. example agricultural area sensors measure the temperature and humidity levels the system does not need to be connected to the Internet On the other hand, there are some devices, like , that almost to truly benefit from the full potential of IoT devices as such. So let's suppose we want to protect our household by installing an IP camera with motion and sound detection settings, that alerts us when something is detected with a notification and/or an email. for some reason (technical or malicious) at our home? We would be since we wouldn't get an email, and as soon as someone tried to invade into our house, while our camera would have just stopped working without any warning. IP cameras demand Internet connectivity What happens if we lose internet connectivity under the illusion that everything is secure that our IoT device would alert us (please inform me in the comments below if you know any) that actually the user that his IoT device has become just “oT”, meaning that it has (something that could be very important in some cases as we discussed earlier). I am not aware of any IoT device notify lost internet connectivity That is why I am proposing that IoT devices that are connected to the Internet should all include . That feature is . If at the side of the IoT device there is no internet access, of course, there aren’t any means of sending an alert. That is why I am suggesting that (at a rate that will be determined by the severity of the device's task and need to be online) . a basic feature to notify when internet connectivity is lost from the device at the client side app there should be monitoring of the connection between device and controller app In our previous , the i.e. would have of the home router, the user would have been , thus taking the appropriate measures to (calling the ISP, sending someone to check, etc). IP camera example smartphone app detected the loss of internet connectivity sent a notification resolve the problem Let’s see some independent now! For those who own a Raspberry Pie (or a Linux machine that you can have running all day), I have some code that you could check out too. solutions Pinger application First of all, I have made a , , that , notifying when the connection is down, thus avoiding to leave your IoT devices “I”-less. smartphone application Pinger monitors the Internet connectivity of your home router https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=appeiro.pinger Second, I have written a simple BASH . You can run the shell script in your for example (having it connected to an external power supply, e.g. power bank) when you are outside of your LAN and use it once again to your . script Raspberry Pie check internet connectivity #!/bin/bash# Pinger: Receive a message/email when your host is down echo "Enter the IP address or host name."read ipaddr echo "Enter the refresh rate of ping checking (in minutes)."read rate minrate=$((rate * 60)) ping -c 1 $ipaddr >/dev/nullresponse=$? while [ $response -eq 0 ]doecho "Your internet connection seems to be UP"ping -c 1 $ipaddr >/dev/nullresponse=$?sleep $minratedone echo "Attention! Your internet connection seems to be DOWN"# send an email alert via ssmtp, see how at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QT-6NbjqjDM So to sum it up, it is important to be aware of when and if our IoT devices are connected to the Internet. Alarming the user that his device has no longer internet connection should be, in my opinion, a basic feature in IoT and smart devices that depend on online connectivity. Learned something? Hold down the 👏 to support and help others find this article. Thanks for reading!! Follow me on Twitter @konpap1996
