Basically, the Internet Outage Heatmap shows you the geographical map of your internet and help you figure out where the problems are happening. It will show you a map of your location and status of internet outages from the selected location. This will help you see the problems (literally) on the map.
How the Internet Outage Heatmap gets information?
The Internet Outage Heatmap presents a very detailed map with a lot of information. The source of this information are the agents and users. Mostly, we have agents at multiple locations that keeps us updated about the state of the internet at their position. So, if there is a problem in the internet at an agents place, they will inform us and the map will be updated. Sometimes, the agent might not be able to get in touch with us (probably because of the internet outage), in that case, we will also update the map with an indicator of unconfirmed outage. The other source of our information are the users. Users have the option to submit an Internet Outage report which is then updated on our map. Once the outage is reported, our agents try to confirm it from their location.
How do I use the Internet Outage HeatMap?
The first thing you should do is enter the location or the zip code of the location you want to check for the internet outage. You can also set the filters for a specific Internet Service Provider (ISP) from the top right corner of the map. Once you are presented with the Internet Outage map, you will be able to see multiple locations with colored dots (explanation given below).
Below the map, you will be able to see the outage activity as well. It will show you the history of the outage activity. There are a few things that will be mentioned in the Outage activity that include the ISP that was down, location of the outage, time and date of the outage, the total amount of time that the outage remained and the status of the outage e.g. solved or not.
What do the dots represent on the Internet Outage Heatmap?
Map Dots The dots that you can see on the map represents the status of the internet outage. The dots will be one of these colors: red, yellow and green. These dots represent the status of the internet connectivity at those places. The dots will also have a number associated with them which represents the number of agents at that place. You can actually zoom to see the exact location of all of those agents. Red Dot: The Red Dot with a location means that there is a confirmed outage at that place. This means that their certainly is an outage in that area and confirmed by the agents in that location. The dots are updated very quickly which means that you will be able to see the updated status within a few minutes. Yellow Dot: The yellow dot represents an unconfirmed outage in the area. This means that there were reports of the outage in the area but the agent at that location haven’t confirmed yet. The delay in the confirmation will most likely mean that there is an internet outage which caused the confirmation delay. However, an unconfirmed outage doesn’t always mean that there is an outage, it can be because of an unstable internet or because of some other reasons. Another scenario that might cause the yellow dot to appear is a report of internet outage by a user (instead of an agent). The reports that are submitted by the users are first confirmed by the agents. If there is no agent available in that area then the outage will automatically be removed within 6 hours. Green Dot: Green dot is the good indicator. A green dot means that there is no internet outage in that area and we can easily reach the agents available at that location.
Report Outage
As a user, you can actually report the outage as well. You can report the outage by opening the map and clicking on the report outage link on the top right corner of the map. Your reported outage will be indicated with a yellow dot along with your avatar (to give you credit). The dot will stay yellow until the outage is confirmed by one of our agents at the location. If the outage isn’t confirmed within 6 hours then the status will be removed. But, if the outage is confirmed by one of our agents then the yellow dot will be replaced with a red dot.
Why would anyone use the Internet Outage Heatmap?
The Internet Outage Heatmap can be used by both the users as well as the IT professionals. Users: Users can use the Internet outage Heatmap to confirm the internet outage. Sometimes, the problem might be on your end rather than the ISP’s end. We usually spend hours trying to get in touch with the customer support of our ISP only to find out that there was an issue from our end. So, if your net isn’t working then you can use the Internet Outage Heatmap to check the outage in your location (you need to have a backup internet for this to work, actually). If you see a yellow or a red dot at your location then that means there is an internet outage around you. In that case, you should contact your ISP. On the other hand, if you see green dot on your location then you should check your end instead of contacting the ISP. IT Professionals: As an IT Professional, you should use the Internet Outage Heatmap to check the outage in a specific area. In most cases, when you get complaints of outage in an area, it can be on the user’s end instead of your end. So, the Internet Outage Heatmap will come in handy in these situations to confirm the source of problem. You can check whether the agents at the complaint location have confirmed the outage or not. If you see all green dots around the location of the complaining users then that is a clear indicator that there is a problem at their end and not yours. This can save you a lot of time and headache. Another scenario in which the Internet Outage Heatmap can be very useful is the remote sites. If you have remote sites installed at a location and you can’t establish the connection to these sites then using the Internet Outage Heatmap can give you an idea about the problem. If there is an outage in the area of the remote sites then you can sit back and relax. But, if there are green dots all around the location of your remote site then that means the problem is because of a changed configuration or something else.
Final Words
Basically, Internet Outage Heatmap is a tool that is suitable for both IT Professionals and internet users. You can confirm the outages within a few minutes without any effort. Since the Internet Outage Heatmap is updated every few minutes, the information on the map is quite reliable as well. In short, it is a useful tool and a must have to save time and effort.
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