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ISP network outage text alerts for your tower and fiber crew

When a backhaul link or an AP sector drops at night, the subscriber calls start at six. Welco texts the down alert your monitor already emails to the tech on call, cut to the tower and the device. They can plan the truck roll before the support queue fills up.

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  • One email contact in your monitor
  • No SMS gateway or modem to run
  • No per-user fees

Works by email with

  • LibreNMS
  • OpenNMS
  • Ping & uptime monitors
  • WhatsUp Gold

A network map watched by Network monitor: five hosts answer pings until Ridge Tower goes down (No ping reply) and the monitor raises the alert. The email reaches Welco and the phone shows: “Welco: [Ridge Tower] AP sector 2 ping DOWN at 12:12 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.”

Animation: alerts arrive through the night and each goes to the right person. 12:12 a.m., to On-call network tech: "Welco: [Ridge Tower] AP sector 2 ping DOWN at 12:12 AM. Reply STOP to opt out." 3:27 a.m., to Field tech: "Welco: Tower monitoring Hilltop, alarm on Zone 2: Power at 3:27 AM. Reply STOP to opt out." 5:51 a.m., to NOC lead: "Welco: [Backhaul] Link east-pop-03 DOWN, no ICMP 5 min at 5:51 AM. Reply STOP to opt out."

What a small ISP gets from Welco at night

Outage alerts reach the right tech by text at night, named by tower and device. They come from the network monitor you already run.

  • The tower and sector, not just an IP

    Cutting alerts to one text keeps the site and device names. The tech knows which grain elevator or hill before opening the laptop.

  • Backhaul texts, one radio waits

    Alert rules text POP and backhaul alerts at any hour. A single customer radio stays in email for the morning.

  • A fiber cut stays a few texts

    When every AP behind a cut alarms at once, flood control for alarm storms caps the burst.

  • Each tower crew gets its own sites

    Rules match the site names in each alert, so the field tech who covers a tower gets that tower's alarms through on-call routing.

A fiber cut on the east backhaul, 2 a.m. on a Thursday

A rural Saskatchewan wireless ISP runs one on-call network tech and a two-person tower crew. Here is one cut span, start to finish.

  1. LibreNMS emails a backhaul down alert

    Alert for device bh-east-01: Device Down. Severity: critical. Rule: Devices up/down

  2. Flood control holds back the AP storm

    Fourteen APs behind the link alarm next. Welco texts a few, and the rest stay in the monitor and the inbox.

  3. The on-call tech reads the link name

    Welco: [East POP] bh-east-01 backhaul DOWN, severity critical at 2:03 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.

  4. The tech replies after checking the optics

    Light loss on the east span, looks like a cut. Truck rolls at first light

  5. The reply reaches the NOC mailbox

    Replies are emailed to the alert's sender. Send alerts from a mailbox the NOC lead reads, and the morning crew knows a truck is booked.

    Reply from the on-call phone: Light loss on the east span, looks like a cut. Truck rolls at first light

  6. The tower crew heads out with a splice kit

    The crew is on the road before the support line opens. The delivery report shows which phone got which text overnight.

Times are an example, and the mobile networks decide how fast each text lands. A reply from the field leaves the alert open in LibreNMS.

How to set up ISP outage text alerts

One person in the NOC can do this. Your monitor gets one new email contact.

  1. Sign up and verify your ISP

    Tell us you send staff alerts about your own network. Verification comes first, so the alert number carries nothing else.

  2. Invite the NOC and the tower crew

    Each tech opens their invite, enters their own cellphone and replies YES. Field techs need a cellphone, since landlines can't get texts.

  3. Add the contact and down a spare radio

    Add your Welco address in the monitor, approve the sender, then unplug a spare radio on the bench. Test mode shows each text first.

Text your next backhaul outage to the tech on call

Verify your ISP and add one email contact to your network monitor.

7-day free trial, 15 message creditsCard required for verificationNo charge for 7 daysEmail reminder before billing

Text me my server alertsBook a demo

Which network monitors can send ISP outage texts?

If your monitor sends email, Welco can text it. Guides cover LibreNMS device down alerts, OpenNMS outage texts and WhatsUp Gold alerts in each tool's own menus.

Network alerts a small ISP acts on

Masked examples. PRTG sensor alerts, ping and uptime monitors and APC UPS alerts read much the same. Broadcast engineers and MSPs and data centers chase similar sites, as the Welco industry pages show.

  • AP sector: Welco: [Mill Rd Tower] Sector 3 AP no ping, 22 radios offline at 11:40 PM. Reply STOP to opt out.
  • Tower power: Welco: [Hilltop] Site panel Zone 1 AC power FAIL, on battery at 4:12 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.
  • POP router: Welco: [North POP] core-rtr2 BGP session to upstream DOWN at 3:36 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.

A phone showing these alert texts: AP sector, "Welco: [Mill Rd Tower] Sector 3 AP no ping, 22 radios offline at 11:40 PM. Reply STOP to opt out."; Tower power, "Welco: [Hilltop] Site panel Zone 1 AC power FAIL, on battery at 4:12 AM. Reply STOP to opt out."; POP router, "Welco: [North POP] core-rtr2 BGP session to upstream DOWN at 3:36 AM. Reply STOP to opt out."

Which network alerts should text the ISP tech on call?

Text the outages that cut off many subscribers at once: backhaul, POP routers, whole AP sectors and tower power. A single customer radio can wait in email for the morning.

Text at any hour

  • A backhaul or fiber link down.
  • A POP or core router down, or an upstream BGP session lost.
  • A whole AP sector that stops answering ping.
  • Tower or hut AC power failed, with the site on battery.
  • The DHCP or RADIUS server down, so subscribers can't connect.

Keep for the morning

One customer radio offline, signal and SNR warnings, bandwidth over a threshold, and recoveries. The support team can work through those after 8 a.m.

Name devices for the tower they sit on

Put the tower or POP in each device name, like bh-east-01 or Ridge Tower. Rules match those names, so each crew only gets its own sites. Also keep device names short enough for one text.

A POP router outage from OpenNMS, as a text

Outage emails from network monitors are wordy. Welco keeps the node and the time, which is what the tech needs to start.

Alert email from opennms@noc.example.net, subject “Node down: pop-west-rtr1”. Welco trims it to one text of 77 characters: “Welco: [pop-west-rtr1] All services DOWN at 2:38 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.”

Text received: Welco: [pop-west-rtr1] All services DOWN at 2:38 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.

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Animation: the alert email "Node down: pop-west-rtr1" is trimmed into one text: "Welco: [pop-west-rtr1] All services DOWN at 2:38 AM. Reply STOP to opt out."

The full email still lands in your inbox. The text drops the boilerplate.

Outage nights at a small ISP, before and after Welco

Before

  • Subscribers calling the support line is how you learn a sector is down.
  • An SMS modem in the NOC rack that somebody has to keep a SIM in.
  • One fiber cut pages the tech once for every AP behind it.
  • Every tech gets every tower, even the ones three hours up the highway.

With Welco

  • The link name on the lock screen, often before the first call.
  • Nothing to keep in the rack, because Welco sends the texts.
  • A capped burst, then the tech goes to the network map.
  • Each tower crew gets the sites it covers.

Frequently asked questions

Do we need an SMS gateway, a modem or a carrier deal?

No. Welco sends the texts for you, so there is no gateway box, SIM or carrier contract to manage. Your monitor gets one new email contact, and only senders you approve can trigger a text. The alert emails your NOC gets today keep arriving as before.

One fiber cut can take down dozens of access points. How many texts will the tech get?

Only a few. Flood control caps how many texts a burst sends, and a night rule can text just the backhaul or POP alert. Alerts past the cap are not texted, so the tech should open the monitor after the first one. A resent email still becomes one text per phone.

Can each tower crew get only the towers they cover?

Yes. Most monitors put the tower or site name in the alert. Write one rule per area that matches those names, and pick the field tech for each. The on-call network tech can sit on every rule and still get each alert once.

What does the tech see, and can they reply from a tower?

A normal text, no app, after the tech has confirmed their own cellphone with YES. A reply goes by email to the address that sent the alert. If your monitor sends from a no-reply address, alerts still text, but nobody will see the reply.

Will alerts still reach our techs if our own network is down?

Only if the alert email can still leave. If your monitoring server sits behind the same upstream that failed, its mail may be stuck too. Host one monitor off your network or give the mail path a backup link. Each text that does go out shows in the delivery report, with the reason if it failed.

What does Welco cost a small ISP?

Field techs can be added without buying seats, since Welco charges no per-user, hardware or setup fee. Your plan covers the message credits your alerts use, listed in US dollars on plans and pricing. Running out pauses texts unless you hold a credit pack, and there is never an overage charge. Try 15 credits over 7 days first, with no charge to your card until you approve a plan.

Find the dead backhaul before the first subscriber calls

Point your network monitor at Welco and add your techs.

Text me my server alertsBook a demo

7-day free trial, 15 message creditsCard required for verificationNo charge for 7 daysEmail reminder before billing