Network dropouts at some locations can be notoriously difficult to identify but if left unresolved, it can cause severe disruption to your cashless payment service and to your customers.
A popular technique used to check stability of network services is to execute what is known as a "Ping test". A ping test confirms that a device inside your network/store is able to access the internet without interruptions or dropouts over a continuous period of time.
You or your network provider will need to schedule a ping test for a continuous period of (say) 1-24 hours to check if your network goes down and becomes unresponsive during this period. If the network goes down, the Ping test will also help you identify how frequently it does that.
The Ping test is normally performed using the following steps:
.1Download a free "ping test" app on your phone or laptop eg. Ping Plotter.
.2Connect your phone or laptop to a WiFi network hosted on the MAIN modem router in your store which has the connection to the internet ie. do not connect the access point.
.3Now use the Ping Test app, to connect to an external site such as www.google.com every 5 seconds over a continuous period of at least 30 mins. Set packet timeout to 2000mS ie. network must respond within 2 seconds for the ping to be considered successful. .4The graph from Ping Test will help you identify if your network is denying connection or is dropping out frequently.
If there are issues identified by the ping test, speak to your ISP or your IT service provider about improving network stability and responsiveness.