I've got a Samsung Galaxy A5, and I'd like to be able to work out
whether or not it is on my home network.

The phone always gets the same IP address allocated to it by my router.
However, it seems that if I ping it from a computer, it doesn't always
respond. The behaviour is consistent. If the phone is active (screen
saver is off), then it responds, but if the screen saver has kicked in,
then it doesn't respond. It looks as though the computery side of it
(distinct from the phone side of it) goes into hibernation, so ignores
what ever is going on on my network. If this is the case (and in many
ways it make sense from a power saving point of view), is there anyway
(without rooting it) that I can persuade it to respond to pings without
having to wake it up first ?

TIA

Adrian
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Adrian wrote:

> is there anyway (without rooting it) that I can persuade it to
> respond to pings without having to wake it up first ?

Phones will wake themselves periodically, newer android co-ordinates
that between all apps wanting background data access to reduce battery
usage.

There are MAC based scanners (e.g. on rPi) to be used as phone presence
detectors, they can integrate with node-red to trigger actions when
specific phones appear/dissapear, or show a dashboard of "who's home?'

In message <ij6152F9uvbU1@mid.individual.net>, Andy Burns
<usenet@andyburns.uk> writes

>Phones will wake themselves periodically, newer android co-ordinates
>that between all apps wanting background data access to reduce battery
>usage.
>

I "need" to know "now" rather than periodically, but that is interesting
to know.

>There are MAC based scanners (e.g. on rPi) to be used as phone presence
>detectors, they can integrate with node-red to trigger actions when
>specific phones appear/dissapear, or show a dashboard of "who's home?'
>

Thanks, that sounds like the sort of thing I'm looking for. More
investigation required.

Adrian
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>>There are MAC based scanners (e.g. on rPi) to be used as phone
>>presence detectors, they can integrate with node-red to trigger
>>actions when specific phones appear/dissapear, or show a dashboard of
>>"who's home?'
>>
>
>Thanks, that sounds like the sort of thing I'm looking for. More
>investigation required.
>

If anyone is interested, the arp-scan package on a RPi does what I want.

Adrian
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On 6/19/2021 3:24 AM, Adrian wrote:
> I've got a Samsung Galaxy A5, and I'd like to be able to work out
> whether or not it is on my home network.
>
> The phone always gets the same IP address allocated to it by my router.
> However, it seems that if I ping it from a computer, it doesn't always
> respond.  The behaviour is consistent.  If the phone is active (screen
> saver is off), then it responds, but if the screen saver has kicked in,
> then it doesn't respond.  It looks as though the computery side of it
> (distinct from the phone side of it) goes into hibernation, so ignores
> what ever is going on on my network.  If this is the case (and in many
> ways it make sense from a power saving point of view), is there anyway
> (without rooting it) that I can persuade it to respond to pings without
> having to wake it up first ?
>
> TIA
>
> Adrian

On my iPhone 6s Plus, if the phone is in hibernation it's the same
thing, no ping.

What I tried, and what works, is first sending the phone an SMS. That
wakes it up. Then the ping works. I had about 8 seconds to do the ping
before the phone hibernated again.

You can send the phone an SMS from your computer using Google Voice, or
via e-mail by using the carrier's SMS gateway
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_gateway>.

sms wrote:

> You can send the phone an SMS from your computer [...] using the carrier's SMS gateway

UK networks tend not to provide email-2-sms gateways (Orange used to).

On 6/21/2021 7:14 AM, Andy Burns wrote:
> sms wrote:
>
>> You can send the phone an SMS from your computer [...] using the
>> carrier's SMS gateway
>
> UK networks tend not to provide email-2-sms gateways (Orange used to).

For occasional use you could use something like
<https://www.afreesms.com/> which is somewhat of a pain to use, but does
work and has no cost.

Adrian <bulleid@ku.gro.lioff> wrote:
> >>There are MAC based scanners (e.g. on rPi) to be used as phone
> >>presence detectors, they can integrate with node-red to trigger
> >>actions when specific phones appear/dissapear, or show a dashboard of
> >>"who's home?'
> >>
> >
> >Thanks, that sounds like the sort of thing I'm looking for. More
> >investigation required.
> >
>
> If anyone is interested, the arp-scan package on a RPi does what I want.

You have already a solution, but perhaps the below is still
worthwhile.

You use the Turnpike newsreader, so I assume one of your platforms is
Windows.

If so, I get the impression that the smartphone 'wakes up' if you
*first* do a 'arp -a' and *then* a ping. At least that seems to work for
my Samsung Galaxy A51 with Android 11 and my Windows 8.1 laptop.

N.B. I could confirm this by using Nirsoft's 'Wireless Network
Watcher' on the laptop. When 'Wireless Network Watcher' no longer 'sees'
the smartphone, i.e. it's sleeping, a ping will fail. But by doing a
'arp -a', a subsequent ping will succeed.

HTH.

Frank Slootweg wrote:

> I get the impression that the smartphone 'wakes up' if you
> *first* do a 'arp -a' and*then* a ping

"arp -a" simply dumps windows' ARP table from memory, can't see how that
would wake-up the phone?

In message <saq89d$31o$1@dont-email.me>, sms <scharf.steven@geemail.com>
writes
>On 6/21/2021 7:14 AM, Andy Burns wrote:
>> sms wrote:
>>
>>> You can send the phone an SMS from your computer [...] using the
>>>carrier's SMS gateway
>> UK networks tend not to provide email-2-sms gateways (Orange used
>>to).
>
>For occasional use you could use something like
><https://www.afreesms.com/> which is somewhat of a pain to use, but
>does work and has no cost.

Thanks for that (and the other comments).

The requirement is triggered by an event detected by a RPi (which runs
24*7, my Windows box doesn't). It may be possible to send a SMS from
the RPi using that site, but working out how would be for another day.
Leaving that aside, I would worry about a free site that takes my mobile
number, am I setting my self up for spam to my phone ?, they have to pay
for the service somehow.

My mobile provider has confirmed that they don't have an email - sms
gateway. According to the gentleman I spoke to at my phone provider's
shop, it seems that there are changes in the way that the UK PAYG SIM
card market is working, and the old system of topping up when you run
out of credit seems to be going, being replaced by it being monthly
(much like a contract SIM). As I'd only want to send occasional SMS
messages, then that becomes a potentially expensive solution.

Adrian
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To Reply :
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On 6/21/2021 8:32 AM, Frank Slootweg wrote:
> Adrian <bulleid@ku.gro.lioff> wrote:
>>>> There are MAC based scanners (e.g. on rPi) to be used as phone
>>>> presence detectors, they can integrate with node-red to trigger
>>>> actions when specific phones appear/dissapear, or show a dashboard of
>>>> "who's home?'
>>>>
>>>
>>> Thanks, that sounds like the sort of thing I'm looking for. More
>>> investigation required.
>>>
>>
>> If anyone is interested, the arp-scan package on a RPi does what I want.
>
> You have already a solution, but perhaps the below is still
> worthwhile.
>
> You use the Turnpike newsreader, so I assume one of your platforms is
> Windows.
>
> If so, I get the impression that the smartphone 'wakes up' if you
> *first* do a 'arp -a' and *then* a ping. At least that seems to work for
> my Samsung Galaxy A51 with Android 11 and my Windows 8.1 laptop.

Yes, I tried that and that works. Smart.

On 6/21/2021 10:23 AM, Adrian wrote:

<snip>

> My mobile provider has confirmed that they don't have an email - sms
> gateway.  According to the gentleman I spoke to at my phone provider's
> shop, it seems that there are changes in the way that the UK PAYG SIM
> card market is working, and the old system of topping up when you run
> out of credit seems to be going, being replaced by it being monthly
> (much like a contract SIM).  As I'd only want to send occasional SMS
> messages, then that becomes a potentially expensive solution.

UK providers are now free from all the EU rules and are intent on
ruining the PAYG SIM market.

Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> wrote:
> Frank Slootweg wrote:
>
> > I get the impression that the smartphone 'wakes up' if you
> > *first* do a 'arp -a' and*then* a ping
>
> "arp -a" simply dumps windows' ARP table from memory, can't see how that
> would wake-up the phone?

I found/find it strange as well, but it - repeatedly - worked and
Steve also reports that it worked for him.

'arp /?' says:

" -a Displays current ARP entries by interrogating the current
protocol data. ..."

Perhaps the "interrogating" does something on the network? I find the
comment rather vague/meaningless.

You might want to try if it works for you or not.