Pingless

The scriptable ping watch bot
Reboot routers, restart services, or run any script when pings fail.

Why?

I built Pingless because my Zyxel 5G router would occasionally stop responding to the internet.
The only way to fix it was to reboot the router. Instead of doing this manually, Pingless pings a host every minute, and if it fails repeatedly, it triggers a script to fix the problem.

While my use case is rebooting a Zyxel router, you can make it run any script you want.
For example, it could restart a container, reboot a server, or send you a notification.

How it works

• Pingless pings a host (default 8.8.8.8) at regular intervals.
• If it fails N times in a row, it executes a script you provide.
• The script can do anything:
  Example → Zyxel reboot script: scripts/zyxel-reboot-router.sh
• After running the script, pingless waits CMD_WAIT_INTERVAL before resuming pings. Useful for giving a router or service time to restart.

Quick Start

Docker Compose

services:
  pingless:
    image: ptimson/pingless:latest
    container_name: pingless
    cap_add:
      - NET_RAW # required to send ICMP ping
    environment:
      # Target to ping
      PING_HOST: 8.8.8.8

      # How often to run the main check loop
      PING_INTERVAL: 60s

      # Timeout for each ping
      PING_TIMEOUT: 3s

      # Retry delay between consecutive failed attempts
      RETRY_DELAY: 5s

      # Number of consecutive failures before triggering script
      MAX_FAILURES: 10

      # How long to wait before testing ping once script has executed
      # e.g. time for router to fully restart 
      CMD_WAIT_INTERVAL: 2m

    volumes:
      # Script that is executed on ping failure
      # Only add :ro if file is already executable (chmod +x)
      - ./on-ping-fail.sh:/app/on-ping-fail.sh:ro

Docker Run

docker run --rm -it \
  --cap-add=NET_RAW \                      # required for ICMP ping  
  --env PING_HOST=8.8.8.8 \                # target to ping  
  --env PING_INTERVAL=60s \                # how often to ping  
  --env RETRY_DELAY=5s \                   # delay between failed retries  
  --env MAX_FAILURES=10 \                  # how many fails before trigger
  --env CMD_WAIT_INTERVAL=2m \             # wait time once script has executed  
  --volume ./on-ping-fail.sh:/app/on-ping-fail.sh \
  ptimson/pingless:latest  

Configuration

Env Var	Default	Description
PING_HOST	8.8.8.8	Host to ping
PING_INTERVAL	60s	Interval between pings
PING_TIMEOUT	3s	Timeout per ping attempt
RETRY_DELAY	5s	Delay between failed retries
MAX_FAILURES	10	Consecutive failures before running script
CMD_WAIT_INTERVAL	2m	Wait time to ping once script has run (e.g. router reboot)

On failure, Pingless will run /app/on-ping-fail.sh.
Mount your script into that path and make sure it’s executable (chmod +x).

Example: Zyxel Router Reboot

See example of how I reboot my router in scripts/zyxel-reboot-router.sh

License

MIT