Understanding Power and Internet Restore notifications
This guide explains what Power Restore and Internet Restore notifications mean, when they are sent, and how PowerNotify determines the cause of an outage.
What happens during an outage
When your PowerNotify device stops communicating with our servers, it is marked as offline and a Power Down alert is sent (after your configured “Alert After” delay).
Once the device comes back online, PowerNotify analyses how it reconnects in order to determine the cause of the outage.
Power Restore notification
You will receive a Power Restore notification when the device:
- Completely lost power (for example, due to a mains power cut), and
- Had to boot back up before reconnecting to the internet.
This indicates a genuine power outage at the location where the device is installed.
Internet Restore notification
You will receive an Internet Restore notification when the device:
- Remained powered on, but
- Lost its internet connection (for example, broadband dropouts or router issues), and
- Reconnected without rebooting.
This indicates an internet-related outage, not a loss of mains power.
Why this matters
Separating power and internet restores helps you:
- Understand whether an outage was caused by a power cut or broadband issues.
- Avoid unnecessary worry when alerts are caused by unstable internet.
- Diagnose recurring problems more quickly (for example, frequent internet flapping).
Common scenarios
- Power Down → Power Restore: Likely a genuine power outage.
- Power Down → Internet Restore: Likely an internet or router issue.
- Repeated Internet Restore alerts: Indicates unstable or “flapping” broadband.
Best practices
- Use a sensible Alert After delay (90 seconds or more) to reduce alerts caused by brief internet dropouts.
- If you frequently see Internet Restore notifications, consider checking your router, Wi-Fi, or ISP connection quality.