MONITORING CONNECTION CONDITIONS OF A PLURALITY OF COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES IN THE VICINITY OF A HOME GATEWAY

A system for assisting the installation of a communications service at a customer premises (9), particularly in a domestic setting, provides a client application (14) in a home gateway device (1) such as a wireless router (1) which monitors interference (2), congestion, and other conditions in one or more candidate local communication technologies such as wireless (WLAN), Ethernet or powerline. When a customer requests a new communications service at his premises, requiring hardware such as a broadband media terminal (7) to communicate with the gateway device (1), a remote server application (4) operated by the provider of the proposed service uses the client application (14) to assess which communication technology is most appropriate for the service to be installed at the customer premises (9). A handset (8) associated with the router (1) may be used to analyse the suitability of wireless communication between the router (1) and the proposed location of the new hardware (7).