How do you track ISP circuits across multiple remote sites?
Asked by
MellowCedar42
Our company has about 50 remote locations, and each site has two internet circuits from different providers. The circuits vary by vendor, connection type, bandwidth, contract details, and installation status. Right now, everything is stored on a shared network drive, which has become nearly impossible to maintain. We recently discovered several circuits that were installed years ago but were never connected or put into service. What tools or processes do you use to maintain an accurate inventory of ISP circuits, contracts, costs, and site connectivity? I'm open to either an existing platform or a software project—I mainly need a practical proposal to help organize this properly.
Answers
A telecom broker or aggregator can simplify things considerably. They can source circuits from multiple carriers, handle quotes and ordering, provide one support contact, and maintain an updated inventory. This can be especially useful if the company is small and doesn’t have time to manage every provider relationship directly. Just compare pricing, contract terms, service levels, and exit provisions carefully.
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For roughly 50 sites, a well-designed spreadsheet could work, especially as a cleanup project. The bigger issue is ownership and process: someone needs to verify which circuits are active, record installation and cancellation dates, track vendors and monthly charges, and review the inventory regularly. A database won’t help if nobody updates it.
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NetBox is a common choice for this. You can model sites, providers, circuits, connection types, speeds, IP details, and operational status, then add custom fields for billing or contract information. It also has a strong API, so you can export selected data to CSV or integrate it with other systems.
QuietLantern88: Agreed. The important part is defining the fields and making someone responsible for keeping them current; the tool alone won’t fix stale records.
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Regardless of the platform, start with a full audit. For every site, confirm the provider, circuit ID, service type, bandwidth, handoff location, device connection, monthly recurring cost, contract dates, support contacts, and whether the circuit is actually being used. Mark unknown values clearly and verify them with the carrier rather than assuming the old records are correct.
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Some organizations tie circuit records to site and equipment documentation in platforms such as Hudu, while others use an IPAM and network documentation tool. That gives you a location-based view of circuits, routers, providers, and topology instead of keeping separate files. NetBox is stronger for network-specific data, while a broader documentation platform may be better if you also need general asset and operational records.
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MellowCedar42: That makes sense. I’m mostly trying to replace the unstructured shared-drive documents and establish a process that people will actually maintain.