A software program called Is It On by Erightsoft, the makers of the popular video converter Super, can do that. It is a small portable application for most Microsoft Windows operating systems that can check the status of a connection in a heartbeat and displays a green or gray light depending on the status.

The interface of the software application is as basic as it can get with virtually no settings available at all. It displays three items under Network Status: Direct Active Internet Connection, Lan Connection and Behind Intranet Network Proxy.

Depending on the type of Internet connection of the user’s computer it will display green lights if the connection is active, gray lights if the connection is not (currently) active. Is It On will automatically detect changes to the network status and display the information in a matter of seconds in the program’s interface.

The interface has been designed to be always on top with no option to minimize the window or reduce its size. That’s probably the greatest weakness of the application. It would be nice if the application’s interface could be reduced so that only the lights are shown. Moving it to the Windows System Tray with an option to automatically notify the user of status changes to the Internet connection would be another nice feature.