Problem Website monitor

Discussion in 'Internet, Connectivity and Communications' started by Boycie, Jan 9, 2010.

  1. Boycie
    Honorary Member

    Boycie Senior Beer Tester

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    A client has asked us to investigate an issue with their website which is hosted with a provider.
    It appears to be "now and again" unreachable. It's the same old story that by the time we are informed, it is in fact working correctly.
    Trying to get (any) information from this place is like getting blood from a stone. In the past the best we have had it said "page cannot be displayed". I did set-up a batch file with tracert domain >C:\results.txt alas it hasn't happened since. :) The host is also unaware of any issues around the time of reporting the problem either.

    Who uses a website monitoring tool? Which one and the costs involved would be great too.

    Thanks for looking!
     
    Certifications: MCSA 2003, MCDST, A+, N+, CTT+, MCT
  2. Notes_Bloke

    Notes_Bloke Terabyte Poster

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    Hi Boyce,
    I use to use this one for our sites, but I now use Dynamic dns, and use the company's monitoring services instead.

    There are lots of free ones you could try though, like these.

    HTH
    NB
     
    Certifications: 70-210, 70-215, A+,N+, Security+
    WIP: MCSA
  3. zebulebu

    zebulebu Terabyte Poster

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    Boycey

    I use ServersCheck - just stick a monitor in there using the HTTP 'GET' method to pull something from the header file and run it every minute. That will tell you whether the site is available - you can set it to alert you via a web GUI (we use this on our monitoring screen), send you an SMTP mail or even send to a pager/via SMS. Best of all, it's completely free when you're only monitoring a couple of things (we use the paid-for version because we use it as our main monitoring tool, but the free version is just as good)
     
    Certifications: A few
    WIP: None - f*** 'em
  4. UKDarkstar
    Honorary Member

    UKDarkstar Terabyte Poster

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    Could run it past checkdns.net and see if that picks anything up
     
    Certifications: BA (Hons), MBCS, CITP, MInstLM, ITIL v3 Fdn, PTLLS, CELTA
    WIP: CMALT (about to submit), DTLLS (on hold until 2012)
  5. MLP

    MLP Kilobyte Poster

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  6. UKDarkstar
    Honorary Member

    UKDarkstar Terabyte Poster

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    Just remembered - Hounddog also monitor websites and would send a notification to you if it stopped working. It is a subscription service but very good - I used different aspects of it (server monitoring etc) for lots of different client sites.
     
    Certifications: BA (Hons), MBCS, CITP, MInstLM, ITIL v3 Fdn, PTLLS, CELTA
    WIP: CMALT (about to submit), DTLLS (on hold until 2012)
  7. Sparky
    Highly Decorated Member Award 500 Likes Award

    Sparky Zettabyte Poster Moderator

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    30 day trial available.

    http://www.whatsupgold.com/

    You can use the website check which basically polls port 80. SMS and email alerts available.
     
    Certifications: MSc MCSE MCSA:M MCSA:S MCITP:EA MCTS(x5) MS-900 AZ-900 Security+ Network+ A+
    WIP: Microsoft Certs
  8. Fergal1982

    Fergal1982 Petabyte Poster

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    If its an ASP.Net website that is causing problems, you could set up healthmonitoring in the web.config of the site in question, so that it sends an email if an error is encountered. This will enable you to monitor for actual issues within the site itself, rather than an issue with the provider server, etc.
     
    Certifications: ITIL Foundation; MCTS: Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010, Administration
    WIP: None at present
  9. Boycie
    Honorary Member

    Boycie Senior Beer Tester

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    Thanks for all the input here people - appreciated.

    Notes_Bloke - looks good mate, but trying to get these people to pay for anything is hard work, so if there is a free alternative they will always opt for that -regardless if it is two different things!

    Zeb and Fergal - it's hosted on apache.

    MLP - looks good. Thanks. I think I will register for it and see how it goes. I will explain if they want their site checked more than every hour, they will have to put their hands in their pockets! :twisted:

    Boyce
     
    Certifications: MCSA 2003, MCDST, A+, N+, CTT+, MCT
  10. BrizoH

    BrizoH Byte Poster

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    I've used Servers Alive in my last few companies - free for up to 10 checks, not too flashy but does the job
     
    Certifications: CCNA, CCNA Security
    WIP: CCNP
  11. markyzno

    markyzno New Member

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    Hi, I have to monitor various sites also and use this open source software on both my machine at work and machine at home (failover) - http://www.seriosoft.com/service-view/main.htm

    Have configured it to mms alert me whenever one of our web servers falls over and enables me to get there before the customer notices.
     

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