Uptime monitoring

BusterWolf · August 2020

I've been using Monitis for uptime monitoring but they go bang next month because TeamViewer wanted to make customers angry and I need something else.

I'm looking for a service offering 1 minute HTTP checks (preferably with keyword validation) that can do alerts via email and SMS as a minimum, preferably by call too. I'd like as many regional monitoring nodes as possible, especially China.

Price doesn't matter if it does what I want. Any recommendations?

nullnothere · August 2020

Hetrix Tools should fit the bill nicely. Tagging @Andrei as well.

I think the SMS part is kind of price sensitive. The rest is all standard stuff that you will be very happy about. There's a free tier that you can checkout as well.

beagle · August 2020

Have a look at Hetrixtools. They offer HTTP checks with keyword validation but no servers in China.

BusterWolf · August 2020

Thanks for the suggestions; I've got a Hetrix Tools account for personal use and it's fine, they just don't have a lot of monitoring locations (I'm looking to monitor around 60 regional websites, and I'd like to get pretty close to each, not just on the same continent) and I can't find the additional SMS pricing anywhere.

NodePing · August 2020

I'm your huckleberry.
NodePing checks all your boxes (if Hong Kong counts as China these days?). Free trial.

BusterWolf · August 2020

@NodePing said:
I'm your huckleberry.
NodePing checks all your boxes (if Hong Kong counts as China these days?). Free trial.

HK doesn't (yet) - I need to know how performance looks from within the GFW. Is China on your roadmap?

EDIT: Are the SMS notifications genuinely unlimited?

Abdullah · August 2020

@NodePing said:
I'm your huckleberry.
NodePing checks all your boxes (if Hong Kong counts as China these days?). Free trial.

A smaller plan with less monitors for LE users?

InceptionHosting · August 2020

https://monitive.com/

Abdullah · August 2020

The phone call is nice, sadly no such thing with hetrixtools

BusterWolf · August 2020

@AnthonySmith said:
https://monitive.com/

I've just signed up for a trial, but I can't see how to select monitoring locations, or even which locations the monitors are in - is that a feature you've seen?

havoc · August 2020

Some dude here was talking about building one the other day.

If he/she doesn't come through I will set something up. Seems like something that one should be able to offer for free if I'm eyeballing it right.

vyas · August 2020

Some more options for monitoring .

https://amarvyas.in/monitor-uptime-website/

vyas · August 2020

too late to edit my post above, so here's another one - thread I had created with a long-ish list of Uptime monitoring providers (which I will update shortly)
https://talk.lowendspirit.com/discussion/comment/34186

skorous · August 2020

@havoc said: Some dude here was talking about building one the other day.

Was that @hzr you were thinking of? https://talk.lowendspirit.com/discussion/1592/nat-vps-providers

simonindia · August 2020

Bearmon + https://ifttt.com/voip_calls is the setup I currently recommend but these can be applied with any service with email or webhook support works most of the time and I have also setup IFTTT to call my telegram so even if the voip fail s telegram will stay up.

I have also have a setup independent of IFTTT which uses a bot and currently don't support calling.

uptime robot + https://ifttt.com/voip_calls
or
Zilore + https://ifttt.com/voip_calls
or
hetrix + https://ifttt.com/voip_calls

InceptionHosting · August 2020

@BusterWolf said:

@AnthonySmith said:
https://monitive.com/

I've just signed up for a trial, but I can't see how to select monitoring locations, or even which locations the monitors are in - is that a feature you've seen?

It was something I got deep into about 5 years ago before just making my own monitoring system and I have not used it since but the support guys were quick and helpful.

Abdullah · August 2020

@AnthonySmith share the idea with us too
Or maybe a nice LES post?

vico · August 2020

Uptime Robot is very cheap and can do 1 minute checks. I think it is getting better last few years, however maybe not as reliable as some other service that uses multiple datacenters to run their checks...

Many service is too bloated these days IMO

NodePing · August 2020

@BusterWolf said: Is China on your roadmap?

No. We don't have any plans to add mainland China probes.

@Abdullah said: A smaller plan with less monitors for LE users?

Our 'Starter' plan not small enough for you?

Abdullah · August 2020

@NodePing okay, just saw the starter plan.

xaban · August 2020

@vyas said:
too late to edit my post above, so here's another one - thread I had created with a long-ish list of Uptime monitoring providers (which I will update shortly)
https://talk.lowendspirit.com/discussion/comment/34186

I wouldn't call 28 items a long-ish list - especially, when there are over 170 website monitoring services out there.

vyas · August 2020

@xaban said:

@vyas said:
too late to edit my post above, so here's another one - thread I had created with a long-ish list of Uptime monitoring providers (which I will update shortly)
https://talk.lowendspirit.com/discussion/comment/34186

I wouldn't call 28 items a long-ish list - especially, when there are over 170 website monitoring services out there.

That is your perogative. That site has also been referenced in my blog post (first of two links I posted)

xaban · August 2020

@vyas said:
That is your perogative. That site has also been referenced in my blog post (first of two links I posted)

You are right.
But anyway - 28 looks more like "the best of" or something.

@BusterWolf said:
I'd like as many regional monitoring nodes as possible, especially China.

Why do you need a monitoring node in a certain location? For page speed monitoring?
For uptime, the location is irrelevant. The monitoring nodes' main goal is to check the website from multiple networks - to prevent false positives (for example when one node is experiencing some local problems).

BusterWolf · August 2020

@xaban said:

@BusterWolf said:
I'd like as many regional monitoring nodes as possible, especially China.

Why do you need a monitoring node in a certain location? For page speed monitoring?
For uptime, the location is irrelevant. The monitoring nodes' main goal is to check the website from multiple networks - to prevent false positives (for example when one node is experiencing some local problems).

It's for monitoring availability in that country specifically. The websites are on occasion blocked by the GFW so we need to know if/when that happens, but for certain sites there are special measures applied to ensure they are always (99.9%) available in China, so we need to monitor uptime from that perspective too, to make sure that product is delivering value.

xaban · August 2020

@BusterWolf said:
It's for monitoring availability in that country specifically. The websites are on occasion blocked by the GFW so we need to know if/when that happens, but for certain sites there are special measures applied to ensure they are always (99.9%) available in China, so we need to monitor uptime from that perspective too, to make sure that product is delivering value.

So, in fact, you would need multiple nodes in China.
A single node could produce too many false positives.