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Top 10 Questions about watchour.com and Monitoring:
 

What is Website Monitoring?

The term "Website Monitoring" often refers to a monitoring service like watchour.com that can also monitor Email, DNS and other servers.

Compared to a physical product, Monitoring is a smoke alarm. It automatically detects the electronic smoke which may indicate a digital fire on your site, server or even routing equipment and then sends you an alert describing the problem.

What payment options do you offer?”

Credit Cards are preferred. Invoicing is available. Pre-payment is also available. Select your options at signup.

Please click here to see if there any current discount opportunities!

From how many locations do you monitor?

 Our current, but growing number of locations:

Location

IP Address

New York, NY USA

216.213.99.178
216.213.100.90

San Jose, California USA

64.106.253.205

Phoenix, Arizona USA

208.109.111.196

London, England UK

217.72.243.230

Note: depending on your network, some monitors may require changing firewall rules. For example, if your network does not allow Pings you can create a rule that only allows Pings from watchour.com using the IP Addresses above as the "allow" list. Common protocols, such as HTTP, will not need any firewall configuration unless the website exists only within your network.

Is there a Free Trial?

Absolutely. Click here for a 30 Day Free Trial.
There is no obligation and no credit card required.

Can I Ping a website?

Absolutely. But why just Ping your server when you can use an HTTP Monitor that will cover network, load and content issues at the same time?

Note: in layman's terms, HTTP Monitor = Website Monitor. HTTP is simply the protocol that the web uses: Hyper Text Transfer Protocol.

How do I get the alerts and can they be sent to other people?

When you create a Monitor, you can have alerts sent to your email inbox, your mobile phone via email, by SMS to your mobile phone, or even by a regular pager.

You can set up any Monitor to alert any number of people you choose to. You can also create an Escalation where, for example, you only receive alerts after 20 minutes because it gives someone else designated in your organization enough time to resolve the issue.

How do I monitor for SLA Compliance?

SLA stands for Service Level Agreement. Depending on your provider they may offer you anywhere from 99% uptime to 99.999%, or even 100% uptime. "Uptime" can be a relative term. Although it may cover their network uptime, it most likely does not cover server hardware issues, application issues and load issues that cause downtime.

Watchour.com can help with SLA compliance by giving you information you can bring to your provider as proof. Every error we discover is automatically followed by a TraceRoute which helps immediately identify network issues, be it hard failure or latency (slowness).

Is my data secure?

We encrypt user data in our databases to ensure your privacy.
For more detailed information about Monitoring take a tour through our Features & Pricing sections.


Other Questions:
 
  • What is WatchOur.com?
    WatchOur.com, in plain English, is a watchdog monitoring service. We ask your Internet connected device, such as a web server, if it's alive and healthy and if it doesn't answer we notify you. Since there are so many varieties of servers and configurations, you can customize the connection sessions for each device monitored (e.g. For most devices you can change the port, choose a timeout period, login with a username/password, check for key words or phrases . . .and more).
    Tech Questions:
  • What is a Monitor or Monitored Device?
    A device is a generic term for any piece of hardware and software that is connected in one way or another to the public Internet. A webserver, for example, is a device, or monitored device.
  • What is a "Notification Device"?
    A Notification Device is a pager, an e-mail address, a cell phone's messaging address, or any other communication device to which watchour.com sends messages. Note that you MUST set a Notification Device for a device before it will be monitored!
  • What types of devices can be monitored?
    Any Internet connected device can be monitored! If it's got an IP Address you can keep an eye on it.
  • What if I'm behind a firewall?
    It depends on what policies are set on your firewall. Most firewall policies disallow TCP/UDP ICMP through, and for good reasons. BUT: If it's an HTTP server you can monitor it as an HTTP device: HTTP, Port 80, etc. If it's FTP, then use that protocol/port. You can tailor a variety of monitoring methods for each device.
  • Will your service affect my firewall?
    There is no direct effect on firewalls, routers, switches, etc. Some firewall policies might see watchour.com as a potential intruder because it is in constant communication. Changing this policy to ignore the service will fix this.
  • Is there a limit to how many devices I can monitor?
    None.
  • Can I view the monitored history of devices?
    Yes. Click on the "Error" button of the device in question in the "Management" section. Note that we only show "errors".
  • Can I run historical reports?
    Yes.
  • Do you do TraceRoutes & do you keep a history?
    Yes. We keep up to a thirty day history of TraceRoutes. You can also select some or all and have them e-mailed to you directly from the management site.
  • Can I turn monitoring on and off for devices?
    Yes. You can "pause" the monitoring at anytime from anywhere.
  • How about for Notification Devices?
    Yes. You can "pause" the notifications at anytime from anywhere. Note that you MUST set a Notification Device for a device before it will be monitored!
  • Can I schedule when the monitoring occurs?
    Yes.
  • Can I have several people receive the notifications?
    Yes. You can have as many people as you like receiving notifications. You can even have the notification occur immediately, in five minutes, ten minutes, thirty minutes, and in over an hour. This way you don't have to have everyone on the list know right away about a problem that might be just a quick fix.
  • Can I schedule when I receive the notifications?
    Yes.
  • Will this work with my DSL hosted website or FTP site?
    watchour.com will work with any Internet connected device.
  • How often will my server be accessed?
    Every five minutes, 24/7/365.
  • Can my server be monitored if it’s using a non-standard port?
    Yes. You can designate any port number for monitoring.
  • Can I monitor password protected web pages?
    Yes.
  • Can I securely monitor SSL Post forms?
    Yes. Connections are securely made via HTTPS.
  • Can you help protect my system from hackers?
    watchour.com cannot protect your system, but it can alert you to potential intrusions. For example it can alert you when a certain file has changed in size unexpectedly, or when the content of a web page has changed.
  • What protocols do you support?
    • HTTP (including post variables & key words/phrases)
    • HTTPS (including post variables & key words/phrases)
    • FTP
    • Ping
    • DNS
    • POP3
    • SMTP
    • NNTP
    • TELNET
    • IRC
    • Routers and more generic TCP protocols
    General Questions:
  • We already use a monitoring service, why would we want to switch?
    We believe that in order to monitor your systems correctly we need to provide you with the most complete service package available in the market today. While other services charge you extra for anything more that a simple port check, watchour.com includes such features as security authentication, detailed activity history, configurable notification schedules and notifications, Trace Routes, Pre-Scheduled Down-Time and Post Variables, and much more, on a variety of protocols at no additional cost to you.
  • We already have an INTERNAL monitoring system, why would we need your system?
    Who watches the watchmen? That is the question that watchour.com answers for you. The Internet is a node/gateway based system. Your internal monitoring may tell you that a device is broken inside your network or even that the outbound gateway is having problems, but who lets you know that all inbound connections from different nodes on the Internet are possible? The answer: watchour.com.
  • Do you have a Hints and Tips section?
    Please visit our library. We will be adding to this section so keep checking back.
  • I would like to partner with watchour.com and offer its services with mine. What should I do?
    Please contact us at info@watchour.com.
   


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