One of the problems that I have been facing recently is that of how to monitor server availability for my blog. There has been an increase in downtime for my blog, and I wanted to find a way to measure how much downtime I have experienced over the last little while.
The good news is that there are many options that are available that can help monitor server availability for my blog to keep track of the downtime of the web server, some require payment, while others are free. I have recently started using a service that is free, and has helped to determine how many outages I have experienced over the last little while.
Monitor Server Availability with Pingdom
I have used some online tools provided by Pingdom in the past, but haven’t actually looked at their monitoring service. It wasn’t until I read about their service on another blog that I decided to check them out.
Pingdom offers three different server monitoring packages: free, basic ($9.95/month), and business ($39.95/month). The main difference between the three is the number of checks and SMS alerts.
The free package offers one check (one domain) monitoring and 20 SMS alerts. The basic package provides you with 5 checks and 20 SMS alerts, while the business package gives you 30 checks and 200 SMS alerts. Since I am only network monitoring this blog, the free package meets my present needs.
Monitor Server Availability with Graphs
After I signed up, Pingdom begins to monitor my blog – no software was required. It pings your blog from various locations around the world and reports on the response time, hourly averages, and the data that is returned by the server during an outage. Pingdom even provides an API so you can connect to your data from your own blog or website.
(Click to enlarge)
The data is organized into various reports for easy analysis. There are also graphs that provide a graphical display of the data. You can view the history of the server monitors, as well as specific periods of time.
It is great to be able to see the response times for my blog, and which locations in the world have the higher times. This data, in combination with their full page test, can really help you to optimize your website or blog.
I recommend you look into using a montoring service, such as Pingdom to help you monitor server availability.