Website monitoring for downtime

Monitoring for Downtime, Performance, Hacks and Blacklistings

	How it Works
Usage Based Pricing Pricing is simple. See it here. A Comprehensive Approach 1stWarning tests your web services for all the major causes of downtime. There is no need to purchase additional modules to enable multiple test types. Features Click here to see features and sample screenshots. Easy Setup Get up and running in minutes. Free Trial Click here for a 14-day free trial.

Website Monitoring - How it Works

1stWarning utilizes a global network of monitoring stations to test your web services for downtime, performance, exploits and blacklistings.

1stWarning follows a series of steps to determine if your site is down and what to do if it is.

	On regular intervals determined by your account settings, we will attempt to contact your services for each monitor you have set up. First, we determine which monitoring station to perform the test from. Generally, we round-robin the stations around the world, however, this is configurable on each account. We establish a connection and send the test to the station.

	Next, we record the time it takes to resolve DNS and connect (using optional authentication). Then, depending on what type of monitor you have created, a series of steps is performed.

	For example, if the monitor is for a website, we test for the following conditions (and more): Your site is up and functioning. Your site has not been improperly redirected. Your content has not changed unexpectedly. If you have a SSL certificate, that it is valid, not expired or not about to expire. Your DNS settings have not been hijacked. If your site is not on a major domain block list. Your site has not been listed as a phishing site (used by all major browsers). If the monitor is for an email server, we test for the following conditions (and more): Your email server is up and able to send email. Your server has not been listed on any major blocklists (currently APEWS Level 2, UCEProtect Level 1, Spamhaus, SORBS and Spamcop.net). Your DNS settings have not been hijacked. Your email server has a reverse-DNS entry (to prevent delivery issues). Your email server has not become an open relay. Each monitor type has a different set of steps. Please refer to the help for more information.

	If the test passes, the total test time is recorded and a trace route is saved. The graphical trace route with detailed hop information is always available for analysis and looks like this: The trace route data is useful for diagnosing routing issues.

	If the test fails, a trace route is saved and detailed error information is recorded. To prevent false negatives, a secondary test is immediately performed from a different monitoring station from another geographic region. If that fails, we begin the notification process.

	1stWarning supports unlimited notification escalation, which means that we notify all contacts that have been set up to be notified immediately. If failures continue, we notify additional contacts that you have set up. 1stWarning supports notifications via a variety of methods, including SMS, pager, AIM, email, text message and more.