What is website monitoring all about?
What is web site monitoring all about? Here is Carl's story:
Carl returned to the office after a tough day of negotiations.
He still was not sure if the crucial deal was on or off, but
dinner would soon be waiting and he had just enough time left to
check his emails and his phone messages.
He had twelve phone messages, every one of them urgent. Too late
to call back right away; that would have to wait for morning.
His inbox held that familiar email report
from his website monitoring service. He smiled. As usual,
there were no error alerts. That's what he liked to see -- his
website still performing well.
He looked carefully at the report. All the forms were
functioning. The shopping cart, too. Password protection was
functioning. At least he did not have to worry about his web
site this evening.
There were still some download speed issues reported by the new
Hong Kong monitoring station. He made a mental note to raise
the issue with his web host contact in the morning.
Just as he was putting on his jacket to leave, his cell phone
rang.
A few minutes later, he called his wife. "Hi Ruby. How's dinner
doing?"
"Great, Carl. You'll be home soon?"
"I was just about to leave when my cell phone rang. It was the
website monitoring
service calling. It seems the web site went down. They were
reporting from London."
"You mean your European customers can't access the site?" Ruby
asked.
"That's what I thought at first. When the Hong Kong monitoring
station reported an alert, I assumed the transatlantic
connection was blocked. But when the Florida monitoring station
reported in, I had to check the site. And guess what?"
"I guess that you won't be home for dinner."
"Sorry. I have to get on the line with the web host and
straighten this all out."
"Hey, that's OK. I'm just happy you get instant those alerts. I
would hate to see you get that call during our dinner and have
to go all the way back into the office. Let me know when you're
coming home."
"OK. I'll let you know as soon as I do. Bye."
Carl checked the more detailed report online. Here
is an example.
As Carl dialed his ISP, he realized it would likely be a long
evening. But not as long as if he received less frequent
reports. And not as long as the next day would be if the website
had been offline for the next.
And that's what website monitoring is all about.