Web Site Monitoring With HTTP Monitor

Ensure Your Website’s Constant Availability

HTTP Monitoring is employed to verify website accessibility and confirm that the content at a specific address meets predefined criteria. HTTP, or Hypertext Transfer Protocol, is the most prevalent protocol used for accessing websites and various other services through derived protocols like WebDAV.

Setting Up HTTP Monitoring

Creating and using IPNetwork Monitor’s HTTP Monitor is straightforward, despite its advanced capabilities. Enter the URL you wish to monitor; the port is typically extracted from the URL, but you can also specify it directly. Choose between GET or POST; for the latter, you can include POST data to transmit to the remote server. HTTP 2xx responses indicate normal operation, while 4xx responses signify errors. To accommodate non-2xx responses, list the acceptable response codes, separated by commas. Beyond page loading, you can specify a string to search for (or exclude) within the output and select the appropriate response validation mode. For HTTP authentication, provide the necessary username and password. Basic, Digest, and NTLM methods are supported. If a proxy is required for communication with the web server, specify the proxy type and URL. HTTP(S) Monitor is suitable for both basic checks (page load confirmation) and more complex scenarios, fulfilling most website availability and consistency requirements. Site owners can verify proper functionality by searching for a specific welcome message. E-commerce businesses can monitor product category pages to ensure merchandise availability. Even fans can track game results, among other applications.

The Importance of a Website Monitoring Tool

Manually checking for specific data on a webpage can be challenging, often requiring advanced scripting for both page access (especially with POST requests) and output analysis. While simple page load checks can be performed with a web browser or a wget-like utility, manual verification is time-consuming and potentially unreliable. Because testing can reveal potential issues with the site or its underlying services, employing IPNetwork Monitor for this task is highly recommended. This type of monitoring can consume resources; frequent polling may overload the target server. Prioritize less resource-intensive monitors like TCP or PING for simpler checks to avoid inefficient use of more demanding monitors.

Advanced Website Monitoring Techniques with HTTP Monitor

If a scenario monitor like Web Transaction Monitor is excessive or unsuitable, several strategies can enhance the informativeness of HTTP monitors. If you can modify the target website, consider creating a dedicated page, accessible only to IPNetwork Monitor, containing minimal information. HTTP authentication can protect this page from public access. By presenting concise, easily identifiable information, server load is minimized. Monitor multiple pages, including both static and dynamic content, for a more accurate representation of website performance. This monitor can also provide data beyond site performance. For instance, using a search engine query as the URL and searching the results for a specific string can determine whether a search engine recognizes that string. Similar techniques can be used for checking product availability in online stores, verifying entries in web calendars, and detecting other events discernible through webpage content analysis. [interfaces_screenshot]

IPNetwork Monitor 1.0 build 141 of March 11, 2024. File size: 112MB

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