Site Uptime Checkers

Rai    Internet, Tips     downtime alert, site availability, site checker, site uptime, uptime checker

To those who need to check the availability of their sites across the world, these are some of the handy tools that I use.

Why check site availability from multiple locations?

We all know that DNS propagation varies depending where you are located. So in some cases, a site may be accessible from California, but not in London. Using these tools, you can verify which locations can access your site.

1. Alertra – Alertra lets you check your site from multiple locations to make sure that your website is not only accessible from where you are now, but also from somewhere else on the planet. You can choose to use their free service called Spot Check, which checks one site at a time. You can also subscribe to their full service which includes downtime report and sends alerts if your site is down.

Sample result:

SpotCheck

URL: pinoytux.com

Timestamp Location Result Size Time
2008-03-27 16:25:24 EDT Shanghai CHINA OK 50.9 16.31
2008-03-27 16:25:24 EDT Hong Kong CHINA OK 50.9 14.73
2008-03-27 16:25:24 EDT Frankfurt GERMANY OK 50.9 13.11
2008-03-27 16:25:24 EDT Sydney AUS OK 50.9 12.99
2008-03-27 16:25:24 EDT London UK OK 50.9 11.66
2008-03-27 16:25:24 EDT Orlando USA OK 50.9 11.41
2008-03-27 16:25:24 EDT Las Vegas USA OK 50.9 10.59
2008-03-27 16:25:24 EDT Atlanta USA OK 50.9 10.52
2008-03-27 16:25:24 EDT Chicago USA OK 50.9 10.19

2. SiteUptime

SiteUptime offers free site monitoring service but restricted to one site only. Sites scanned by SiteUptime are scanned from four different locations and sends alerts if site is inaccessible. This makes sure that your site is up and you will not have to worry about losing visitors while your site is down. There are also paid services that are available which offers more features for your account.

Quick check for: pinoytux.com (http)
Date City Country Time (s) Result

Average Response Time: 0.457 seconds

3. Keynote Red Alert

Keynote Red Alert is an extensive site checker which not only checks the site and its pages, but also monitors the device where the site is hosted. You can opt to monitor the device where Red Alert sends pings to the server and if the server fails to reply, it will send alerts by pager or email. Red Alert can also monitor other services like SMTP and SSH, making it an all-in-one monitoring service. It offers free trials to those who are interested in purchasing their services.

4. Down For Everyone or Just Me

No nonsense, quick site checker. Checks from single location though.

It’s not just you! pinoytux.com looks down from here.

5. Host-tracker

Host-tracker can also give you a free one-site-at-a-time checker from different locations called ‘nodes’ and as of this writing, they have 63 nodes that will check your site accessibility. If you require more than just site uptime check or checking at specific intervals, you may want to subscribe to their paid services.

Location Result Page Size Response time Kb/sec IP Partner

Received responses: 31 Ok Average: 8.93 sec 5.51

SPb, RU Ok 50351 6.49 sec 7.57 69.80.227.79 TimeWeb
SPb, RU Ok 50351 6.49 sec 7.57 69.80.227.79 TimeWeb
Canyon Country, CA, US Ok 50351 2.82 sec 17.41 69.80.227.79 HostIran Networks
Kiev, Ukraine Ok 50351 6.80 sec 7.23 69.80.227.79 HOSTED

Remember that site availability is one of the considerations that search engines like Google checks. So if your site is often down than up, maybe it is time to switch hosting providers.

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