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wspollack -
Joined: 28 Dec 2003 Posts: 108
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Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2004 5:35 pm Post subject: Way to Test if Site is Working? |
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For most of yesterday, my site wasn't working... because somehow my setting in ZoneAlarm Pro for Program Control --> Main --> Program Control was set at High instead of my usual Medium. Changing this back made my site available once again, but it took me most of the day to notice the problem and confirm it with an outside user (while I changed that setting back and forth).
This brings me to my question: is there a way for me to periodically check my site's availability somehow? If I enter my URL in a browser, it always works fine, but that is not a real test (i.e., it "worked" fine yesterday, too, but only for me). I'm running a cable modem with a Linksys hub/router to get in and out vis-a-vis the Internet.
Thanks for any suggestions.
Regards,
Bill |
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Anonymoose -
Joined: 09 Sep 2003 Posts: 2192
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Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2004 6:34 pm Post subject: |
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Use a proxy server or web based proxy to check whether your site is working from outside your network.
Try http://www.proxyweb.net - be warned that if you're running on a non standard port, images don't seem to load. They're not broken on your site, just when viewed via their proxy.
I think there are a few programs that will sit in the tray and request a url regularly then show you if it's up or down but none of the names spring to mind at the moment. If you found a non anonymous proxy service that shows the full url you're visiting in the address bar, you could enter this url into one of those programs and have it check your site via proxy at intervals. I'll post the names if I remember them :) |
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wspollack -
Joined: 28 Dec 2003 Posts: 108
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Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2004 7:20 pm Post subject: Thanks, just tried it>>> |
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Thanks, Anonymoose. I just tried it, and that's a start. Actually, about half of my images loaded, and then they disappeared, one at a time, after a few seconds each (and I'm using plain ol' port 80). This is a start -- thanks.
What I'm really interested in -- and this may be a pipe dream -- is some software running on my PC (I guess) that will check once an hour or so, and then send me mail if my site isn't visible to the outside world.
In the meantime, I'll bookmark http://www.proxyweb.net/ and see what I can come up with.
Regards,
Bill |
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Anonymoose -
Joined: 09 Sep 2003 Posts: 2192
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Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2004 7:28 pm Post subject: |
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Do you have access to a PC outside the network you could leave a program running on, or are you wanting something you could leave running on the main server that will check itself ? There's plenty of free apps to run from remote locations, I'm just struggling to think of a way to do it locally... |
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wspollack -
Joined: 28 Dec 2003 Posts: 108
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Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2004 7:41 pm Post subject: Preferably on my PC (WinXP Home) |
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Preferably on my main PC (WinXP Home), the same PC that's hosting my site. I have one other PC at home on the network, but it's for use by my son-in-law, and it's old (Window ME) and I'd rather not use it, don't trust it, etc.
Thanks for your continued help.
Bill |
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Anonymoose -
Joined: 09 Sep 2003 Posts: 2192
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Posted: Sat Mar 06, 2004 8:32 pm Post subject: |
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I'm making progress :D Looking at using a CGI proxy to provide a direct link to your site which you can test from your own server...
http://www.slysurf.com/cgiproxy/nph-proxy.pl/010100A/http/www.yoursite.com
Should load up your site happily from inside your network ?
If your site goes down, it will return
CGIProxy Error
Couldn't connect to www.yoursite.com:80: Connection timed out
instead...
The reason I was asking if you had a machine *outside* your network you could run the monitor on is simple - if your DSL / cable goes down, your monitoring program won't be able to mail you to tell you your DSL's down, similarly if your machine crashes and doesn't reboot there'll be no way of finding out. If just the server goes offline, it will obviously be OK...
If you stuck a text file on your site called working.html with a simple line like "Server is up" in it, it would be relatively easy to script a simple program you could run at intervals to try and grab the page, check which result occurs and email you if it failed to get the working page... I'm looking for something already done though instead of giving you a quick and dirty batch file to do it.
HTH |
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Anonymoose -
Joined: 09 Sep 2003 Posts: 2192
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Posted: Sat Mar 06, 2004 8:43 pm Post subject: |
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Remembered the name :D
Webmon - http://www.markwell.btinternet.co.uk/webmon/
This is actually intended to check a site for updates, however, if you know that it's either going to see your "Site is up page" or the proxy "Connection failed page" it will see either of those as an update from the previous one. Only downside I can see so far is that if the site is still down after X minutes it won't see a change so you wouldn't get a second alert. I guess you only need to be told once though :D
You'll have to find a simple command line emailer to use in the custom command section of webmon, but other than that, this looks perfect! |
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wspollack -
Joined: 28 Dec 2003 Posts: 108
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Posted: Sun Mar 07, 2004 12:02 am Post subject: working.html Added |
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Anonymoose:
I added the page http://www.billanddot.com/working.html, with "Server is up" as text. Also, I downloaded and installed WebMon, but I'm not sure it will do the trick (after testing with a too-high security setting in ZoneAlarm, in which case it didn't notify me). I think I need to do some more playing around with WebMon. Thanks for your continued help.
Regards,
Bill |
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Anonymoose -
Joined: 09 Sep 2003 Posts: 2192
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Posted: Sun Mar 07, 2004 1:56 am Post subject: |
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In Webmon, add http://www.slysurf.com/cgiproxy/nph-proxy.pl/010100A/http/www.billanddot.com/working.html as the URL to be monitored. If your site goes offline, the page retrieved by Webmon will change from your server is up page to the proxy's error page, which Webmon will view as an update and should trigger an alert.
In the Preferences for Webmon, enable the Custom Command option and install a tool like Blat ( http://www.interlog.com/~tcharron/blat.html ) to enable you to send email from the command line. Write a simple batch file to use Blat to send you a mail saying "Site is Offline" and set the custom command in Webmon to run the .bat.
Going to test it with my site now but there's no reason why it shouldn't work :) Make sure you set up rules in ZoneAlarm to allow Webmon and Blat outgoing internet access... |
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wspollack -
Joined: 28 Dec 2003 Posts: 108
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iNaNimAtE -
Joined: 05 Nov 2003 Posts: 2381 Location: Everywhere you're not.
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Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2004 5:26 am Post subject: |
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I like that website checker. It helps a lot! _________________ Bienvenidos! |
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Dr_Michael -
Joined: 12 Jul 2006 Posts: 6
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Posted: Wed Jul 12, 2006 8:45 am Post subject: |
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Anonymoose wrote: |
In the Preferences for Webmon, enable the Custom Command option and install a tool like Blat ( http://www.interlog.com/~tcharron/blat.html ) to enable you to send email from the command line. Write a simple batch file to use Blat to send you a mail saying "Site is Offline" and set the custom command in Webmon to run the .bat.
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I would appreciate if somebody could give me detailed instructions on how to install and use blat.
I tried and failed :(
Thank you in advance |
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AbyssUnderground -
Joined: 31 Dec 2004 Posts: 3855
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Posted: Wed Jul 12, 2006 9:21 am Post subject: |
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Dr_Michael wrote: | Anonymoose wrote: |
In the Preferences for Webmon, enable the Custom Command option and install a tool like Blat ( http://www.interlog.com/~tcharron/blat.html ) to enable you to send email from the command line. Write a simple batch file to use Blat to send you a mail saying "Site is Offline" and set the custom command in Webmon to run the .bat.
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I would appreciate if somebody could give me detailed instructions on how to install and use blat.
I tried and failed :(
Thank you in advance |
Search the forum. Im almost positive there are tutorials available already. If not create a new topic and explain everything you have tried and any errors you get. _________________ Andy (AbyssUnderground) (previously The Inquisitor)
www.abyssunderground.co.uk |
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Dr_Michael -
Joined: 12 Jul 2006 Posts: 6
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loloyd -
Joined: 03 Mar 2006 Posts: 435 Location: Philippines
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Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 8:25 am Post subject: |
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Alternatively, you can use WebXACT at http://webxact.watchfire.com/, which is a free online service that lets you test single pages of web content for quality, accessibility, and privacy issues. If you can make a script that can make WGET or CURL interface with WebXACT, you will achieve such a connection checker.
Edit: A simpler one would be the W3C validator http://validator.w3.org/ :-D. _________________
http://home.loloyd.com/ is online if the logo graphic at left is showing. |
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Dr_Michael -
Joined: 12 Jul 2006 Posts: 6
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Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 12:04 pm Post subject: |
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loloyd wrote: | Alternatively, you can use WebXACT at http://webxact.watchfire.com/, which is a free online service that lets you test single pages of web content for quality, accessibility, and privacy issues. If you can make a script that can make WGET or CURL interface with WebXACT, you will achieve such a connection checker.
Edit: A simpler one would be the W3C validator http://validator.w3.org/ :-D. |
None of the above works fine in webmon :( |
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loloyd -
Joined: 03 Mar 2006 Posts: 435 Location: Philippines
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Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 1:05 pm Post subject: |
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Are you sure? Can't you add http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.yoursite.com%2F in webmon? I suggest that you give this a try.
By the way, I just used WebConCh from http://www.loloyd.com/ld_web_content_checker
and it appears that I can test if my website is visible from the internet by applying the following specs:
URI: http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.yoursite.com%2F
Poll every (minutes): 15
Enabled Alert When Text Found: 500 Can& #39;t connect to
Important! There should be no space between & and #. HTML reasons prohibit me from joining the two together in this post. It gets translated into an apostrophe sign. Simply follow the guide in the image shown below.
Enabled Alert By Program: (possible command-line mailer program here)
Enabled Alert By Message Box: Enabled
Example implementation:
_________________
http://home.loloyd.com/ is online if the logo graphic at left is showing.
Last edited by loloyd on Tue Aug 01, 2006 1:17 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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Dr_Michael -
Joined: 12 Jul 2006 Posts: 6
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Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 1:14 pm Post subject: |
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I added this to my site and in every check it notifies for change! :? |
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loloyd -
Joined: 03 Mar 2006 Posts: 435 Location: Philippines
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Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 1:23 pm Post subject: |
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That's because webmon checks for updates. And since the output of the w3c validator is always fresh, it will always appear new to webmon.
http://www.markwell.btinternet.co.uk/webmon/ wrote: | WebMon is a freeware web page update monitoring program - it saves you time and keeps you updated by automatically checking web pages to see if they have changed. |
Try the WebConCh route. It's free and open-source. No spyware, no adware, no nags, no virus, no trojan! Yet it works. _________________
http://home.loloyd.com/ is online if the logo graphic at left is showing. |
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Dr_Michael -
Joined: 12 Jul 2006 Posts: 6
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Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 1:33 pm Post subject: |
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loloyd wrote: | That's because webmon checks for updates. And since the output of the w3c validator is always fresh, it will always appear new to webmon.
http://www.markwell.btinternet.co.uk/webmon/ wrote: | WebMon is a freeware web page update monitoring program - it saves you time and keeps you updated by automatically checking web pages to see if they have changed. |
Try the WebConCh route. It's free and open-source. No spyware, no adware, no nags, no virus, no trojan! Yet it works. |
Ok I just installed your software. Any site which is down, so we can test it? :twisted: |
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loloyd -
Joined: 03 Mar 2006 Posts: 435 Location: Philippines
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Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 1:49 pm Post subject: |
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Dr_Michael wrote: | Ok I just installed your software. Any site which is down, so we can test it? :twisted: |
Yes, but only one at a time, though - unlike the approach in webmon. Hmm, this makes me want to modify the program to accomodate multiple websites and to have different profiles for each website. Thanks for the idea, Dr_Michael. _________________
http://home.loloyd.com/ is online if the logo graphic at left is showing. |
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Dr_Michael -
Joined: 12 Jul 2006 Posts: 6
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Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 1:57 pm Post subject: |
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loloyd wrote: | Dr_Michael wrote: | Ok I just installed your software. Any site which is down, so we can test it? :twisted: |
Yes, but only one at a time, though - unlike the approach in webmon. Hmm, this makes me want to modify the program to accomodate multiple websites and to have different profiles for each website. Thanks for the idea, Dr_Michael. |
I have to thank you for your program as well. I will let you know if it works in my next downtime. |
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pkSML -
Joined: 29 May 2006 Posts: 952 Location: Michigan, USA
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Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 10:17 pm Post subject: |
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This information may be coming a little after the fact, but I use two sources to monitor my uptime/downtime.
1. Active Server Watcher (free) - from your computer, you can have it check your site every x minutes. It will immediately display a dialog box if it cannot find the URL. It can keep a logfile if set up to.
2. mralert.com (free) - This service will check your site about 90 times per day. You can see my site's uptime for the day at the bottom of my homepage. If you click on this graphic, it will take you to a page showing uptime history.
These are both very helpful services for me since I have a less-than-perfect computer. :) _________________ Stephen
Need a LitlURL?
http://CodeBin.yi.org |
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loloyd -
Joined: 03 Mar 2006 Posts: 435 Location: Philippines
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Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2006 6:06 am Post subject: |
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1. Using Active Server Watcher at the same side as the server may not address the problem of trying to determine if your server is publicly visible or not as discussed above. It appears to be limited only to notify you if an Internet resource becomes unavailable. This can be effectively used outside the local realm of the server though.
2. http://mralert.com/ indeed addresses the problems as discussed above. No need for downloading programs, just register and wait. It looks great. I wonder who or what virtually anonymous entity provides such a free service? Anyways, thanks for this pkSML! _________________
http://home.loloyd.com/ is online if the logo graphic at left is showing. |
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mg66 -
Joined: 15 Aug 2004 Posts: 85 Location: USA, Illinois
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