ipPatrol Blog

More control of monitor sensitivity

We have added a new monitor sensitvity option.

Now you can configure how sensitive our monitoring is when detecting issues.

Previously the only control available was a double knock feature which caused the system to double check any error one minute later before delaring a service as down.

We now have 3 sensitivity opitions:-

High - If the majority of monitoring servers (2 out of 3) detect an issue the service is declared down.

Normal - All 3 monitoring servers have to detact an issue before the service is declared as down.

Low - All 3 monitoring servers have to detact an issue and a second visit (double knock) is performed a minute later to confirm the issue before the service is declared as down.

Updated: 2011-11-28 14:09:22

Improved SMS Delivery

We have recently improved our ability to deliver SMS messages to the USA.

It's always been difficult to get full coverage to USA networks and coverage can suddenly fail due to the networks removing access due to other parties sending unsolcited messages via the same routes.

We now have our own unique sender id for the USA which is fully compliant with the messaging networks requirements.

This means we now have full access to USA networks and that there should be no issues with delivery in the future.

Updated: 2011-11-28 14:06:02

Unique sender address for email 2 sms

A number of customers use email to sms gateways to receive alerts. Unfortunately many of these use the sender address to either route or charge their customers account. If more than one of our customers has an account with them this can lead to sms messages being lost and/or the wrong account being charged.

The easy answer would be for the gateways to charge/route based on the receipient address rather than the sender or to allow a unique identifier in the subject or body of the message as some gateways do rather than working on the assumption that no 2 customers will ever have messages sent from the same address.

We have just updated our systems to deal with the issue regardless of who your gateway is.

Email to SMS contacts now have an extra option 'unique sender address'. Enable this and you will be given a unique address to add to your gateway as a valid sender and all messages sent to that contact will be sent from the unique address instead of our standard one.

Your messages will then be charged and routed via the correct account at the gateway.

Updated: 2011-10-13 13:24:03

BETA Trial - Roundtrip Mail Monitoring with POP3

We are now BETA trialing roundtrip mail monitoring using POP3.

Previously we offered roundtrip mail monitoring where we sent emails to your mail server and you forwarded them back to our monitoring servers. This proves that your inbound and outbound mail queues are working.

A number of customers asked us if it was possible for us to pick up the emails via POP3 rather than them being forwarded back thus proving that the inbound mail system is working and that the pop3 server is working and its possible to retrieve emails.

We have now implemented this feature and any customers wishing to try the new monitoring service should get in touch with support.

Updated: 2011-09-20 13:26:53

Multiple dns records now supported

We have updated our monitoring software to support multiple ip addresses when checking the dns result returned.

For instance twitter.com has 3 ip addresses for its web server.

twitter.com has address 199.59.148.82
twitter.com has address 199.59.148.82
twitter.com has address 199.59.148.82

So you can now configure the ip address check feature with all three values like so

199.59.148.82,199.59.148.82,199.59.148.82

When the site is checked the ip address returned from the dns lookup will be checked to see it is one in the list.

This will help prevent domain hijacking which happens when a domain registrar is hacked and the ip addresses changed to point to another server.

Updated: 2011-09-20 13:23:25

London Monitoring Servers Moved

Our monitoring servers in London have been moved.

Coreix have successfully migrated our monitoring servers based in their old datacentre at Stratford in London to their new datacentre at Enfield in London.

Our service was not affected during the move as failover monitoring servers automatically replaced the servers whilst they were being moved.

IP addresses remain the same so customer do not need to make any changes.

Updated: 2011-04-13 11:21:48

BETA Trial - Instant Messanging Alerts

We are currently trialing Instant Messenger alerts. If you would like to receive alerts via MSN, YAHOO, AIM or Google Messenger please contact support.

Updated: 2010-12-10 13:11:55

New look website

We have refreshed our web site!

We have been working hard with 939design.com to update our website. The last website was released in December 2006 and has served us well. It was well overdue for an update!

You may notice the login option has been removed from the website, you can now just click on the 'control panel' link at the top of every page, this will take you to the secure login screen which you might like to book mark for future use.

The new web site is W3C CSS compliant and W3C XHTML Strict so it should work on most browsers and we hope you like it.

Many thanks to 939design for another great web site.

Updated: 2010-12-07 11:15:40

Report Delay Feature

If your email reports sent each day, week and month are arriving too early for you (and possibly disturbing your sleep) you can now specify a report delay in the contact settings for your email address.

Simply update your contact settings and specify the number of hours delay you would like.

Updated: 2010-10-26 17:33:42

New document size feature and monitoring intervals

We have just released a small update to our monitoring system.

We have previously offered 1,2,5,10 and 15 minute monitoring intervals. Due to customer requests we have added 30 and 60 minute intervals.

We have also added a document size check to our standard http monitor. This checks that the document served by the web site and received by our monitor matches the size you have specified in the control panel. This will not only help detect that your web server is working correctly but can be used in conjunction with our existing content check feature to help detect if your web site is defaced or hijacked.

Updated: 2010-01-18 10:57:32

New monitoring features

We have released a number of new monitoring features today.

You can now monitor secure smtp and pop servers. To use this new feature simply tick the appropriate boxes in the monitor configuration and update the port numbers where required.

You can now monitor that both your inbound and outbound mail is working with our round trip mail monitor. This new feature not only means that we can check your smtp server is responding but that it is accepting mail and sending mail.

To use the new feature simply complete the address to send our test emails to and set a timeout for their return to us in the SMTP monitor configuration. You then need to follow the instructions given to set up the return leg of the round trip by forwarding the mail back to our monitoring servers.

Full details on how to configure roundtrip mail monitoring can be found in the documentation section of the control panel.

Using the new round trip feature means we will not only detect when your smtp server has stopped responding but we can also detect when your mail has stopped being processed or there are delays in your mail queues.

Updated: 2009-11-25 11:03:21

SMS Auto top up

Ever run out of sms credits - forgotten to buy more, just missed the warning emails?

ipPatrol have the solution. We can now automatically top up your sms messages when they run out. You simply need to set up a worldpay agreement with us and we will automatically top up your sms messages and charge your card as required.

Please contact support for more details.

Updated: 2009-11-13 12:33:42

Secure Certificate Testing

Our secure certificate testing can now check SAN (Subject Alternative Name) certificates otherwise known as Multi Domain SSL certificates. These are certificates which allow you to list a number of domains which the certificate is valid for and are commonly used to host multiple secure sites on one ip address.

If you use SAN certificates and have previously disabled the common name check in the monitor configuration this can now be enabled.

Updated: 2009-10-20 09:37:42

New API's released

The new api's have now been formally documented and released and allow you to modify the number of an sms contact remotely and stop/start a monitor remotely.

If you use an on call rota and frequently need to change the sms contact you can now do it via a simple link on a web page or in a script hosted on your server without having to logon to the control panel.

Similarly if you have a backup or housekeeping job and want to stop a monitor whilst it runs and restart it afterwards you can now do this remotely. When you stop the monitor you can optionally specify how long it should be suspended for and it will automatically restart after the period specified.

The new API's are documented in the documentation section of the control panel.

Updated: 2009-10-20 09:36:49

Improved Form Monitoring

ipPatrol web site monitoring has been able to post data to forms for a while.

It now has the capability to read hidden fields in your form and pass these as part of the 'keyed in' form data making it easy to monitor .net applications that rely on hidden form field session data.

All you need to do is fill in the new 'action' and form 'name' fields in the monitor configuration and the monitor will automatically capture any hidden fields and pass them with the form data you specify.

Updated: 2009-10-19 17:06:43

Combined Payments

We have made paying for your monitoring and sms easier!

You can now pay for monitoring and sms at the same, thus you only need to make one payment and only receive one invoice.

Sorry its been a long time coming but we had to interface it with our back end accounts system.

Updated: 2009-10-19 17:03:24

PayPal Payments

iPpatrol now accept PayPal payments in addition to cards from Visa , Mastercard, American Express, Solo or Maestro.

Updated: 2009-05-18 15:20:10

Reverse DNS Monitoring

We have added the option of monitoring the reverse entry for an ip address.

Mail servers often check the reverse dns entry for a connecting ip address to help validate the sending server. The receiving server will do a reverse lookup on the ip address to obtain the server name and then do a forward dns lookup on the name to check it translates to the sending servers ip address.

If your reverse dns entry is incorrect or is unavailable your mail delivery may be affected. Many isps do not delegate reverse ip dns entries so you are reliant on their dns service to provide this facility.

Use our new monitor to ensure that your reverse dns entry is always working for your outgoing mail server and returning the correct result.

Updated: 2009-05-13 11:21:53

Secure Certificate Testing

Following a customer suggestion we have added certificate testing to our https monitor. The updated monitor will check the certificate chain, that the certificate is valid for the website it is being used on and that it has not expired. If any of the checks fail the site being monitored will be determined to have failed and you will be alerted as normal.

You can set which of the tests we should perform via the control panel in the configuration for each individual monitor. To get you started we have automatically enabled this feature on all monitors which pass the certificate tests. If any of the tests failed they have automatically been disabled.

The main reason for failures will be, self signed certificates, using certificates on sites for which they are not valid or using an expired certificate. All of these should throw up warnings in your browser when you visit the site unless you have told your browser to accept the invalid certificate.

You may want to review the settings on each of your https monitors. If any options are not enabled and you are unsure try visiting the site and seeing what your browser says before contacting support for advice.

Updated: 2009-05-13 11:20:36

ippatrol registered trademark

Whilst browsing the internet recently we noticed that one of our competitors is breaking UK law and google advertising rules by using our registered trademark ippatrol in the text of its adverts.

Ippatrol
Stop Wondering - Start Monitoring!
Unlimited Users + Instant Alerts.

24/7 Ippatrol
Free Trail Ippatrol.
Start Ippatrol Now!

Ippatrol
Global Ippatrol. Start
Ippatrol In 5 Minutes!

(Pity they can't spell trial in the 2nd advert)

We have asked them to cease and desist with this practice but they don't appear to be taking much notice.

We have therefore requested that google cancel all such adverts containing our registered trademark in the advert text and will be watching for any further violation of our trademark by competitors with a view to bringing legal action.

Its good to know that the ippatrol brand is getting such attention and our competitors feels its worth risking legal action to compete with us.

We would like to remind everyone that ippatrol is a registered trademark and should not be used in this way.

Updated: 2009-03-11 13:44:06

Monitor Servers Moved

We use a number of monitoring locations to monitor your internet services. We have been having regular network reliability issues with one of our monitoring locations for some time and despite a lot of effort on our part with the ISP involved we have not managed to reach service levels that meet our requirements and recently things have if anything taken a turn for the worse.

Although a problem with one monitoring location will not affect the reliability of our service we have reluctantly decided that we must act to ensure the reliability and integrity of our monitoring network as a whole going forward.

Our servers based in Nottingham have therefore been moved to Derby.

For the majority of customers there is nothing that you need to do. If however you have configured firewalls or other hardware or software to allow us to monitor your services you will need to amend the ip addresses allowed access.

Details of all current ip addresses can be found in the control panel under the Network Status tab.

Updated: 2009-02-19 14:45:05

New reporting feature

We have added a new feature to our email reporting (reports are sent via email on a daily, weekly and/or monthly basis depending on your requirements).

The new feature checks all the data whilst creating the report for any anomalies and will produce a warning message like the following.

"Note: In 100.00% of planned visits where the service was reported as working one or more monitors reported this service as being on error. The most likely cause is a configuration error preventing the monitoring servers from accessing the service being monitored. Please correct this as soon as possible."

This generally means that either your service is unreliable and not all three monitors are getting a response or that a firewall or software configuration is preventing one of the monitors from getting a response.

The message will be output when the monitor has been been reported as up for most of the period being reported on but one of the monitors is seeing an error for the majority of the time.

We have added this message to highlight the problem so that it may be resolved and allow for accurate monitoring. Generally this means you will have to resolve an issue with your service which is proving unreliable or correctly configure your firewall or software to allow our monitors to monitor your service.

Updated: 2009-01-13 15:39:18