ipPatrol blog

More control of monitor sensitivity

2011-11-28T14:06:00.001Z

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.

Improved SMS Delivery

2011-11-28T14:02:00.002Z

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.

Unique sender address for email 2 sms

2011-10-13T13:17:00.002+01:00

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.

BETA Trial - Roundtrip Mail Monitoring with POP3

2011-09-20T13:23:00.002+01:00

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.

Multiple dns records now supported

2011-09-20T13:17:00.002+01:00

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.

London Monitoring Servers Moved

2011-04-13T11:19:00.003+01:00

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.

BETA Trial - Instant Messanging Alerts

2010-12-10T13:11:00.002Z

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

New look website

2010-12-07T11:07:00.002Z

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.

Report Delay Feature

2010-10-26T17:31:00.001+01:00

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.

New document size feature and monitoring intervals

2010-01-18T10:53:00.002Z

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.

New monitoring features

2009-11-25T11:00:00.002Z

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.

SMS Auto top up

2009-11-13T12:31:00.001Z

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.

Secure Certificate Testing

2009-10-20T09:36:00.000+01:00

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.

New API's released

2009-10-20T09:35:00.000+01:00

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.

Improved Form Monitoring

2009-10-19T17:04:00.003+01:00

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.

Combined Payments

2009-10-19T16:44:00.003+01:00

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.

PayPal Payments

2009-05-18T15:17:00.003+01:00

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

Reverse DNS Monitoring

2009-05-13T11:20:00.000+01:00

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.

Secure Certificate Testing

2009-05-13T11:18:00.002+01:00

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.

ippatrol registered trademark

2009-03-11T13:33:00.005Z

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.

Monitor Servers Moved

2009-02-19T14:42:00.001Z

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.

New reporting feature

2009-01-13T15:35:00.001Z

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.

New API feature

2008-12-12T12:14:00.002Z

We have recently responded to a customer request by adding an API which allows customer to update an sms contact using a simple web request. This means that customers can automate the changing of their primary on call number as part of their standard operations procedures.

Using a standard URL customers can now quickly update their mobile number without having to use the control panel. This could be acheived by a simple browser bookmark or using a command line program such as wget as part of a script.

Contact support for more details.

VAT Rate Change

2008-11-28T11:08:00.002Z

Gordon Brown has seen fit to cause the whole country extra work just before christmas. Not sure it will achieve much except a lot of confusion and extra work for retailers, accountants and IT departments alike.

IpPatrol's systems have been updated and will automatically charge the new 15% rate as from the 1st December 2008. Not sure why he choose the 1st January 2010 as a date to switch back. New year's day doesn't seem the best day to choose!

New monitoring locations in Europe

2008-10-20T12:16:00.003+01:00

October 2008

We are pleased to announce an extension to our monitoring network.

We have added five new monitoring locations in mainland Europe. You can now choose from Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Marseille and Milan as well as from our existing monitoring points in the UK, USA, Asia and Australia.

If you would like to make use of our new monitoring points please get in touch with support and we will enable the new locations on your control panel.

You can choose from one of four monitoring locations when configuring a monitor.

UK - Stratford, Manchester, Nottingham, Slough, Hull
USA/Canada - St. Louis, Freemont, Fort Lauderdale, Long Island, Montreal
Asia/Australia - Singapore, Brisbane, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Perth
Mainland Europe - Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Marseille and Milan

We are planning to implement a 'worldwide' monitoring option which will monitor your servers from a selection of our existing monitoring locations.

Company Name and Address changed

2008-08-14T16:20:00.000+01:00

We have recently moved office and changed our company name to reflect our brand.

Our new details are:-

ipPatrol Limited
Brough Business Centre
Skillings Lane
Brough
HU15 1EN
United Kingdom

Tel. 0800 567 7357
Fax 0870 199 1208

Please update any details you have on file with the new details. All payments formerly paid to Digital Contracts Ltd or our trading name Server Monitoring should in the future be paid to ipPatrol Ltd.

American Express Payments

2008-07-16T13:05:00.002+01:00

We now accept American Express payments in USD.

Previously we could only accept such payments in GBP which caused some problems for customers located in the USA.

Rolling 12 Month Availability Report

2008-07-08T11:42:00.002+01:00

We have added a new report to the control panel. The new report shows a rolling 12 month period availability report for all your monitors. The data is updated each day and the information provided can be easily cut and pasted into spreadsheets such as Excel to create management reports.

(For excel simply highlight the text of the report, use cut, then in excel use paste special and select the text option).

HTTP Redirection

2008-07-08T10:34:00.002+01:00

We have increased the number of redirects our monitoring system will follow when monitoring a web site. Previously our monitoring software would only visit a page and follow one redirection. It seems to be increasingly common practice to use multiple redirects and we have therefore upgraded our software to allow our monitor to follow up to ten redirects when monitoring a web page.

HTTP Authentication

2008-07-08T10:33:00.001+01:00

May 2008

We now support Digest and NTLM authentication methods in addition to BASIC authentication. If you want to monitor a password protected web page using any of these methods all you have to do is enter a suitable username and password in the monitor configuration and our monitors will automatically login, read the web page and optionally check the content.

Asia & Australia monitoring locations online

2008-07-08T10:30:00.001+01:00

April 2008

We are pleased to announce an extension to our monitoring network.

A number of customers have asked us if we could have a presence in Asia. We have responded to those requests by adding monitoring points in the following locations.

Singapore (Asia)
Brisbane (Australia)
Hong Kong (Asia)
Tokyo (Asia)
Perth (Australia)

If you would like to make use of our new Asia/Australia monitoring network please get in touch with support and we will enable the new locations on your control panel.

You can choose from one of three monitoring locations when configuring a monitor.

UK - Stratford, Manchester, Nottingham, Slough, Hull
USA/Canada - St. Louis, Freemont, Fort Lauderdale, Long Island, Montreal
Asia/Australia - Singapore, Brisbane, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Perth

We are planning to implement additional monitoring points in mainland Europe later this year and then to provide a 'worldwide' monitoring option which will monitor your servers from a selection of our existing monitoring locations.

Hull monitoring location online

2007-12-08T20:05:00.000Z

As of 2pm (UTC) Thursday 6th December our new monitoring location in Hull provided by intrahost is online.

In early November our isp located in Fareham gave us notice that they were going to move their facilities to Reading by the end of November. This would have required an ip address change and also meant we would have facilities in Reading and Slough.

To ensure our continued geographic diversity we decided to install servers in Hull rather than use the facilities in Reading. Intrahost were able to quickly provide us with a cost effective facility in which to host our servers. The servers went live on Thursday 6th December one day before we had to terminate our servers in Fareham.

Customers should note that if they have configured firewalls or other hardware of software using our ip addresses they will need to remove the Fareham servers and add the Hull servers. Customer may also wish to modify their monitoring configuration if their own services are hosted in Hull to ensure continued accurate monitoring.

iPhone SMS Problem

2007-11-23T18:04:00.000Z

It appears the iPhone will not accept sms messages sent from an Alphanumeric sender (such as SVRMONITOR1) which we use by default to help track messages. It receives them, issues a delivery receipt but does not display them.

We can configure accounts to use a numeric sender instead. Please contact support if you intend to use an iPhone with our service.