Monitoring for free
 
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If you aren't monitoring your Web servers and networks from the Internet to ensure that you know if they become unavailable, you are exposed. Serious Web application service can't be supplied if your networks or servers are down and you don't know about it.
There are many systems available to watch your site, but a new service called WebTelemetry from www.webtelemetry.com is interesting, as it not only provides this service with a graphical view of the devices being monitored, but it is also free.
After you register with WebTelemetry, a Java applet is downloaded and creates a graphical editor interface so you can diagram the Internet, your network and any servers you're interested in.
WebTelemetry scans the devices specified using ping, and FTP and HTTP polling are expected in Version 1.0. The service will notify any e-mail address whenever a device goes offline, and when that device is viewed in a graphical map, it will have a red frame around it.
WebTelemetry also can be accessed by Web-enabled cellphones to get real-time information about a device.
The company will charge for the service in the future, but right now it is still free. The company also intends to build a version for in-house use.
As of this writing, WebTelemetry is at Release 0.9 and still a little buggy (the version I used managed to drop all servers but keep the lines connecting them).
This is an interesting service. Let me know what you think when you try it.
WebTelemetry
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Mark Gibbs is a consultant, author, journalist, and columnist. He writes the weekly Backspin and Gearhead columns in Network World.
Mark Gibbs is a consultant, author, journalist, and columnist. He writes the weekly Backspin and Gearhead columns in Network World. Gibbs is also co-conspirator of the Vitally Important Information Web site.
Gibbs can be contacted at webapps@gibbs.com. Press releases to pr@gibbs.com.
