By utilizing a "Monitoring Service" you can monitor the site's: performance, availability, reliability and security. Servers do need to be occasionally rebooted and depending on the quality of your host, some may have more problems and downtime than others. The old adage "you get what you pay for" always applies here as well.

So how do you keep tabs on your website? Glad you asked. There are plenty of online services (some are even free) that will monitor your host's server at specific intervals. For example, some check as often as every 60 minutes and notify you by email or other means whenever your site becomes unreachable.

Let's take a look at a few of these services:

1) NetWhistle:

This monitoring service will test your site from multiple geographical locations and detects down time within seconds. You can choose the way you'd like to be notified, for example, by Pager, Cell Phone, or Email.

Pricing varies with a basic check on your server every 20 minutes for one page of your site starting at just $4.00 a month.

NetWhistle can perform a variety of tests such as: checking TCP & Port Responses, checking web pages for errors, test your SSL Security, test your submission forms, password Protected pages and more.

Sign up to get your first 15 days free. Monthly payments are then charged to your credit card.

2) AtWatch:

You can now be alerted immediately when your site goes down. Pricing starts at $17.95 a month and then goes up from there, depending on the plan you choose.

You can select monitoring frequencies of 5, 20, or 60 minutes and be alerted of any problems via email, pager or Cell Phone. Sign up for a 14-day free trial.

3) AlertMeFirst:

With this service you can choose to check your server as frequently as every two minutes to once an hour. You choose the way in which you'd like to be notified of any problems.

Again with your choice of email or pager. All results are put into easy to read reports so you can watch for any trends. Only $24.00 a month.

4) SiteUpTime:

A free website monitoring service that logs detailed reports of your sites downtime/uptime each month. This service will alert you by email if any problem is found when trying to connect to your site. You can choose monitoring intervals of 30 to 60 minutes. If you need more options, they do offer a "Premium" Service starting at only $5.00 per month.

5) WebSitePulse:

Offering a free monitoring plan for one host, they'll check your site every hour. The alert notifications are delivered by Email or Cell Phone and includes information about the different types of errors and the date and time that they occurred. Real time reports are available with daily and weekly logs of server activity.

Other, more "full featured" monitoring accounts are available starting at just $9.00 a month and then go up from there, depending on your individual wants and needs.
 

6) SiteProbe:

Checks the status of your website hourly, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Offering a free service that alerts you by email when your site can't be reached. For a small fee you can upgrade to have your site checked more often. In order to keep the service free they do request that you log in every 30 days, or your account will be deleted.

Remember, just because the internet and your site are open 24-7, it certainly doesn't guarantee that your host is. By using a third party monitoring service to verify your viability, you can stay abreast of any problems with your website instantly.

If you run an E-commerce site, every time your site is un-accessible to your potential customers, "you're losing money, that's going to your competitors!" By keeping a watchful eye on your web host, you'll find out just how reliable their service is, and that's ultimately important to your bottom line.