Head Guru Posted February 15, 2004 Posted February 15, 2004 Several folks have asked for places to have their server monitored and when their web site goes down they want to be called or paged. If TCH was to offer such a service would you be willing to pay for it? For example. A monitoring service that checks your home page every 15 minutes to determine if apache is up and running. A monitoring service that checks your home page for content changes. This is a great tool to keep a steady eye on your site for hacks or unauthorized changes. A monitoring service that checks your MYsql server. A monitoring service that will page you when your checks fail and again when your services are back up. This can be sent either via email or SMS cell phone. Would anyone here be willing to pay say $1.00 a month for this type of service? Quote
TCH-Thomas Posted February 15, 2004 Posted February 15, 2004 Would it page people outside U.S too (for that cost i mean)? Quote
Head Guru Posted February 15, 2004 Author Posted February 15, 2004 The system would send a email to any email address is the world. Quote
Head Guru Posted February 15, 2004 Author Posted February 15, 2004 We would send a email to your SMS device. For example. My cell phone provider uses.. 24870547**@mobile.att.net Quote
TCH-Thomas Posted February 15, 2004 Posted February 15, 2004 Ok, now i get it. Thanks. And yep, Im putting myself on that list. Quote
smgcircle Posted February 15, 2004 Posted February 15, 2004 Bill -- I would definitely be interested, but I would need to have the check run every 5 minutes. And I would be willing to pay a bit more than $1 a month for this increased frequency! If you need any test users, I'm ready, willing, and able! Steve Quote
ThumpAZ Posted February 15, 2004 Posted February 15, 2004 With all the scares recently of security and unauthorized access, I think this is a great idea. Additionally, knowing that "nothing is wrong" is a great way to set folks at ease about how their money is working for them. I would pay for it. Quote
DarqFlare Posted February 15, 2004 Posted February 15, 2004 Wow Bill, I think that is an absolutely awesome addition idea. That would practically seal the fate of every other hosting company. Allowing customers the peace of mind that their own personal website is being checked every so often to make sure all is running well is incredible support. On top of what TCH already is, that would make TCH the best value by an even wider margin. I'm in if it becomes reality. Quote
natimage Posted February 15, 2004 Posted February 15, 2004 I'm sure I'd be in as well. How would it work for resellers? For example, would it cost $1 additional for each domain monitored? I think it sounds awesome and would notch TCH just that much further ahead of most other hosts!!! Quote
Head Guru Posted February 15, 2004 Author Posted February 15, 2004 I have the monitoring already in place, I will say that it is not as reliable as the 3rd party companies, but I was thinking for 1/2 of the price we could offer 99% of the service they do. I mean this would be the same monitoring that I rely on to run TCH... The 3rd party companies run servers from 3 or four locations, so if one check fails the sysyem than fails over to another route to check your server. This is nice as if one of the monitoring servers has down time the others can take over. However I have found that our internal monitoring is 99.95% effective. This is for sure something we could offer. I just need to see if there is a interest in us offering it. If there is enough interest and I think I can break even on the deal I would offer this in a heartbeat. We could offer monitoring with 5 10 or 15 minute checks. Quote
Deverill Posted February 16, 2004 Posted February 16, 2004 Bill, I wouldn't pay for that but it's only because my pages are local businesses and it's not vital that I have top-shelf uptime. If I had an online business or one that depended on the sites being up I would gladly pay a couple of bucks a month for the service you mentioned. Man, is there anything you won't do for us? (Don't answer that! ) Quote
MikeJ Posted February 16, 2004 Posted February 16, 2004 If I was looking for monitoring, I'd consider taking you up on that deal, and I think it'd be a great service. Thumbs Up I do all of my own monitoring though. Quote
smgcircle Posted February 16, 2004 Posted February 16, 2004 If I was looking for monitoring, I'd consider taking you up on that deal, and I think it'd be a great service. Thumbs Up I do all of my own monitoring though. Mike -- Would you mind telling me how you do your monitoring? Thanks! Steve Quote
youneverknow Posted February 16, 2004 Posted February 16, 2004 Why develop ulcers..strokes or hypertention over you web sites being down? I used to monitor my site 24/7 and learned that if the site was down for say 15 minutes on Wednesday at 2:35 AM there was really NOTHING I could do. I know since being with TCH that they are on top of any problem that come up and the head guru is right there on top of the situation. Do you really want to pay money to keep you awake at night if your site is down for 7 minutes? I welcome coments... youneverknow Quote
Virtual Imager Posted February 16, 2004 Posted February 16, 2004 Hey Steve... that little green creature carrying the sign with all my information is SCARY! Some of the others are cute, but... Actually the whole concept is scary if you ask me. I guess that's the point, eh? Only time will tell what? Or do I not want to know? Quote
RJSkon Posted February 16, 2004 Posted February 16, 2004 youneverknow I have to agree with you. If your site is down, there is not much that you can do about anyway, and of course you know that your site is in good hands when it's hosted at TCH. Unless the down time is the fault of the person that maintains the site, than again he or she should know better. I used to have a site monitored at my old host and I received a few warnings that my site was down, there was nothing that I could do other than contact my host and wait. Richard Quote
smgcircle Posted February 16, 2004 Posted February 16, 2004 Hey Steve... that little green creature carrying the sign with all my information is SCARY! Some of the others are cute, but... Actually the whole concept is scary if you ask me. I guess that's the point, eh? Only time will tell what? Or do I not want to know? "I guess only time will tell" is the very last line to one of my favorite Harry Chapin songs, "Sequel". The last verse goes "With half the time thinking of what might have been, And half thinking just as well. I guess only time will tell..." Quote
curtis Posted February 16, 2004 Posted February 16, 2004 I agree with youneverknow and Richard. If the site is down then its down and nothing I can do about it. So why worry,I know TCH is on top of it and know they will get it fixed as soon as possible. Quote
Head Guru Posted February 16, 2004 Author Posted February 16, 2004 Not if your a reseller.... You should ne calling and or emailing your clients if your server goes down. Other than that I cant see why you would need this service. Just my 2 cents. Quote
MikeJ Posted February 16, 2004 Posted February 16, 2004 I used to monitor my site 24/7 and learned that if the site was down for say 15 minutes on Wednesday at 2:35 AM there was really NOTHING I could do. I know since being with TCH that they are on top of any problem that come up and the head guru is right there on top of the situation. Do you really want to pay money to keep you awake at night if your site is down for 7 minutes? The reason depends on the person and the sites. For an average user with a personal website, a weblog, or even a small business, individual monitoring might be overkill. But for someone who does a lot of business through their site, or is a reseller, knowing it was down for 15 minutes (or worse) is critical to maintaining good service. If a customer would call me and have to tell my site, or worse, their site was down, that wouldn't be good. It's always in my best interest to know what's happening to a website before a customer does. Would you mind telling me how you do your monitoring? I use various tools I've acquired or created over the years. I've just recently moved to TCH from hosting all my stuff myself, so I'm still building that new montoring. If you are really that interested, you can PM me and I can elaborate, but it's nothing really unique, and isn't a single package. I've just built and run availability and performance monitoring environments for many years for various dot-com jobs I've had, and I still enjoy and prefer to do it myself. (yes... I am admittingly somewhat of a control freak. ) Quote
Alan Posted February 17, 2004 Posted February 17, 2004 Hmmm, Bill, I would be willing to pay for it for my sites, although they are not online businesses, "Just to spend money!" I am willing to go up to $350 a month but that is my limit on webhosting lol, I will be able to start college on my GED in a year !!! First 17 Y/o to graduate in the State of Mississippi and become a national registered EMT!!! lol I can see the headlines!.... So I have to save for college I am going to try my best to score high enough on my GED to go to the Uni. of Southern Mississippi! "Drifts off into a nightdream again!" But it would seem like the Monitoring should be included in Dedicated Servers, as we are paying and trusting TCH to keep our servers safe and running - Or those of us that have people paying for our services lol, my Semi-Dedicated Server is going to be for a game I play alot, and I am going to host groups websites for free, Which I will allow the visitors which also play the game, to donate directly to the creator of the game, which in return will let me have "credits" to get stuff from the store he owns or "donate" stuff for me to give away in contests. ~ If it does not make any sense or it is not a good idea, or if it is alrdy in place, just don't worry about it, I am afterall a kid, and understand absolutely nothing of the need for Monitoring. Btw, I am upgrading to a Semi-Dedicated Server when the next month rolls up, It will take me that long to get my websites rdy lol, as much as I change them! LoL, by the time I am done upgrading/buyng stuff from TCH, your gonna kick me out! -Alan Quote
TCH-Thomas Posted February 17, 2004 Posted February 17, 2004 LoL, by the time I am done upgrading/buyng stuff from TCH, your gonna kick me out! Glues Alan to TCH Quote
hindixp Posted February 17, 2004 Posted February 17, 2004 Hi, Just a Idea, SMS ALERT for Bandwidth Usage would be a Good one resellers. TCH could be First Service to offer this kinda service to resellers with options like 1). Daily Alert (should be Charged Extra). 2). Weekly Alert. 3). Summary Alert or. 4). Attention Alert(should be free to be more attractive) Summary Alert can be done once at the end of month to let the resellers know their Total Bandwith Used for the last month. Attention Alert only done when your B'width usage exceeds 90% of the quota for resellers allocation. Which client of reseller is having this High usage would remain headache for the reseller himself not a burden for TCH. See ya, manu Quote
DarqFlare Posted February 17, 2004 Posted February 17, 2004 The points brought up in here are valid. If you're going to do monitoring, how about doing it in two stages: 1) Full monitoring -- Alerts the user for any and all problems. 2) Partial monitoring -- Alerts the user for any problems that have not been caused by TCH.. Such as PHP errors, bandwidth overusage, etc. I would go partial myself, since all I'd really need to know is if there's a problem I need to fix personally. Quote
hindixp Posted February 17, 2004 Posted February 17, 2004 Hi, Full or partial would be decision of HeadGuru and other Authorities. Ideas given in my last post can lead TCH to get more business and reliability. See ya, manu Quote
Head Guru Posted February 17, 2004 Author Posted February 17, 2004 Hi, Full or partial would be decision of HeadGuru and other Authorities. Ideas given in my last post can lead TCH to get more business and reliability. See ya, manu I dont think reliablity is a issue in this post. Quote
TCH-Bruce Posted February 17, 2004 Posted February 17, 2004 I dont think reliablity is a issue in this post. It certainly isn't. Quote
TCH-Rob Posted February 17, 2004 Posted February 17, 2004 Absolutely not, this post has been up the entire time. The servers here rock as well. Quote
hindixp Posted February 18, 2004 Posted February 18, 2004 Hi, i don't suspect reliability of TCH but this would have been a added attraction for the new members to come. As a member i would say "you need to come to TCH to know all the comforts" See ya, manu Quote
DarqFlare Posted February 18, 2004 Posted February 18, 2004 Hey, that brings up a good slant on things... Most people don't really know how great it is here at TCH until they actually sign up. Maybe if we can get that point across to potential customers... Sorry, went off-track. Quote
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