WEBO Pulsar - check site availability

I hasten to please fans of fast and affordable sites. Now you can check the server response time and whether the site is accessible at all in fully automatic mode - using the WEBO Pulsar service .

If very briefly, then WEBO Pulsar is an analogy of Pingdom, only in the Russian Federation and giving the correct time for server (rather than network) delays. If a little more detailed, then the availability of the site can be checked using HTTP / HTTPS protocols using the HEAD / GET / POST methods with a frequency from once a day to once a minute. And the cost of one check is about 0.3 kopecks.

What do we think

Now the service calculates the exact time of server costs for processing the request (if more than 10ms - then the error is not more than 20%, if less - how lucky, and usually it’s no longer critical on such numbers). This is not a very trivial task (given network latency and packet loss). And of course, WEBO Pulsar looks to see if the specified resource is available at all. All this is displayed in the form of approximately such graphs.

Additionally, for each address being checked, full statistics are available in CSV form (maximum one-time sampling period is a month).

We also write down all error codes (both at the curl level and at the HTTP level), in the interface they are displayed as readable errors, in CSV logs as the numbers themselves. In general, everything you need to understand what is wrong with the site being checked. And what is happening to him (during the past beta testing, we learned a lot of interesting things about the registrar’s DNS server and the data center’s habit of increasing the bandwidth of the channel, though :).

As written below, very soon we plan to add a complete diagnostics of inaccessibility, so that it becomes immediately clear: the network segment has fallen off, or the server is simply overloaded, or there Apache crashed. Anything can happen. But you need to act in different ways. But now, by the error code you can say a lot and prevent such errors in the future.

How often do we count

5 test ranges are now available. Once a day inspections can be carried out absolutely free of charge (most likely, we will do soon and once an hour checks are free). Also available once an hour, once every 30, 10, 5 minutes and once a minute. If the resource is unavailable, you can configure how many times (with a frequency of once per minute) you still need to “tap” it before sending notifications.

And notifications are sent (so far only by e-mail, but SMS will be too soon).

How much does all this pleasure cost?

WEBO Pulsar billing system is built on the internal balance of the service, measured in . This balance can be replenished in so many ways (literally today or tomorrow we connect the reception of money through paid SMS). Therefore, the calculation of the actual cost of using the service may be somewhat difficult, but let's see.

If you need to check the availability of the address with a HEAD request every 10 minutes, it will cost 4 per day , this will be about 0.4 rubles. in a day. In a month - only 12 rubles.

Sending SMS now costs 8 (about 80 kopecks, we hope to soon reduce it to 50, the main problems are in the normal “white” turnover of funds and the amount of SMS sent).

Work with legal entities

We provide the ability to check resources with the provision of monthly reports (for our stamp / signature) on the actual state of site availability. Verification can be carried out both from one point (at choice - Moscow, St. Petersburg, Amsterdam), and from three points at the same time. The number of verified addresses is not limited. We work under the contract (briefly touched upon legal issues here ).

We provide a full package of documents (acts / invoices). The remaining details are best clarified directly with our managers .

Future plans

There are many plans. Firstly, we will add SMS notifications. This is almost there, just a little bit left. Add jabber / twitter notifications.

Secondly, we will add all the necessary types and protocols of verification (mail and databases). On the way POP, SMTP, IMAP, DNS and so on. at about the same rates.

Thirdly, we plan to provide a complete diagnosis of the error that will be available from the interface (traceroute / ping / response headers) to help solve the availability problem faster.

And of course, we have planned (already half a board has been written down) many small improvements, for example, the time and days of sending SMS messages, adding user contacts to view statistics and notifications, uptime pictures for each site, optional following redirects, optional checking SSL certificate, various options for recording response time (with all network delays or the current one being calculated), and so on. etc. We look forward to additional ideas.

We are also introducing additional verification points and will soon be ready to provide a server choice for verification and simultaneous verification from a variety of distributed (across Russia and neighboring countries) points.

Why is WEBO Pulsar better?

We analyzed a large number of similar services, starting from ping-admin.ru, already covered on Habré, to pingdom.com itself, aremysitesup.com, site24x7.com and a couple of less well-known services. Firstly, only the first is located on the territory of the Russian Federation (and this is very important if we have a Russian-speaking audience of the site being checked).

Secondly, only Pingdom shows the response time (but taking into account all network delays, which makes this number unsuitable in local conditions).

Thirdly, the cost of inspections is very high everywhere (in our opinion, even unreasonably high), so the prices for WEBO Pulsar are not higher (and in some places much lower than similar ones). For example, the cost of one check on ping-admin (using the GET method) is 0.9 kopecks , on aremysitesup.com - already0.2-0.3 (if you complete all 25 checks once every half an hour), pingdom - 0.14-0.2 (if you fill 5 checks once a minute). We offer absolutely flexible tariffs with the cost of one check from 0.28 kopecks .

Fourth, none of these services works with Russian legal entities to provide official reports on the availability of resources. WEBO Software works.

Naturally, it will be interesting for us to get user reviews and make the service even better. On it there is still a number of small jambs that we are eliminating in the very near future.

UPD (thanks AYShestakov ): user base with webo.in, if you are already registered there - feel free to use your username / password.