WebSocket Monitoring

2014/03/07 by Leave a comment

We’re happy to announce a new check type that can monitor the uptime and optionally the response of your WebSocket services, including Socket.io.

WebSocket checks can monitor the availability of RFC-6455 and Socket.io (0.9.X) compatible WebSocket services. We use WebSockets here at NodePing to communicate between various servers. WebSockets are also commonly used as a low-overhead communication between the browser and web servers. One the greatest features of WebSockets is their ability to send information from the server to the browser without the browser asking for each piece individually, or having to handle each piece of data as a separate connection as popular polling methods must do. WebSockets are increasingly common for web applications and other cloud based services, but until now there hasn’t been a good way to monitor the availability of your WebSocket based services.

WebSocket URIs look a bit different from other protocols as they start with either “ws” or “wss”. “wss” is used for SSL connections. Socket.io requires some session information from an HTTP handshake before the WebSocket can connect so they start with “http” or “https”.

WebSocket checks are available to all NodePing accounts. Full documentation can be found here. If you’re not a NodePing customer yet, please sign up for our 15-day free trial.

We’d love to hear what kind of checks you need for your infrastructure. Send us your requests or leave a comment below.

Filed under Announcement, NodePing Updates, WebSocket Tagged with ,

POP Monitoring Enhancements

2013/01/10 by Leave a comment

As part of strengthening our email server monitoring solutions, we’ve added a bunch of new features to the POP3 check type. They nicely complement our recent changes to our SMTP and IMAP checks.

New features include:

  • Non-standard ports. Specify any port, not just POP default port 110
  • SSL/TLS support on any port – not just 995.
  • SSL certificate validation
  • SSL certificate expiration warnings – configurable to X days before expiration
  • User login verification.

More details about the new POP server monitoring enhancements can be found in our documentation.

These features are available to all NodePing server monitoring accounts today. If you don’t have an account yet, you can sign up for a free 15-day trial at https://nodeping.com.

Now, if you just had a way to monitor spam blacklists for your server ip addresses… RBL Check is on its way!

Filed under Monitoring, NodePing Updates, POP, SSL Tagged with , , , ,

IMAP Monitoring Enhancements

2013/01/09 by Leave a comment

On the heels of our SMTP enhancement release, we’re happy to add some significant features to our IMAP server monitoring check. IMAP refers to one of the two most popular methods of email retrieval, the other being POP. IMAP4 services are supported by nearly all email clients and its use continues to grow.

We’ve added the following enhancements:

  • Non-standard ports. Specify any port, not just IMAP default port 143
  • SSL/TLS support.
  • SSL certificate validation
  • SSL certificate expiration warnings – configurable to X days before expiration
  • User login verification.

It’s easier than ever to ensure your IMAP services are available and configured correctly. Find more information about the new enhancements in our documentation.

The new IMAP enhancements are available to all NodePing accounts today. If you don’t have a NodePing server monitoring account yet you can sign up for a free 15-day trial.

Next check on the block for more enhancements – you guessed it – POP3. I hear there’s a RBL check in the works too! Keep an eye out here on the blog for the announcements.

Filed under Email, IMAP, Monitoring, NodePing Updates Tagged with , , ,

SMTP Check Enhancements

2013/01/02 by Leave a comment

We’ve rolled out some important enhancements to our SMTP check that will help ensure your email server is running as it should be.

Added enhancements include:

  • Non-standard ports
  • SSL/TLS support including certificate verification and expiration warning
  • STARTTLS support
  • AUTH with support for PLAIN, LOGIN, and CRAM-MD5
  • Mail acceptance verification including open relay notification

The SMTP check will now not only verify that your email server is running but can also optionally check to see if your server is an open relay or properly accepting mail for a particular email address.

The new open relay functionality will test to see if your mail server will accept mail for an address that should not be allowed. If your server is an open relay, we will send you a notification.

It’s also important to verify that your email server is not rejecting mail that it should be accepting. There are many reasons an SMTP server may reject email. The configuration may have changed or a particular mailbox may be over its quota. This enhancement verifies that your server will accept messages to an email address of your choice and send you a notification if it is rejected.

We’ve added extensive SSL/TLS support including STARTTLS as well as certificate verification and certificate expiration warnings. Simply set how many days in advance of the expiration you would like to be notified and we’ll send you an alert, giving you time to renew and install your new certificates.

The new optional AUTH support allows you to verify that users can log in and send mail using industry standard PLAIN, LOGIN, and CRAM-MD5 AUTH mechanisms.

You can find more information about our new SMTP check enhancements in our documentation.

These enhancements are available now to all NodePing customers. If you don’t currently have an account, please sign up for our free 15 day trial.

Filed under Monitoring, NodePing Updates, SMTP, SSL Tagged with , , , ,

SSL Check Now Supports SNI and UCC Certificates

2012/11/26 by Leave a comment

We’re happy to announce a couple of enhancements to our SSL certificate check. We now support SNI and UCC certificates

SNI (Server Name Indication) passes the hostname to the server when we request the certificate. That allows you to serve multiple SSL certificates on a single IP address.

UCC (Unified Communications Certificates) allow you use one certificate for multiple hostnames. Unlike wildcard certificates, which NodePing has supported from the beginning, UCC certificates can cover multiple hostnames on multiple domains.

As IPV4 addresses keep getting scarcer, the ability to monitor your SNI and UCC certificates for validity and expiration dates will become increasingly more important. NodePing is glad to be able to offer reliable monitoring for these SSL types.

If you’re not already a NodePing customer, please sign up for our free trial and see how SNI and UCC certificate monitoring can be easy and economical.

Filed under Monitoring, NodePing Updates, SSL Tagged with , , , ,