| The Night The Web Site Went Out | | | | "Great, Carl. You'll be home soon?" |
| | | | "I was just about to leave when my cell phone rang. |
| What is web site monitoring all about? Here is Carl's | | | | It was the website monitoring service calling. It |
| story: | | | | seems the web site went down. They were |
| Carl returned to the office after a tough day of | | | | reporting from London." |
| negotiations. He still was not sure if the crucial deal | | | | "You mean your European customers can't access |
| was on or off, but dinner would soon be waiting and | | | | the site?" Ruby asked. |
| he had just enough time left to check his emails and | | | | "That's what I thought at first. When the Hong Kong |
| his phone messages. | | | | monitoring station reported an alert, I assumed the |
| He had twelve phone messages, every one of them | | | | transatlantic connection was blocked. But when the |
| urgent. Too late to call back right away; that would | | | | Florida monitoring station reported in, I had to check |
| have to wait for morning. | | | | the site. And guess what?" |
| His inbox held that familiar email report from his | | | | "I guess that you won't be home for dinner." |
| website monitoring service. He smiled. As usual, there | | | | "Sorry. I have to get on the line with the web host |
| were no error alerts. That's what he liked to see -- | | | | and straighten this all out." |
| his website still performing well. | | | | "Hey, that's OK. I'm just happy you get instant those |
| He looked carefully at the report. All the forms were | | | | alerts. I would hate to see you get that call during |
| functioning. The shopping cart, too. Password | | | | our dinner and have to go all the way back into the |
| protection was functioning. At least he did not have | | | | office. Let me know when you're coming home." |
| to worry about his web site this evening. | | | | "OK. I'll let you know as soon as I do. Bye." |
| There were still some download speed issues | | | | Carl checked the more detailed report online. Here is |
| reported by the new Hong Kong monitoring station. | | | | an example. |
| He made a mental note to raise the issue with his | | | | As Carl dialed his ISP, he realized it would likely be a |
| web host contact in the morning. | | | | long evening. But not as long as if he received less |
| Just as he was putting on his jacket to leave, his cell | | | | frequent reports. And not as long as the next day |
| phone rang. | | | | would be if the website had been offline for the |
| A few minutes later, he called his wife. "Hi Ruby. | | | | next. |
| How's dinner doing?" | | | | And that's what website monitoring is all about. |