Web site monitoring tools

The words are evil and insidious. But at one point we all hear them.

The Web site is down!

It is especially bad when someone else notices this before you do. We�??re often left wondering: How long has our site been like this? Why hasn�??t our host called us? Why does the Internet hate me?

There are some free tools out there that may not be able to prevent your Web site from going down, but at least alert you when it does.

One of my favorite tools is Montastic.com. Signing up is fast and easy, and the interface is super-simple. You can monitor up to 100 sites with a free account. You can get alerts via email when your site goes down, or monitor your sites in an RSS Feed. Leave the Green Page up, and you will always be informed of the status of all your sites. And the site is just funny (with option buttons such as �??save�?� and �??save not�?�).

Slightly more complex, but also data-rich and informative, is Mon.itor.us. Sign up, and you can monitor sites, compare site up-time, get detailed reports, and receive email alerts when your site goes down. Mon.itor.us is not as easy to use at Montastic, but the reporting is more robust. And since both services are free, it certainly doesn�??t hurt to use both to monitor your sites.