Is There A Way I Can "See" My Webserver From "Outside" The Modem?

[markbur]

Hi all,

I am using ADSL to host a webserver on my machine. The function is a (Christian-oriented) CHAT type of web site, so I have a keen interest in 24x7 availability as I am expecting regular users from all over the world (already have Australia, NZ, Italy, USA, Switzerland, Singapore...)

Last night I checked my machine using "localhost" and everything was working (SQL Server OK, Cold Fusion doing the web pages, etc) - but, in fact I was OFFLINE - probably due to a dropout... anyway, I only found out I was offline when I went to search for something on Google... had to go to the modem configuration screen and manually re-connect. So this whole time my users were getting a 404 error (or similar). No idea how long for.

So... is there a way I can "see" my webserver as if I was "outside" the modem insead of inside? Currently, if I http:// to the external IP address, I get the modem configuration screen, even with port 80 forwarded (of course).

(PS, I know there are other ways to check if the web server is "up" - eg have another machine regularly ping my machine or regularly refresh the index.cfm page, and then use a script to SMS me if the response is false... but I would prefer to be able to do as described above, if possible)

Is this by any chance what is referred to as "reverse DNS"? If so, I want to buy it.

Thanks,

Mark.

P.S. If anyone's interested, the web site is at www.4allnations.tk (thanks to another member for the dot.tk connection)

PPS If someone there can hack my server, please let me know rather than just vandalise the thing. It is running IIS so I know it's probably easy to hack... have mercy on a humble Micro$oft slave and clue me in on how to fix it, rather than just gloat in the security of your apache on linux... One day, I will get there!


PPPS Cold Fusion rocks!

[Mikey]

Yes there is many ways that you can see if you site is up or not. Most will cost you money though. I use http://www.siteuptime.com they will ping your website at a predetermined interval and email you if the site is down. All free.

Good luck with your site.

Mikey.:D

[Oldfart]

Originally posted by Mikey
Yes there is many ways that you can see if you site is up or not. Most will cost you money though. I use http://www.siteuptime.com they will ping your website at a predetermined interval and email you if the site is down. All free.



I have a technical question that begs answering, how do you get email telling you that your site is down if your site is down and you are unable to get email?

Or can they send out emails to a pager service?

[Mikey]

No that provider doesn't do pager alerts, but just do a search there are plenty that do. Cost money though. Guess you have to have a pager as well to be able to do it.

There is another way around it. You can link your hotmail account to your telstra mobile. Set up the email alert to go to a hotmail account. Then that will be sent to your mobile via sms.

Guess it comes down to how important it is to know when your site is up and how much you want to spend to track it.

[DSL_Tech]

Originally posted by Oldfart
I have a technical question that begs answering, how do you get email telling you that your site is down if your site is down and you are unable to get email?

Or can they send out emails to a pager service?

That is a very good question, and something we have been considering.

It is within the capability of our monitoring system to send and sms/pager message when a link has failed. We can do this 24/7, or for nominated hours/days.

We do this for our own network devices and some of our corporate customers that request it. It's not feasible to do it for every ADSL circuit because of the high chance of false positives.

But we could do it in response to a specific request for individual ADSL circuits.

We would be looking at a charge of around $15 per month per link which would be inclusive on notification costs.

How does that sound?