Welcome to SPIS WebWatch!

A Web Site Monitor for
WinNT and Win95

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What is SPIS WebWatch?

WebWatch is a site monitor program which will regularly and automatically request pages from any sites you like, and take corrective or notification action if any are "down", invalid or can't be contacted.

Web sites are now a critical information tool for many businesses -- critical to the businesses owning the sites, and to those who provide Web site services.

Unfortunately, the Internet is a complex organism, and prone to failure. Connections get lost, domain names get "mislaid", servers go down and with automated Web sites there are yet more layers which might go wrong.

WebWatch keeps an eye not just on connections (which any ping program can do), but also on the servers and any Web site applications behind them... Above all, it does so in an automated fashion, running the checks every minute, every hour -- as often as you need.

We encourage you to try SPIS WebWatch out by downloading a copy, looking at the help file and sample control file that comes with it and, of course, using it to monitor your own Web site!

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What can WebWatch do?

Here are seven good reasons to use WebWatch:
  1. It can monitor up to 4 (Standard version) or an unlimited number (Extended version) of independent Web sites or URLs, checking them as often as you like.
  2. It can identify problems including lost connections or server down, bad or lost pages, misbehaving CGI applications, and can even tell you if keywords are missing from the requested page. It also incorporates special checking features for the Webhub site automation framework.
  3. When WebWatch finds something wrong, it can:
  4. It's small (the executable is under 600K) and will run on any WinNT (3.51) or Win95 computer with an active Internet connection.
  5. Although it is a Windows program, you can use it to effectively monitor Web sites running on any server, anywhere in the world (including on the same machine of course!)
  6. Regular and flexible reporting options include emailing of accumulated error logs (if any) access counts and timing information
  7. And, as a special bonus feature, WebWatch has an option to check all the external links in any file or site document you want -- no more worries about off-site links going astray when they move!

Using WebWatch, you can of course monitor your own sites, but you can also offer a "Site Watch" service monitoring any mission-critical sites out there. So rather than costing you money, WebWatch actually offers you a new revenue-earning opportunity.

ISPs using WebWatch or a Site Watch service will be able to reassure their clients that "our sites are independently monitored every hour of the day -- if something goes wrong, we'll know about it and take action." That's a notable competitive edge...

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Sample Control File

Below is a sample control file (webwatch.ini), which includes comments and examples illustrating how many of the key features work. You may also want to download and view just the help file (55K) from our web site.

[Control]
TestOnly=No     ; Yes==>don't do HTTP requests or Email transmissions
LogToFile=Yes   ; Record problems in WebWatch.Log as well as display
Frequency = 1   ; One minute between each set of URL tests (can customize for each URL)
MailFrom=WebWatch  ; origin for emails sent from the site
MasterEmail=you@yourDomain.com  ; For URLS with no Email1 defined (see below)
FaxEmail=fax@faxmail.com        ; For faxing error reports via Faxmail service...
MailHost=mail.southern.co.nz
MailPort=25
AlarmSound=ringin.wav   ; If not defined, uses Windows "exclamation"
MaxError=1              ; Take error action after the FIRST error
MessageSubjectLine=!!!SPIS WebWatch problem report!!!


; Below we define header information for faxmailed responses
[FAX]
1=SENDER-ID:      peter
2=CHARGE-CODE:    Just a charge code
3=FAX:            %=%
4=REPORT-TO:      peter@spis.co.nz
5=REPORT-TYPE:    NONE
6=password
7=END:

; Below we define the URLs we want to check, AND their sequence.
; Note that this sequence of URLS *could* be used to automate some
; kind of on-site operation which was set up to be URL-controlled.
; If so, you'd use WebWatch's command-line script override option
; to run a script composed for that purpose,
; e.g. WebWatch UPDATE_SITE.INI
; (it would have a Frequency of 0 for a one-off operation then exit)

[URLS]
SPIS=http://www.spis.co.nz/
NetTravel=http://www.NetTravel.co.nz/cgi-win/spis.exe?:MSRCH
Another=http://www.canterbury.ac.nz/        ; all default behavour for this one


; Here are default overrides for the SPIS checks (which just looks at
; the home page of our site):
[SPIS]
Email1=you@yourDomain.com   ; default person to send warning emails
Email2=webmaster@ISP.com    ; Email2..9 can be defined and used for specific kinds of errors

NoConnectAction=Email2,Alarm     ; Beep and email your ISP
UnknownErrorAction=Email2,Alarm  ; As above
BadURLAction=Email1,Alarm        ; Tell you (that's the default behaviour actually)

; Here are default overrides for the NetTravel Site checks:
[NetTravel]
Email1=you@yourDomain.com
IgnorePeriodStart1=5:30 ; Don't check in this period (scheduled downtime)
IgnorePeriodDuration1=5 ; minutes   (max nine such periods)
Program1=NOTEPAD.EXE    ; this could be a pager program, for example
SendURL1=http://www.NetTravel.co.nz/cgi-dos/rebootme.bat  ; if it can connect, that is!
Fax1=03 384-5138
Match1=/SmartSearch   ; If the word SmartSearch is NOT found on the page, then...
MatchAction1=Program1,SendURL1,Fax1,Alarm  ;  do all this!

TimeoutAction=Email2,Alarm
NoConnectAction=Program1,Email2,Alarm
UnknownErrorAction=Program1,Email2,Alarm

; And that's it!

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Registration and Licensing Information

Registration entitles you to:

Prices

To register WebWatch, download the latest version from our site, and see the Registration topic in the Help file -- there's a handy form there you can use.

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