Quite simply what happens is you give us your website or service address and optional port numbers and we will then monitor your website or service from our monitoring locations from around the world. We will monitor then per your specifications as far as frequency of monitoring and we will notify you of your up & down times using the methods you have selected.

Did you know that the average hosting company takes 60 to 120 minutes to notify you if your server is down during normal business hours? It gets worse, if the outage happens during off business hours the average time is 300 to 360 minutes before they notify you and that is IF they even decide to tell you at all.

All businesses and websites that want to know if there site or service that they wish to monitor is fully functional and present online at all times.

We are able to monitor:

• Server Connectivity
• Website Pages Content
• DNS Server
• DNS Lookup
• Email POP
• SMTP
• IMAP
• SSL Check
• Database Connection Check
• Custom Port Check
• Website Link Monitoring
• and much, much more!

EVERY business and website in the world could easily user our Remote Monitoring Services to their advantage.

For example:

• Financial Brokerages
• Credit Card Companies
• ATM Providers
• Pay Per View Providers
• Home TV Shopping Channels
• Catalog Sales
• Media Companies
• Telephone Ticket Sales
• Airline Reservations
• Emergency Response Services
• Retail Stores
• Supply Chain Management
• Internet Banking
• Business Portals
• Customer Service Centers
• Electronic Funds Transfer Services
• E-Commerce
• Entertainment Sites
• News Sites
• Job Sites
• Blood Banks
• Contests / Polls Sites
• Financial Institutions
• Membership Websites
• Educational Institutions
• Sports Portals
• Companies in general

These are just some of the types of companies and sites that would greatly benefit from Remote Monitoring Services.

Remote Monitoring Services provides a One Stop Solution to all of your Monitoring Needs.

• We provide our services to you under the "Software as a Service" (SaaS) model so there are no hardware requirements at all. If you are reading this then you can use our service.
• Client Component (Optional Desktop Application that is not necessary to use our service): Windows 2000 / Windows XP / Windows Vista / Windows 7
• Any Special Firewall Configuration: None because Desktop application uses Standard HTTP Port (80) for communication.
• Any Proxy Configuration: None because Desktop Application uses Pre-configured Proxy Information from Internet Explorer settings.

User is given license to use monitoring system including Desktop Alerts application for personal / commercial purposes but not for reselling purposes unless explicitly permitted on request.

Our Desktop Alerts program is protected by copyright law and international treaties. Unauthorized reproduction or distribution or reverse engineering of this program, or any portion of it, may result in severe civil and criminal penalties, and will be prosecuted under the maximum extent possible under law.

As you can see from the screenshot above the form for you to fill out is pretty basic. I will now cover each section in the order displayed above for you below.

Free trial for 15 days: This section allows you to choose if you want the 15 day free trial or not. If you do, then you need to choose the "Yes, Free Trial" option to get to try out our services for 15 days without any cost to you at all. If you decide to keep the service past the 15 day trial period you will only pay for exactly what you use of our services. To review what our charges are please view our "Usage Charges" section.

If you decide you do not want the free trial and just want to setup your account right away then you need to choose the "No, Regular Account" option.

Email Address & Repeat Email Address: You just need to put in your email address - for example: fred@anywebsite.com

Password & Repeat Password: You just need to pick a password that is at least 6 alpha numeric characters. For example: 1Sd3R4 please note that passwords ARE CASE Sensitive.

The next several fields are all self-explanatory and will not be covered here such as: Name, Company, Address, City, State, Zip, Country and Phone.

User Time Zone: You need to pick your time zone. This will make all of our monitors & Reports be in synch with your local time zone.

Daylight Savings: Check this box if you are currently in daylight savings. If you are not then leave this box unchecked. If your monitor times and/or reports are off by an hour and you are sure you have selected the proper time zone then check this box to see if it fixes the one hour difference. If it does not, feel free to "Contact Us".

I agree to the Remote Monitoring Services Terms of Service: Make sure you have read and agree to our standard Terms of Service and then check this box. You can't create an account without first agreeing you have read and accept our TOS.

Now after completing the above you then click on "Create New Account". After doing so a copy of your login information will be emailed to you. Next it will ask you to add a monitoring service which is covered below.

This is based on WHAT it is that you want to monitor. The details of setting up each service is below. 

The first section you will come across on this page is the "What To Monitor" section So, let me explain this section for each service below.

HTTP: This service needs you to put in your hostname (for example: yoursite.com or the i.p. address of the site 182.162.28.113) plus the service port number which in this case is port 80 by default. If for some reason you need to change the port number feel free to do so but if you are unsure of the port number then leave it at its default.

FTP: This service needs you to put in your hostname (for example: yoursite.com or the i.p. address of the site 182.162.28.113) plus the service port number which in this case is port 21 by default. If for some reason you need to change the port number feel free to do so but if you are unsure of the port number then leave it at its default.

SMTP: This service needs you to put in your hostname (for example: yoursite.com or the i.p. address of the site 182.162.28.113) plus the service port number which in this case is port 25 by default. If for some reason you need to change the port number feel free to do so but if you are unsure of the port number then leave it at its default.

POP3: This service needs you to put in your hostname (for example: yoursite.com or the i.p. address of the site 182.162.28.113) plus the service port number which in this case is port 110 by default. If for some reason you need to change the port number feel free to do so but if you are unsure of the port number then leave it at its default.

PING: This service needs you to put in your hostname (for example: yoursite.com or the i.p. address of the site 182.162.28.113).

IMAP: This service needs you to put in your hostname (for example: yoursite.com or the i.p. address of the site 182.162.28.113) plus the service port number which in this case is port 143 by default. If for some reason you need to change the port number feel free to do so but if you are unsure of the port number then leave it at its default.

SSH: This service needs you to put in your hostname (for example: yoursite.com or the i.p. address of the site 182.162.28.113) plus the service port number which in this case is port 22 by default. If for some reason you need to change the port number feel free to do so but if you are unsure of the port number then leave it at its default.

HTTPS: This service needs you to put in your hostname (for example: yoursite.com or the i.p. address of the site 182.162.28.113) plus the service port number which in this case is port 443 by default. If for some reason you need to change the port number feel free to do so but if you are unsure of the port number then leave it at its default.

DNS: This service needs you to put in your DNS server hostname (for example: ns1.dnsserver.com or the i.p. address of the DNS server 182.162.28.113).

LOOKUP: This service needs you to put in your domain name (for example: yoursite.com).

LINK: This service needs you to put in the exact URL of your web page on which hyperlinks are to be checked on (for example: http://www.yoursite.com/yourpage.html).

MS SQL: This service needs you to put in your hostname (for example: yoursite.com or the i.p. address of the site 182.162.28.113) plus the service port number which in this case is port 1433 by default. If for some reason you need to change the port number feel free to do so but if you are unsure of the port number then leave it at its default.

MYSQL: This service needs you to put in your hostname (for example: yoursite.com or the i.p. address of the site 182.162.28.113) plus the service port number which in this case is port 3306 by default. If for some reason you need to change the port number feel free to do so but if you are unsure of the port number then leave it at its default.

TELNET: This service needs you to put in your hostname (for example: yoursite.com or the i.p. address of the site 182.162.28.113) plus the service port number which in this case is port 23 by default. If for some reason you need to change the port number feel free to do so but if you are unsure of the port number then leave it at its default.

VNC:5800: This service needs you to put in your hostname (for example: yoursite.com or the i.p. address of the site 182.162.28.113) plus the service port number which in this case is port 5800 by default. If for some reason you need to change the port number feel free to do so but if you are unsure of the port number then leave it at its default.

VNC:5900: This service needs you to put in your hostname (for example: yoursite.com or the i.p. address of the site 182.162.28.113) plus the service port number which in this case is port 5900 by default. If for some reason you need to change the port number feel free to do so but if you are unsure of the port number then leave it at its default.

GOPHER: This service needs you to put in your hostname (for example: yoursite.com or the i.p. address of the site 182.162.28.113) plus the service port number which in this case is port 70 by default. If for some reason you need to change the port number feel free to do so but if you are unsure of the port number then leave it at its default.

WHOIS: This service needs you to put in your domain name for which you want to check the WHOIS record.on (for example: yoursite.com).

WEBPAGE: This service needs you to put in your exact URL of the webpage which you want to monitor (for example: http://www.yoursite.com/webpage.htm). The next field is the "Uptime Text" and this is text that appears on the page while your site is up and fully functional. The next field is the "Downtime Text" and this is text that appears on the server when a website is down. The text for either of these boxes can be a single word or phrase for the page in question. 

The following fields are present on the page regardless of which monitoring service you select - for example:

So, here are the common fields explained:

Which locations to Monitor from: These options are important because you need to look at this option as one of your customers. What I mean by that is you need to imagine you are a customer in that part of the world where we have each of our monitoring locations you are about to select from. Because if you select just part of the USA or all of the USA you may be forgetting about people you have from other parts of the world that are trying to get to your website that may not be able to. This could be because of an issue with your hosting providers connections from that part of the world. So, you will want to make sure you are covering as much of the world as possible for the site or service you are having us monitor for you.

When to Monitor: This field will tell us how frequently to monitor your site / service. Keep in mind the longer the time you set for this option the longer it is before you are notified of an outage. The shorter the time you set for this option the sooner you are notified of an outage. Some Monitors like LINK and WHOIS are better suited for day intervals so that your site is checked for invalid/broken links every few days, other monitors are better suited for smaller intervals like hours and minutes.

How much it will cost: This button will calculate your approx. monthly cost based on a 30 day month for the service, time interval and the number of locations you are having us monitor your site / service from.

Email Alerts: You just need to pick one of the options for how often you wish to be alerted by our service for each outage. After making your selection then you need to put your email address in the proper field and then you need to also state the minimum amount of time in minutes that needs to go by before you are notified. So, if you want to be notified after being down for 1 minute then you put 1 in the box. If you want someone else notified once it gets to say 10 minutes of down time then you need to click on "add more email alerts" and put in there email address and the number 10 in the "min downtime interval" box next to it.

Advanced Options: These options are ONLY for people who wish to change the title of the emails that are sent to them. If you do not care to change the title of the emails sent to you then just proceed to the next section below. If you do care to change this option then you will see the "Downtime Email" & "Resolution Email" Subject lines. These will have strange text in them such as: #hostname# #service_name# - these are placeholders for the information that will automatically be inserted into there about your website and/or service. So, DO NOT remove these placeholders or the emails from us will not look right when you receive them from us at all.

SMS Alerts: This section ONLY needs to be filled out if you wish to have SMS alerts sent to your cell phone. You just need to pick one of the options for how often you wish to be alerted by our service for each outage. After making your selection then you need to put your cell phone number with area code in the proper field and then you need to also state the minimum amount of time in minutes that needs to go by before you are notified. So, if you want to be notified after being down for 1 minute then you put 1 in the box. If you want someone else notified once it gets to say 10 minutes of down time then you need to click on "add more sms alerts" and put in their cell phone number with area code and the number 10 in the "min downtime interval" box next to it.

Downtime URL's: This section is ONLY to be filled out if you have setup some sort of automatic mechanism in which a URL triggers some sort of website recovery / backup / other custom mechanism. In such a case, we will trigger this URL whenever your site/service is DOWN so that your automatic mechanism is activated and it can do the pre-programmed steps. For this, you just need to pick one of the options for how often you wish your URL to be triggered by our service for each outage.

After making your selection then you need to put your downtime url in the proper field and then you need to also state the minimum amount of time in minutes that needs to go by before that URL is notified. So, if you want a URL to be notified after being down for 1 minute then you put 1 in the box. If you want some other URL to be triggered once it gets to say 10 minutes of down time then you need to click on "add another downtime url" and put in the exact other downtime url and the number 10 in the "min downtime interval" box next to it.

When you click on the "edit" option under current monitors it allows you to modify all of the information you originally specified. For a detailed explanation of the fields on this page please see section 3 "Adding a monitor" above.

When you click on "Report" in the current monitor section it will show you a detailed report of the monitor you clicked "Report" on. For Example:

Notice how it starts out with what website I am monitoring and what type of monitor as well. Then the next line shows which location it is being monitored from along with the total number of outages right below that. Then it follows up with the total uptime percentage and then finally it has a link to "Publish this report on the web" which I will describe in detail in the next section below.

Now it will cover the "Year To Date Report" which as you can see covers the current year, the number of outages, your uptime and downtime along with your average time. Below this you will see a pie-chart graphic of the information.

Then we move on to the "Monthly Reports" which covers the same as above which is the current year, the number of outages, your uptime and downtime along with your average time. Below this information you will see a graphical representation of the information as well.

Notice how the Months listed are underlined. This means if you click on one of them it will give you a detailed break down of just that month with a graphical representation of the data as well.

When you click on this option you will see for example:

You will first see the basic information about what you are monitoring and what service type you are using along with the period of time the report is for. Then you move on to the "Report Browsing Limitations" section which will allow you to give people access to your entire time period or to just restrict them to only the time period of the report.

Next is the area for you to select the report icon/graphic. You can see the sizes are small, medium and large. After making your selection you just need to click on "Preview Code" to be able to get the code you need to publish to your website.

They are for anyone who wishes to have a bit more functionality then the average user.

Lets take a look at a screenshot before I explain things...

Receive Summary Reports of Uptime/Downtime by Email: This means just what it states and you can pick one or more of the choices listed.

Add Scheduled Maintenance during which monitor check will be suspended: This feature can used by webmasters to prevent false downtime reports during scheduled maintenance tasks. You just have to select the start and end dates with the calendar icons.

Custom User Agent while checking your server: This option can be used to add a custom user agent for security or logging purposes. You just simple add in the description you would like for your custom user agent.

Trace Route for Failed Connections: This feature can used by webmasters to know the exact place where a connection has failed which will improve their response time for resolution. You just need to check the box for this feature to be enabled.

After you have done one or more of the above you just need to click on "Save Configuration" and it will then save the information for you and you will be set.

The application runs on any English versions of Windows XP SP3, Vista and Windows 7. Mac or Linux versions are in development phase at this time.

Once you have downloaded the application just simply double click on it to launch the installation program.

After the software is installed and the program is launched you will see the below screen.

Once you type in your email address and password (which are the same ones you use to login to the website) you need to click on "Activate" you will be done installing and setting up the application. You will then see a small icon in the lower right hand corner of your screen like this one:

and if you want to be able to see what it is good for you can double click on it and you will then see this window come up:

Notice how it shows you what you are monitoring, which monitoring service you are using and which location in the world your being monitored from as well. Then you will notice it tells you the status of the monitor, when it was last checked and the total uptime/downtime.

Once you click on "Minimize" the window will go away.

If you wish to change anything about how this application works you just right click on the green application icon once and this menu will then come up:

About: Here you can see the desktop alerts software version, copyright notices, disclaimers and links to our website.

Options: Here you can set various options like Sound Alert in which you can select the default or a customized sound to play when a new alert arrives.

Alerts Log: Here you can open the previous Alerts Log window showing all previous alerts as they appeared. This can be useful in case you didn't see them before. You can also clear the Log when required.

Snooze: This option will allow you to "snooze" (a.k.a. not be bothered by any alerts) for any where from 30 minutes to 12 hours. If you decide to snooze for awhile and then decide you no longer wish to snooze then you just select the "Wake Up" option in the menu.

Auto Close Timer: Normally when an alert comes in the window stays open for you to see it. But if you do not want the alerts that come in to always stay open then you now have an option to have them automatically close. The timer has options from 10 seconds to 60 seconds. If you decide you no longer want it to auto close the alerts after telling it to do so then you just select "Off" and they will go back to never automatically closing again.

Visit Us: This opens up the website of your service provider.

Help: We have also setup a basic help page as well.

Exit: Here you can close the alerts application and you will no longer receive any Desktop Alerts.

Q: What does Remote Monitoring Services website do?

A: This website provides you the tools to continuously monitor your website or any other web service so that you may be informed whenever it goes down and also when it subsequently gets restored. Thus you will be notified of your website/server availability and you can take the necessary steps quickly in case of any problem.

Q: What kind of services can I monitor using this website?

A: There is a long list of services you can monitor.

Q: Can I use a different non-standard port?

A: If you have a service which is listed as something we will monitor but you are using a different port then the port we normally monitor, we can still help you. You have the option of stating your specific port when adding the service monitor you wish to purchase.

Q: What will happen when one of my services goes down?

A: When our advanced monitoring system detects your service is down, it will alert you in whichever way you have specified when you setup the service monitor. Available alert methods are Desktop Alerts, Email Alerts and SMS Alerts .
Facebook and Twitter alerts are also available on specific request.

Q: What are Desktop Alerts?

A: Desktop alerts are alert messages which appear on your desktop like a popup window with an audible alarm. To use these alerts, you will have to install a small desktop alerts application on your computer and this software will enable you to get the alerts.

Q: What computers can I use the desktop application on?

A: The application runs on any English versions of Windows XP SP3, Vista and Windows 7. We do not have a Mac or Linux version at this time.

Q: How much does Desktop Alerts cost?

A: Nothing... Desktop Alerts comes as a part of the Service Monitor cost, so there is no extra charges for this feature.

Q: What are Email Alerts?

A: Email alerts are emails sent to the your specified email addresses informing you of the status of any of your services.
This email will tell you all of the details of the status of your service. For example: your service failed, date and time of failure, monitoring station and any other details available.

Please make sure to add donotreply@remotemonitoringservices.com to your contact list so that important downtime emails are not blocked or some how get stuck in your spam folder.

Q: Are there any charges for Email Alerts?

A: None at all.

Q: What are SMS Alerts?

A: SMS Alerts are messages sent to your specified mobile phone number in case any of your services go down. These are kept short and to the point which will keep the message we send within the limits of your phone so you can view the entire message and not have part of it cut off due to SMS limitations.

Q: What do SMS Alert cost?

A: Each SMS sent by our system cost an amount which depends upon the SMS package you have purchased and your Cell phone provider. SMS charges are different for different countries and cell phone providers. SMS Alerts work on Pre-paid SMS Credit system where each SMS charge is deducted from your SMS Package balance. So, if you have purchased 300 SMS Credits, each SMS alert will be deducted from the 300 until it reaches zero. When your balance gets down to 10 credits we will send you a notification to alert you of the decreasing balance.

Q: How do I buy SMS Packages?

A: You can buy SMS packages from your members area after logging in. The entire process is automatic and you can purchase and start using SMS alerts immediately. There are a variety of SMS packages to choose from depending upon your personal requirements.

Q: How can I observe the uptime/downtime reports of my services over a period of time?

A: We have a full fledged Reporting system which includes graphical representations which would allow you to see your detailed Uptimes, Downtimes, Speeds and Details of each of the services right down to the interval durations as well so that you can have a full picture of your stats.

Q: Can I publish these reports on the web?

A: Yes, we have provided the facility for you to publish these reports on the web. We provide you with the JavaScript code which when inserted onto your web pages will show a live counter of your uptime status.

Q: What monitoring locations do you check my site from?

A: We have a growing list of monitoring locations at strategic points around the world so that you can choose any of these stations to monitor your site as per your target viewers.

Q: What are the charges associated with Remote Monitoring Services?

A: You pay as you use our service under the Software as a Service (SaaS) model for calculating usage charges.

Every Monitoring Service has its specific Cost per Monitoring Test.
For example, in the case of a Website Check (HTTP) cost is 3.5 Cent per 100 tests, so if you choose to monitor your website every 10 minutes the total monthly cost would be calculated like this: We performed 4320 tests (which is the approximate number of 10 Minute Intervals in 1 Month) divided by 100 = 43.2. We charge $0.035 per 100 tests for this service so that comes to a grand total of $1.51.

But if you delete the Monitor in less than a month, then only the actual number of Monitoring Tests will be counted towards the usage charges. When you add a service to monitor by our system you will see the costs before you finalize adding it to our system. Make sure to view our Monitoring Services Costs page for all of the details.

Q: What additional tools do you provide for managing websites?

A: We provide many additional tools which may be of immense help to you and your site.

• Maintenance Schedulers to automatically suspend monitoring during the routine maintenance so as to prevent false alarms.
• In case of downtime, our monitoring service detects the type of error - detects, notifies and reports the type of error and the response of the target as well.
• We provide Trace Route information upon connectivity errors detected, every time a connectivity error is detected a trace route will be performed from the monitoring location to the monitored target and the results will be saved for future display in the reports. The trace route results can optionally be included in the email alerts.
• You can set a Custom Alert subject for up/down email notifications for better identification and filtering.
• You can set your own Time Zone and Daylight Saving so that all monitoring and reporting times are displayed according to your local time.
• You can set your own Custom User Agent to check your sites. This allows webmasters to create firewall rules to allow such requests thru while keeping other unwanted requests out.

Q: How can I check the service quickly before signing up?

A: Just head over to our Quick Check page and enter your Website URL or Server IP address, select the Service Type, Monitoring location and Verification code and press Submit to put your request in the Queue. After some time, you will see your request is processed and you will see the exact results of your request. Since this service is free for all, this is queued and it may take some time for your request to be processed but after you signup, every request is independently executed so as to maintain speed.

Q: What is a Trial Account?

A: A Trial account is like a normal user account except that are no charges for the first 15 days. During your 15 day trial you can cancel the account without any charges at all or you can continue after the trial period and your account will automatically start a balance.

Q: What payment procedure and methods are available for your service?

A: A Monthly Invoice is generated at the end of every month based upon your exact usage during that month of usage. You have a maximum of 15 days to pay your account balance. If payment is not received by this time your account will be deleted and your i.p. address and sites you were monitoring will be added to our blocked / banned list.

You can also add funds to your account prior to being billed so that any monthly amount you owe is automatically deducted from those funds instead of having to pay on a monthly basis. The payment methods we accept are Paypal and major Credit Cards through 2checkout.