A free monitor revealed a host that was down 9 hours a month

A free monitor revealed a host that was down 9 hours a month

A reader felt his site was 'sometimes' down but couldn't prove it. So he installed a free uptime monitor, a service that checks your site every few minutes and emails you the moment it goes offline.

Over 30 days it kept a log. The result was eye-opening:
— His site had been offline for about 9 hours that month, in many short bursts he'd never noticed.
— That worked out to roughly 98.8% uptime, when good hosts deliver 99.9%.

Armed with the log, he moved to a better host. The next month's report showed just 12 minutes of downtime.

The monitor was free and took five minutes to set up.

In plain words: a free uptime monitor proves whether your host is reliable, so you're judging by facts, not guesses.