Here we'll outline the process for ensuring that Uptime.com monitoring traffic can successfully reach your websites, APIs, and services. Many organizations use web application firewalls (WAFs) or bot protection services that may block legitimate monitoring traffic from our probe servers. This can lead to false positives in terms of alerting. We'll walk through locating the current list of probe server IP addresses, identifying the Uptime.com user agent string, and configuring your firewall or security tools to allow all traffic from Uptime’s probes. Following this process ensures that your monitoring checks can run successfully and prevents unnecessary downtime alerts caused by blocked probe traffic.
Locating Probe Server IP Addresses
The first step is to obtain the list of IP addresses used by Uptime.com's probe servers. These IP addresses are regularly maintained and updated as infrastructure changes or monitoring capacity is added. Access the probe server IP list by navigating to Probe Servers in your Uptime.com dashboard. You can also access the list by clicking the View Probe Servers list for whitelisting IPs link when creating or editing a check.
The Probe Servers page lists the IP addresses used by all Uptime’s probes, in both IPv4 and IPv6 format. Filter the list down to the servers that are relevant for your monitoring and which are being used in your checks. You can search for locations or regions, or use the Filters to view only specific Regions, Locations, and subscription Tier:
From this page, you can also use the Export function to download a copy of the full list in Excel, CSV, or JSON format for easy copying into your WAF or CDN of choice.
Please note it is important to whitelist all servers in a specific location that may have more than one server due to high demand and redundancy. For example, if you select the US-NY-New York location for a check, you should whitelist all IPs associated with that location, as the originating IP may rotate based on demand or load balancing:
Locating the Uptime User Agent
In addition to IP whitelisting, many security tools analyze the user agent string of incoming requests to identify and block automated traffic such as traffic from bots. Uptime.com's monitoring checks use a specific user agent string that can identify the traffic as legitimate monitoring activity coming from our probe servers. The user agent is consistent across all probe locations and check types, making it straightforward to implement a single whitelist rule. The user agent strings can be found on the dedicated page in our documentation located here: How to Identify the Uptime.com User-Agent.
For browser-based checks that use a headless browser like Uptime’s checks, this user agent is particularly important because these checks execute JavaScript and interact with your site as a real user would. Whitelisting ensures the browser can perform all functions of the check, especially for transaction checks.
Whitelist the Probe Servers and User Agent
Whether you use Cloudflare, AWS WAF, or another firewall solution, you should have the option to create whitelists or rules that allow traffic from our probe servers. Review the provider’s documentation to locate their specific instructions for updating your whitelist to avoid rate limiting and being detected as bot traffic.
Once your rules are implemented, it may take time to propagate the changes depending on the service you use, but traffic from Uptime probe servers should be allowed relatively quickly. You can also create a test check specifically using the whitelisted probe servers and review traffic logs at the time of the check’s creation. This can also help pinpoint other network issues that may be blocking Uptime probes.
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