In this article we cover the basic functionality of our platform and offer insights on features for monitoring your website's uptime and performance.

Click here to experience our interactive guide. For any additional questions, check out our support articles or contact us directly.

Table of Contents

• What is a Check?
• Welcome to the Launchpad
• Use Advanced Checks
• Configure Performance Alerts
• Add Contacts and Contact Groups
• Add New Monitoring Users
• Understand Check Failures
• Use Web Monitoring Reports
• Visit Our Help Desk

What is a Check?

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A Check monitors a URL or IP address at intervals as low as one-minute from various locations across six continents. When the URL or IP address fails, checks issue alerts that contain details of the downtime incident(s) to designated contacts.

This overview covers the various check types available to you as an Uptime.com user. The list below identifies all check types available on Uptime.com. Click on a title for detailed instructions on adding each check type:

 

Web	Network	Email	Custom Checks
HTTP(S)	Domain Whois/Expiry	SMTP	Webhook
Transaction	DNS	POP	Heartbeat
API	Ping (ICMP)	IMAP
Real User Monitoring	NTP	Domain Blacklist
Group	SSH
Page Speed	TCP
Malware/Virus	UDP
SSL Certificate/Expiry

 

Let's Get Started:

Welcome to the Launchpad

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Upon first logging in, you are greeted with the Uptime.com Launchpad. Here you will find the full list of check types available to every Uptime.com customer, along with other features that are important when setting up your account. To get started, click any check type and enter its required details.

 

Manually create checks from the list shown in the first section or scroll down to use Uptime Intelligent Analyzer, which runs Web Server, Email, and Network checks you can add individually, or in bulk.

 

Users can also click Monitoring > Checks followed by Add New to add a new check. We recommend you begin with an HTTP(S) check, but also explore each monitoring check type based on your needs. Change the check type via the Check Type dropdown menu to any of our available check types. 

Tip: When creating or editing a check, select a location from the dropdown and then click Run Test to verify settings are correct.

 

Different Check Types will require different information and settings. Hover over each field to see a short explanation, or read our Check Field Explanation on required and optional parameters.

 

The support article on Advanced Check Options can help you further customize your checks to utilize:

• Maintenance windows: prevent a check from issuing an alert while the maintenance window is active. More information on how alerts work in maintenance state.
  
• Escalations: send an additional alert once a pre-configured amount of time has passed (such as five minutes or one hour) 
• Sensitivity: the number of probe servers that must go to CRITICAL status before a check issues an alert
• Number of retries: the number of times a probe server will retry a check before it goes to CRITICAL status

...and other options depending on the check. 

For a full breakdown of each parameter, refer to our Check Field Explanation support article.

Use Advanced Monitoring Checks

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These features provide some advanced monitoring functionality that better simulates the user experience of your website:

• Real User Monitoring: Monitors the performance experience of visitors on your site
  
• Transaction Checks: Monitors web transactions on your site (e.g. login, registration etc.).
  
• API Checks: Monitors API using multiple HTTP(S) requests
• Group Checks: Organize multiple checks to monitor systems, report on performance, and manage incident response.
• Custom Checks: Monitors periodic jobs and processes, issuing alerts according to whether an action occurs or a heartbeat is not detected.

Configure Performance Alerts

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Email, SMS, and voice call notifications are part of New User Setup and are created for the primary account holder upon first login. When you create your first check, it will be assigned to a Default contact that utilizes the account owner’s credentials. 

In addition to email, SMS, and voice calls, Uptime.com supports most major third-party push notification providers that can receive incident alerts. 

With this list of Push Notification Integrations, you can send alerts and metrics to where your team lives and works. 

Here are some ideas on creating responsive escalations with Uptime.com.

Subscribe to Uptime.com's status page to be notified in advance of changes to our probe server locations.

Add Contacts and Contact Groups

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The Contact Screen is used to add new contacts or edit existing ones. Depending on how the contact is configured, individuals or contact groups associated with each contact will be notified of a downtime incident via:

• Email
• SMS message and/or phone call
• Push notifications through a third-party provider
• The Uptime.com Mobile Application (iOS and Android Available)

Along with a contact’s Name, Email/Phone, and/or Integrations assigned, you can also see the number of Checks and Escalations configured. Access it by clicking Notifications>Contacts. 

 

Add New Monitoring Users

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Users generally have access to reports, can log into Uptime.com, can view checks (with higher permission levels able to edit or create new checks), and can receive emailed invoices and reports. 

To do so:

1. Click New User from the Users Page.
   
   
2. Add the user’s first/last name, email, and timezone.
   
   
3. Then, choose that user’s account Access Level, and opt in/out of Two-Factor Authentication and hit Save.
   
   Uptime.com will send the user a verification email and allow the user to create a password.

Please note: Basic tier accounts are not allotted multiple user slots.

Understanding Check Failures

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When a check fails, an alert is issued to designated contact groups and other integrated push notification systems that have been configured. This alert contains the date, time, and location relevant to the outage.

Depending on the check type, other technical data may be included such as server information or unexpected strings.  

Please note: Group Check alerts will not contain locations relevant to the outage, only the configured down condition.

Use Web Monitoring Reports

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Use the Alert History Screen to get a quick or detailed view of alerts issued when that check failed.

You can also create status pages (see example), or click Checks>Actions>Report to view an Uptime Report for a specific check, which provide a granular view of your domain uptime at all times.

If you have added a Real User Monitoring (RUM) check for your website, you can view RUM reports as well. NOTE: RUM Checks do require you to add HTML code to your website. See instructions here.

Alternatively, you can display the Uptime.com widget on your website to inform visitors of your server uptime statistics.

Once you have added checks to your account, you will notice check cards appear on your dashboard. You can customize your dashboard to filter which cards appear, in what order, and other settings tailored to your preference.

These check cards offer detailed statistics on current state, response time, and Uptime as a percentage:

Users can configure SLA Reports or Schedule Reports to send at set intervals (ie: daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly).

Create your first SLA report by clicking Reports > SLA Reports, then select New SLA Report.

Edit any SLA report to add or remove checks (either by tag or individually), or change the logic that determines how the report is rendered.

Download a PDF or XLS SLA report copy by clicking Reports > SLA Reports, locate the report and then select Actions > Download PDF, or Download XLS.

Schedule a Report by clicking Reports > Scheduled Reports.

It is also possible to view an Uptime Report for a specific check, which provides a continuous granular view of domain uptime.

Visit Our Help Desk

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Our Support Documentation covers Uptime.com’s functionality in greater detail. First, search our archives for an answer to your question. You can also Submit a Ticket if you are unable to solve your issue. We are happy to help!

Want to see our checks in action? Check out our YouTube Library for more!