Website Monitoring & Server Monitoring Blog

Response time of a website constitutes the amount of time needed from your access attempt to your achieving access to the website.  Tests conducted for response time are in five parts, as shown below:

DNS- DNS is the amount of time it takes to relate  IP and Host names.  A high DNS look up timing could mean problems with DNS servers.  If it takes over 10 seconds, it may indicate the  DNS server has timed out or can’t be reached.  You should notice if you entered an IP address in  host name field, no DNS look up will be conducted at all and  time will be close to 0.

Connection time - How long it takes to connect to your own server. Being the main index , you having high connection time  indicates possible routing or network  problems.

Redirect  -This is the time for any http to redirect to the redirected http service, plus the time needed to conduct your DNS look ups or your connection times occurring for that particular event..

First byte - Means the seconds it requires from establishing a connection until your first byte is ready to transfer, including  negotiation time with the server and  time the server needs to calculate results.  If there is a problem with your server load or the page you  monitor requires more time to send response to the client, your results will be too high.

Last byte -  Refers to the seconds required to download final response from the server.  If too high you should consider bandwidth upgrading  to accelerate download speed from site or server. This  is not applicable to  monitoring  basics when the server does not download data.

Jakob Niesen’s  1993 book, Usability Engineering,  explained human attention span best:

• “0.1 second is about the limit for having the user feel that the system is reacting instantaneously, meaning that no special feedback is necessary except to display the result.
• 1.0 second is about the limit for the user’s flow of thought to stay uninterrupted, even though the user will notice the delay. Normally, no special feedback is necessary during delays of more than 0.1 but less than 1.0 second, but the user does lose the feeling of operating directly on the data.
• 10 seconds is about the limit for keeping the user’s attention focused on the dialogue. For longer delays, users will want to perform other tasks while waiting for the computer to finish, so they should be given feedback indicating when the computer expects to be done. Feedback during the delay is especially important if the response time is likely to be highly variable, since users will then not know what to expect.”

With all the considerations and complex issues involving your websites and use of the internet, why is responsiveness  so important to the user? You own limitations in areas of attention and your own memory make fast response time highly significant and desirable to users.  We humans need to feel in control.  We need to not feel a computer is running our show. We humans consider companies that do not provide us with responsive service as arrogant and incompetent at what they do.  We want a fast experience rather than a chic or sophisticated one.  We relate more with sites where we move freely and can focus on the content of the site instead of  terminal wait time.

Users today think the same as they did 15 years ago.  Users still complain about slowness, and that  still makes such an impression that speed is one of the brand values customers expect. If a site shaves a  fraction of a second off  its  response, the rewarding result is a rocket lift in conversion rates for it. The actual working experience using a web site is more important to users than slogans. Customer opinions run more to personal experience and then to word of mouth praise for responsiveness.

Efforts to load web sites up with fancy widgets and entertaining sophistication only bog down response time and actually cost the web site the users it is  trying to hold in its grasp. The adage of less is more still holds true with the internet, at least when discussing extra additives that divert your attention from the web site’s main thrust, and lets you fall between the cracks instead.

So in summary, our need for highly responsive speed of light web sites stems not from our intense business acumen and needs, but rather to the human brain and its capacity for attention focus and memorization.  An adept poster graphic illustrates this particularly well. Your Brain on Slow Web Site.

Contact our staff to advise you on your best web site construction and operational features so that  you not only recruit but hold the clients for which you are aiming your talents.

A server is a system of computers that provides network services. It is a collection of hardware and software facilities working together for the purpose of realizing effective communication among computers. Web server monitoring is carried out using web server software and it involves the software checking the working conditions of the server and sending messages to the checks on parameters such as the extent to which the CPU is used, performance level of the network in use and the disk space. It can have additional features such as alerting and benchmarking. The process of monitoring is divided into several categories as described below:

Firewall monitoring

This is the process of having a close check on your firewall. Monitors such as PRTG may be employed to perform this task. It is equipped with a variety of sensors that undertake the process of firewall monitoring easily. One gets to know the exact activities going on in their internet in terms of data flow in and out of their system. The security of your system is highly boosted since any malware trying to get its way into your system is automatically detected and a warning message is sent to you. This monitoring system ensures that you are in control of your internet usage and indicates the top connections, top talkers and top protocols.

Bandwidth monitoring

The bandwidth of a server system is monitored using a bandwidth monitoring software. It involves complete identification of the actual problems affecting a network system. This helps the administrators to start working on the problems from the go instead of continuously guessing what could have gone wrong. It keeps track of the information about the usage levels as far as leased lines are concerned. It is responsible for supervision of network connections, tracing the usage trends and measuring the bandwidth being used for billing purposes. This monitoring system is also involved in making decision concerning router traffic balancing and alerts the administrator in case of flaws in network load.

Router monitoring

The fact that routers and WAN links form the most expensive components of a server system calls for effective monitoring to avoid incurring great losses. The act of monitoring routers help the administrators of the given server subscribe for enough bandwidth and avoid over-subscription that could lead to paying for more than necessary. This avoids possible congestion and other related network problems. Router monitoring helps in optimizing bandwidth allocations ensuring large network availability. It entails sporting a problem and initiating upgrades or even replacements if necessary. The administrator is made conversant with traffic trends hence the ability to plan for capacity and increment ROI as well as visualization and resolving WAN link flaws.

Switch monitoring

Protective switch monitoring system should always be put in place to avoid adverse effects of failures on LAN users. The system undertakes monitoring for port utilization and traffic with necessary alerts. The monitors here detect any potential storms on broadcast and prevent them. It notifies the administrator on the heavily used and underused ports. Data loss is taken care of by alerting the administrator whenever a port begins to discard. Switch port mappers are used to quickly     supervise the status of the devices interfaced with the switch ports.

NetFlow monitoring and packet sniffing

NetFlow monitoring informs the administrators where their bandwidth is used, the person using it and the reason as to why the person is using it. This is important in that it shows you how the usage may affect you network. If it is potentially harmful then you can take the necessary corrective precautions depending on the nature of the danger. Its configuration involves setting a NetFlow sensor in PRTG and creating a new NetFlow sensor for each IP. Packet sniffing is used in a network to capture and record data flow. It allows for discerning every single packet and carrying out analysis on its predefined parameters. It is an addition to regular bandwidth capabilities. Their sensors make use of the host machine cards.

Network and VoIP monitoring

PRTG plays a very important role which is keeping the administrator informed before a failure or malfunction occurs in their network. This is useful as the administrator can take measure that prevents the flaws from happening hence reducing the cost of repair. Network monitoring increases the efficiency of a network through keeping track of bandwidth and data consumption. Network monitors are easy to install and use. They support remote control through notification techniques and multiple location monitoring. VoIP monitors constitute powerful QoS sensors that can measure jitter, the latency of a network and packet loss. With PRTG an administrator can be informed of his data usage on the instant and warned in case of quality deterioration.

Mother’s Day recently passed and retailers, restaurants and spa centers sighed with satisfaction as Americans spent more this year than they did last year. According to IBISWorld, the total spending for moms reached $17.06 billion compared to the $17.02 billion in 2012.

Apparently, sales were up to husbands, partners and kids and as it usually happens, many of them waited almost until the last day to purchase gifts online.

“It’s our second-busiest time of year behind Valentine’s Day,” Wendi Day, the owner of the Old Town Florist in Portland, Ore., told the Portland Business Journal,” wrote MSN Money.

Last year, we monitored some of the most popular websites used to buy gifts for moms. They all demonstrated excellent performance and availability, so we were curious to see whether they could keep up with the high load of traffic this year just as well. Considering that sales were higher this time, and that Mother’s Day is one of the busiest days for retailers throughout the year, we expected some of the most popular websites for gifts to either crash or slow down during the online gift purchasing fever.

We were, however, pleasantly surprised to find out that the online shopping for that special day went almost flawlessly for the eight websites we monitored. Uptime was 100% in most of the time – only Sees.com and Teleflora.com experienced very slight interruptions.

The response time for some websites, however, remained an issue just like last year – Teleflora.com had the same slow response time as in 2012 – 16.296 seconds. The website with the best response time, however, was personalizationmall.com, and we would assume that their revenue losses were brought down to minimum compared to their competitors.

To see detailed statistics day-by-day for each of the monitored websites, go to our performance tracking reports. Should you have a business online, we recommend that you take a close look at those reports and understand the importance of having your website up and running 24/7.

In the meantime, we have already started monitoring websites for vacation planning and booking, and we will soon publish the reports on how they dealt with the heavy traffic during the vacation season.

Application monitoring watches out the availability and performance of multi-step web transactions and web applications to ensure they deliver excellent performance from the end-user perspective. Typical web transactions could be customer logins, purchase order fulfillment, submitting different types of web forms and other user interactions with a website and web application.

Monitoring your website for any flaws, errors or suspicious hacking alerts should be performed frequently. Waiting until you are at the end of a section or insert is wasting your time and your website’s functions.  Therefore you should keep a proactive stance regarding monitoring.  You should be the first one to realize a problem is looming, and you should be able to fix it before it is common knowledge.

Real-Time Monitoring

Real-time monitoring measures your traffic from your requesting data and then its return to you.  This represents Real Time Monitoring. You will use two kinds: active monitoring – incorporating an agent to monitor applications using proves or robots that are present to report a system availability and transactions, and passive monitoring - usually without any agent and using network ports.  Most user companies will have more to support web- based applications.  Therefore active monitoring used with passive complement each other especially during off hours when your transactions are fewer.

Security Monitoring

The ability to ferret out attacks and intrusions is covered by security monitoring. Since each network bring in their own protocols into this seek and destroy security mission, monitoring your security can be complex.  You will have to set certain points for monitoring your security and those points must be appropriate.  Therefore it is better for the business to retain a competent security company to audit any installations and guarantee an adequate set for threat barricading.

Understand Application Performance

When you analyze data, it assists you in understanding how your applications are  working as the raw data will easily show your balance between volume and total revenue.  It is inevitable, of course, that applications will have errors.  Being proactive in  your monitoring gives you the privilege of finding errors or problems first.  If these things are going to happen in your company, it is much better for you to discover them before your customer.

When Proactive Monitoring Isn’t Enough

You have been diligently proactive in all things and it still isn’t enough?  That least you with the only solution:  Be Reactive.  You sometimes overlook the importance of frequent back ups.  This will cost you wasted hours of downtime if you can’t correct that trait immediately.  Redundant back ups are the way to  go.  Match CodeGuard and WordPress Backup = DropBox for perfect protection. If one fails, you still have the other.

Tests for Monitoring

The monitoring of your applications requires numerous tests with different criteria.  There are tests for Host, Domain, Website, Foreign Location, and others, including Blacklist, which is a test to determine the existence or absence of any malware among your connections.  One of the more interesting tests is the Great Wall of China, which determines if your website is received and available at a set place in China.  This is also done for places in Europe and Australia. China has taken steps to prevent websites it does not admire, and has a firewall in place, although it can be breached. See China Firewall By Pass