Pingdom, the popular 24/7 web site monitoring service, isn’t just about checking if a website is up or down. Uptime, and downtime web site monitoring is, of course, one of the aspects of the service but another one is checking, and reporting on, web site performance. Pingdom utilises monitoring systems globally to reliably identify downtime issues (rather than transient conditions).

In this article we’ll be taking a closer look behind the scenes of the Pingdom control panel.

One of the key selling points of Pingdom is that it is very focused on what it does – it monitors website performance and aims to do it well. It’s unlikely you’ll see Pingdom branching out into other services any time soon. This is one of the primary reasons why it’s one of the trusted monitoring platforms with large online companies including Alexa, Tucows, iStockphoto, IBM, Spotify, United Nations, IDG, and many more.

Getting started in Pingdom is very straightforward, and managed through a central control panel. From here you can get access to the active probe servers around the world, which are busy monitoring your website and services.

From the control panel you can also access the Pingdom API to extend the functionality into your own web based applications, and there is a detailed getting started guide to the Pingdom services to help you on your way. A number of tips are on offer in the help section so it’s worth paying a visit (such as understanding how the error impact analysis works when downtime is detected).

From the control panel you can also manage your account including the service subscription you have, purchase additional features, and manage your invoices (for paid subscriptions). 

One of the key sections you will want to fill in on your Pingdom account is the Contacts page so Pingdom know who to contact when notifications are sent (such as downtime detected). This information includes a contact name, email address, cell phone (for SMS), Twitter address, and which SMS provider to send messages through. A recent addition has been iPhone notification support through the use of the Pingdom iPhone app.

The next main section you will need to configure is the “Check” section where you let Pingdom know exactly what it should be checking for. This generally involves specifying a friendly name for the check, defining a check frequency (say 5 minutes, or 60 minutes), the type of check to make (the default for free accounts is a simple Ping however subscription accounts can include SMTP, POP3, DNS, TCP Port and Custom HTTP Checks). The domain you need to check is next followed by who you want to be notified, how, and when. For example, you could set your first line of support to receive SMS messages and Tweets, whilst your second line of support receives informational email notifications. You can even specify that a notification be sent when the web site or service comes back online.

A number of reports are on offer from the detailed information collected including Uptime, Response Time, Notification History, Public Reports, and a Detailed Log – I’ll be taking a look at these in a little more detail in a later article (when enough information has built up).

A number of packages are on offer ranging from the free account which lets you monitor just one website and receive 20 SMS alerts right up to the monthly subscription business package (with 30-day trial) which increases the service up to 30 sites/servers and 200 SMS alerts, together with unlimited email & twitter alerts and unlimited contacts.

To learn more visit Pingdom.