Web development and programming information

The World Wide Web is a most valuable tool for many various uses. E-commerce is a huge business, and anybody who operates an e-commerce website realizes how important it is to maintain continuous uptime. Moreover, website developers are often required to search for programming errors in web applications. Monitoring HTTP can help out both the owner and the developer of a website.

Several monitoring tools are available at no cost, and some of them are even open-source. There are many different commercials tools available, as well.

Protocol analyzers aren’t automated, and usually don’t have all that many fancy options. Also, they don’t decrypt encrypted web traffic. However, they are useful when you have to troubleshoot a site that isn’t encrypted, or when just monitoring to see if unencrypted, sensitive information leaks out. If your site is under attack, you can use these analyzers to try to see what the attackers are trying to do.

Several different no-cost protocol analyzers are available for just about any operating system. Users of either Linux or a BSD-flavor operating system will see some of these in their distro repositories.

Other solutions will keep a constant watch on your website, monitoring for uptime and any problems that may develop. If a problem develops, most of these programs can send an automatic notification via email, instant message, or page.

Your favorite search engine can help you find lots of both commercial and free monitoring tools for just about any operating system. If you use either Linux or BSD, some of these tools should already be in the distro’s package repository. If you need help with the free programs, some vendors will supply it commercially.

Newer monitoring solutions come as plug-ins for your web browser. You can use these when you don’t need a complex, complete network monitoring setup. Some can decrypt secure HTTPS traffic, which allows you to use them to debug web applications for either banking or e-commerce websites.

Anyone who needs a monitoring HTTP solution can find plenty of choices with a simple search of the web.

Want to find out how monitoring http can assist website owners and website developers ? Get the exclusive inside scoop instantly in our http monitor overview.