Hi All,

I'm thinking of building a free service which will check the status of
your servers/services.  It'll probably be based on Nagios and will have
a completely automated web-based frontend.  Thus far I've only been
able to find quasi-free services on the internet, and most only do ping
checks.  I'm intending to make a fully capable system that will not
only do ping checks, but also http, ssh, ftp and other misc tcp checks.
It'd work by my server sending a request to yours and reading the
response.  If it's what's expected then all is good.  If not, an alert
would be sent to you via email, IM or SMS/Pager.

To be researched:  SMSes aren't free, so I'd probably suggest people
buy a package of SMSes from a company like ClickaTel and enter their
details on the administration interface, so that the notification
system can use their own SMSes.  I'd probably use a service like
Clickatel - http://www.clickatell.com/brochure/pricing.php
Naturally, this would be optional.  If anyone has a better idea, I'm
all ears.

Anyway, I'm trying to gauge interest in this project.  I want to make
sure people will actually use it if I put the time and effort into
making it.  I've put together a little expression of interest page,
please visit it and have your say.  http://freemon.blits.com.au

I was inspired by the fantastic service offered by the blokes at
http://freedns.afraid.org - thanks!!

Liam

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On 28 Aug 2006 18:55:07 -0700, lmacka@gmail.com <lmacka@gmail.com> wrote:

> Anyway, I'm trying to gauge interest in this project.  I want to make
> sure people will actually use it if I put the time and effort into
> making it.

Well, I'd consider using it for my personal domains, but not for
anything anyone is paying me to watch.  Some friends and I have a couple
fo BigBrother instances between us and we watch each other's stuff,
which for the level of service we need, is just fine.  This seems like
that kind of a deal.   But for a corporate solution, if you want people
to use it, oddly enough you have to charge them or they don't value it.

Not saying it's right, just saying that's the way it is.  They also are
more likely to look at you as a professional if you're charging, and
have a better feeling that you'll be there when they need you.  A
thought - have you considered doing what AVG does, and let
people-persons use it for free, but charging businesses?

Dave Hinz

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