Frequently Asked Questions

Have a question that's not discussed below? Ask away!


Q: What does Dave's Web Watchdog do?

Q: How do I use this Service?
Q: What is the referral program?
Q: How does Dave's Web Watchdog work?
Q: How quickly will a problem be detected?
Q: What are the different account types?
Q: How many sites can I add?
Q: What happens if DavesWebWatchdog.com goes down?
Q: How about SSL sites (ie. HTTPS)?
Q: How about non-standard port numbers?


Have another question? Ask away!


Q: What does Dave's Web Watchdog do?

DavesWebWatchdog.com is a website monitoring service. It goes out at regular intervals and checks that your site is up and running properly. If problems are detected, you are notified via email or text message.



Q: How do I use this Service?

It's a simple as 1-2-3...

1 - Click the "Create a New account" link on the login page, and enter your email address and a password.

2 - Add the URLs of all of the sites you want to monitor.

3 - Wait for the email or text notifications.



Q: What is the referral program?

The referral program is what makes it possible to provide this web service for free. By harnessing the "the crowd" (ie. users) to spread the word about our service, we reach a lot more people, much more cost effectively than we could with Google or other web advertising channels. To read the details, click here. click here.



Q: How does Dave's Web Watchdog work?

Dave's Web Watchdog goes out at regular intervals and attempts to access your sites. If a particular site responds, then we don't do anything; but if your site is unresponsive (or returns an error), then you get a notification. At this point we continue our monitoring, but now we start looking for it to come back up. As soon as it does, you get another message.



Q: How quickly will a problem be detected?

The answer to that question depends on your account type. See below.


Q: What are the different account types?

	Basic	Enhanced	Premium
Expected Resonse Time	30 minutes	15 minutes	1 minute
SMS Text Message Support		*	*
Enhanced Configuration		*	*
Page Content Verification			*
Header Login Support			*
Forms Based Login Support			*
Performance Monitoring			*
Permium Configuration			*
API and Sample Code			*
Price	free	free	$8/month $96/year
Availability	now	now	coming soon

Q: How do I get a free Enhanced account?

You are automatically upgraded to an enhanced account based on your participation in our referral program. Refer two freinds and you will be automatically upgraded. To learn more, click here.


Q: How many sites can I add?

There is no limit to the number of sites that you can monitor with this service. We simply ask that you use it only to monitor your own sites, and that you do so in a reasonable manner.



Q: What happens if DavesWebWatchdog.com goes down?

Unfortunately, if the site goes down, monitoring stops.

Fortunately, we have a mirror site that monitors DavesWebWatchdog.com every minute and notifies me of problems. So, if the site goes down, I will usually know about it before you do.  ;)



Q: How about SSL sites (ie. HTTPS)?
Q: How about non-standard port numbers?
Q: How about PHP, ASP and other types of dynamic pages?

DavesWebWatchdog.com handles all of these!