Ping Monitoring

ICMP Ping Monitoring

Network-layer reachability checks for servers, network devices and anything that doesn't speak HTTP. ICMP echo from every monitored region with multi-region consensus so a single bad peering link can't fake an outage.

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How It Works

ICMP echo from every region, every minute

Each monitored region sends three ICMP echo packets to your host every check interval. We record success the moment at least one packet returns, along with the average round-trip latency. Every regional result is logged so you can prove reachability per region in client reports.

Incidents are opened only when a majority of regions report failure at the same time, and they close only after every region recovers. The same multi-region consensus model we use for HTTP uptime, applied to the network layer.

Three ICMP echo packets per region per check
Average round-trip latency recorded per region
Majority-region consensus before any alert fires

db.example.com — last checkAll regions online

🇺🇸 Ashburn

8 ms

🇺🇸 Portland

63 ms

🇩🇪 Nuremberg

97 ms

🇸🇬 Singapore

211 ms

Features

Reachability the way it should work

Multi-Region Consensus

ICMP echo from every monitored region. A majority must report failure before an incident opens, and every region must recover before it closes — so a single bad peering link doesn't wake you up.

Built for Non-HTTP Hosts

Database servers, network appliances, IoT devices, internal infrastructure — anything that responds to ICMP but doesn't speak HTTP. Pair with an HTTP monitor on the same host to separate network failures from application crashes.

Latency Per Region

Every check records the average round-trip latency from each region. Spot regional network degradation before it becomes an outage and prove SLA performance to clients with regional latency history.

Why It Matters

When HTTP isn't the question

Plenty of infrastructure doesn't speak HTTP. Database servers, network appliances, and bastion hosts all need monitoring — and pretending to send them HTTP requests tells you nothing useful.

ICMP

Layer 3 echo, the most universal reachability test

every 60s

Default check interval, from every monitored region

66%

Multi-region consensus threshold before an incident opens

False alarms from single-region peering blips

Database & Cache Hosts

Postgres, MySQL, Redis, MongoDB — none of them speak HTTP, but they all need to be reachable for your application to work. Ping confirms the host is alive on the network without exposing any service port to the public internet.

Network Appliances

Routers, firewalls, switches, VPN concentrators, and IoT devices respond to ICMP but don't run web servers. Ping is the only universal reachability check that works across this class of infrastructure.

Network vs App Failures

Pair a ping monitor with an HTTP monitor on the same host and you can tell network outages apart from application crashes at a glance. Ping fails + HTTP fails = network issue. Ping works + HTTP fails = your app crashed.

FAQ

Ping monitoring questions

When should I use ping monitoring instead of HTTP monitoring?

Use ping when the host doesn't run a web server — database servers, mail servers, routers, switches, IoT devices, or anything where the question is simply 'is it on the network?'. For sites that do speak HTTP, ping makes a useful companion check so you can tell a network outage apart from an application crash on the same host.

Why might ping fail when HTTP still works?

Some cloud providers (Azure VMs, certain AWS security groups, many corporate networks) block ICMP at the firewall by default. The host can still respond to HTTP/HTTPS requests while silently dropping ping packets. Before treating ping failures as a real outage, verify with a manual ping from a known-good network and confirm ICMP is allowed in your host's firewall rules.

How does multi-region consensus work for ping?

Every monitored region pings the host on its own schedule. An incident is opened only when a majority of regions report failure (2 of 3, 3 of 4, or 66% for 5+ regions) AND no region reports success at the same time. The incident closes only after every region is responding again. This eliminates false alarms from regional peering issues that don't affect the host itself.

What hosts can I ping?

Any public hostname or IP address. Private addresses — RFC1918 ranges like 10.x.x.x, 192.168.x.x, loopback addresses, and link-local — are refused because they're not reachable from our public probes. If you need to monitor internal infrastructure, the same monitor type can be run from a self-hosted Sentinel probe with private-IP blocking disabled.

Is ping monitoring available on the free plan?

Ping is available on the Basic plan and above, alongside DNS, domain expiration, TCP port and heartbeat/cron monitoring. The free plan covers HTTP/HTTPS uptime and JSON response assertions.

Is there a free trial?

Yes. Paid plans include a 14-day free trial, and you can cancel anytime.

Reachability you can trust

Start monitoring your infrastructure

Ping monitoring for every host you operate, with multi-region consensus to silence the noise. 14-day free trial on paid plans, cancel anytime.

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