--- title: "Ping monitor online, free HTTP checks | Logdash" description: "Logdash checks your site over HTTP, not ICMP ping. Why that catches more outages, when real ping is the better pick, and how to get alerts in 3 steps." url: https://logdash.io/tools/ping-monitor-online --- # Ping monitor online Logdash does not send ICMP ping; it requests your URL over HTTP every 5 minutes for free, which answers what ping cannot: whether the site serves pages, not just whether the machine is switched on. Most people searching for a ping monitor want to know when their website goes down. ICMP ping answers a narrower question: does the network stack on that IP address reply. Logdash does not do ICMP. The checker on this page sends an HTTP GET instead, records the status code and response time, and counts anything outside 200 to 399, or no answer within 10 seconds, as down. ## Why a website ping monitor should use HTTP - The machine replies to ping while nginx is stopped, the app has crashed or the database is gone. Ping stays green and every visitor gets a 502. - Behind Cloudflare or another proxy CDN, ping reaches the edge, not your server. Your origin can be down for hours and ping will never notice. - Plenty of firewalls and cloud networks drop ICMP by default, so ping reports down while the site serves pages fine. - An HTTP check measures the request your users make, so its response time means something. Ping latency is network distance and nothing else. ## Ping and HTTP side by side ```bash # ICMP: does the machine answer? ping -c 4 example.com # HTTP: does the site answer? This is what Logdash checks. curl -sS -o /dev/null -L --max-redirs 5 -m 10 \ -w '%{http_code} in %{time_total}s\n' https://example.com ``` Read them together. Ping fine and curl 200: all good. Ping fine and curl 502 or 000: the box is up and the app is not, the case ping alone misses. Ping lost and curl 200: ICMP is blocked, and the site is fine. Both failing: the host or its network is gone. The third case is common enough that a ping-only monitor will wake you for a site that never went down. ## The other kind of ping Some tools use ping for the opposite direction: your cron job or worker calls the monitor, and silence means it died. Logdash has that as push monitors on the Pro plan. The worker sends POST https://api.logdash.io/ping/, no auth header, no body, and the monitor goes down on the first 15-second window without one. So it pings from a loop every few seconds. A nightly job that pings once would read as down all day, and Healthchecks.io or Cronitor fit that better. ## When you really need ICMP ping Some things have no web server to check: a router, a NAS, a VPN gateway, a printer, the internet connection at your office. For those, ICMP is the right tool, and Logdash cannot do it today. UptimeRobot includes ping monitors on its free plan, 50 monitors at 5-minute intervals, and is the better pick for that job. ### Logdash vs UptimeRobot | Feature | Logdash | UptimeRobot | | ------------------------------------- | --------------------------------- | ------------------------- | | ICMP ping | Not shipped | Included on the free plan | | Free HTTP check interval | Every 5 minutes | Every 5 minutes | | Free monitors | 5 services, one HTTP monitor each | 50 | | Fastest paid interval | 15 seconds on Pro | 30 seconds on Team | | App logs and metrics beside the check | Eight SDKs into the same service | Not part of the product | ### When UptimeRobot is the better pick - You need to ping hardware or hosts with no HTTP endpoint. Logdash has no ICMP, port or keyword checks. - You have more than five things to watch and no budget. 50 free monitors beats five. - You want email or SMS alerts. Logdash sends Telegram messages and webhooks, and nothing else. ## Set it up in 3 steps 1. **Check the URL** Paste your site into the checker. The first result arrives in about a second with the status code and response time, no signup. 2. **Claim it and pick the interval** Sign in with a free account to keep the monitor. Every 5 minutes on the free plan, every minute on Builder, every 15 seconds on Pro, which is 5,760 checks a day. 3. **Connect Telegram and test it** Add a Telegram channel to the monitor, then stop the web server and leave the machine up. Ping would stay green. The next check fails and a Telegram alert arrives saying the site is down. ### Is there a free ping monitor? For websites, the Logdash free plan checks five services over HTTP every 5 minutes with Telegram alerts. For real ICMP ping on routers or servers, UptimeRobot includes it free with 50 monitors. ### What is an online ping monitor? A service that checks a host from the internet on a schedule and alerts you when it stops answering. Some send ICMP ping, others send HTTP requests. For a website, HTTP tells you more. ### Is a website ping monitor the same as an uptime check? Not quite. A ping proves the machine replies. An uptime check requests the page and reads the status code, so it catches a crashed app on a healthy machine. Logdash does the second. ### Can Logdash be my ping monitor online? For anything with a URL, yes, over HTTP. For devices without a web server, no. Logdash has no ICMP checks today. ## Keep reading [All free tools](https://logdash.io/tools): One page per tool, each with the tool itself, the command or formula behind it and a monitor that keeps checking after you leave. [Uptime calculator](https://logdash.io/tools/uptime-calculator): The uptime calculator turns an uptime percentage into the downtime it allows per day, week, month, quarter and year, so 99.9% comes out as 1m 26.4s a day, 43m 49.8s a month and 8h 45m 57.6s a year. [99.9 uptime calculator](https://logdash.io/tools/99-9-uptime): At 99.9% uptime the calculator gives 1m 26.4s of allowed downtime per day, 10m 4.8s per week, 43m 49.8s per month, 2h 11m 29.4s per quarter and 8h 45m 57.6s per year. [99.95 uptime calculator](https://logdash.io/tools/99-95-uptime): At 99.95% uptime the calculator gives 43.2s of allowed downtime per day, 5m 2.4s per week, 21m 54.9s per month, 1h 5m 44.7s per quarter and 4h 22m 58.8s per year. [Uptime monitoring](https://logdash.io/features/monitoring): HTTP checks as often as every 15 seconds. When one fails, Telegram tells you before your users do.