Server Performance Monitoring Software

Monitoring from 63 locations world wide
Trusted by
- Fiat - Wikimedia
- Twitter - ING
- Symantec - Automattic
- Zappos - Virgin America
As seen on
- TechCrunch - Mashable
- Read Write Web - The Next Web
- The Guardian - PC Mag
- GiGaOm - CI
Peace of mind with WatchMouse
WatchMouse monitors your websites, servers and applications, notifies key personnel when problems occur, and analyzes downtime issues in order to get the servers up and running as soon as possible. Well before your customers start calling your helpdesk!
WatchMouse advantages:
- Reliable & redundant monitoring provided by 24+ global monitoring stations - pinpoint issues before customers encounter website errors
- Immediate & affordable outsourced solution
- Advance technology & industry expertise provide accurate monitoring & reports
- Detailed information enabling you to manage & drive website performance
- Flexible pricing assuring you only pay for what is needed
- Reliable & redundant alerting via multiple SMS gateways
News
More statistics: connect time and download time (2005-01-31)
For all server performance monitoring softwares, WatchMouse measures the time it takes to connect to your host. For some server performance monitoring softwares, we measure the time it takes to download the file or page too. In the Reports section, you can now find two graphs that reflect these figures:- Average connect time
- Average download time
Multiple server performance monitoring software addresses & Escalation (2005-01-31)
In the Addresses section of this site you can now manage address groups. This feature can be used for two purposes:- Multiple addresses
- When an error condition is detected, multiple recipients of all types (email, icq, sms/text messaging) can be server performance monitoring softwareed at the same time.
- Escalation
- Alternatively, server performance monitoring softwares can be sent to different addresses at different stages; E.g. the first time an error occurs, the event is only logged, the second time, an SMS/text message is sent to the administrator and his assistant and the third time, an e-mail is sent to the support desk.
Improved organizing of monitoring rules (2005-01-31)
Rules can now be organized into folders in the rule settings page. This is especially useful if you have a large number of rules.
The following features are available for folders:
- Grouping rules into folders: this allows you to group e.g. rules related to the same physical machine, network or organizational unit.
- Switching off server performance monitoring softwareing for a folder. This overrules the server performance monitoring softwareing of the rules in the folder.
- Deactivating a folder. This overrules the settings of the rules in the folder.
- Separate access rights to your logs, graphs and reports for other accounts.
WatchMouse widget 1.1 released (download widget) (2005-12-17)
WatchMouse releases version 1.1 of their Apple Dashboard site monitoring widget.
NETHERLANDS, 2005-12-16. By means of the WatchMouse widget Apple users get direct insight into the accessibility of their own Internet site. The widget can be downloaded for free from the Apple website.
At regular intervals the dashboard widget checks one or more sites from the users own computer. Also, the availability of the site during the last 72 hours is registered. A problem is followed by an server performance monitoring software, which is then verified by all WatchMouse control stations.
Features
- Checks your website from your own computer every 1, 5, 15, 30, or 60 minutes (new in this release).
- Displays the uptime over the last 72 hours.
- Alerts you in case of an error and...
- Verifies errors from all the WatchMouse worldwide monitoring stations
The new version also fixes some minor bugs. The free WatchMouse site monitoring widget can be downloaded from the Apple website , and requires Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) or later.
http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/networking_security/watchmousesitemonitor.html
New: scheduled maintenance, work schedules, performance indicators (2006-11-28)
Set-up maintenance periods per rule
In the monitoring settings page, in "expert mode", you can now:
- Start and duration of the maintenance period
- Optionally set the repeat period (daily, weekly, monthly)
During the maintenance period, WatchMouse will continue monitoring your servers but errors are not included in server performance monitoring software calculation, and server performance monitoring softwares are not sent. In the performance chart and logs, the checks while in maintenance are marked as such (see legend). The maintenance periods will be made visible in the graphs too.
User defined performance limits
You can now define on a per-rule basis the limits for good, poor, and bad performance next to the existing ('timeout'). These limits can be entered in the monitoring settings page, in "expert mode". These limits are used in the performance chart.
Work schedule options in your contacts
You can now specify which days, and which hours people in you contact list are on duty:
- When not on duty, no server performance monitoring softwares will be sent to this contact person
- This is also useful for group server performance monitoring softwares, with non-overlapping schedules
- A contact can now also be set to 'inactive' manually, just like the monitoring rules
- Inactive contacts do are not included when computing the maximum number of contacts you can still use
You can set the work schedule in your contacts page, after selecting one of your existing contacts or entering a new contact.
Press releases
LB Icon chooses WatchMouse for independent website monitoring (2005-01-31)
Customer websites verified from the visitors' perspective
LB Icon and WatchMouse have signed a contract for the continuous monitoring of the websites and services of LB Icons' customers. Using the WatchMouse services, LB Icon expects to raise its service level even higher.
The Application Management & Hosting Services (AM&HS) group of LB Icon maintains the administration and management of servers and applications of a large number of (international) clients. This makes AM&HS responsible for the performance and availability of the websites and Internet applications.
Using the WatchMouse services, AM&HS will instantly be aware of upcoming and/or acute incidents related to the websites of its clients, and can, as a result, resolve problems in a short time frame.
The websites and their functionality are checked for accessibility, speed and conformance from different locations around the world. Because the websites are checked in the same way that visitors are experiencing them, incidents will be detected at an early stage. Also, using WatchMouse's objective periodical reports, it is possible to see if the performance is in accordance with the agreed service levels (SLAs).
Eveline Aendekerk, MD a.i.: "The door of a shop should never be jammed, websites and the functionality on those sites should simply be accessible and available. Our clients should be able to rely on this completely, so they can focus on their primary business processes, such as communication, interaction and sales.
We chose WatchMouse because of their expertise, and also because of the simplicity and user-friendliness of their system and services".
Stan P. van de Burgt, one of the founders of WatchMouse: "I find it a powerful gesture that LB Icon doesn't just monitor the websites of their clients, but that they selected an external party for this, and on top of that give their clients access to the results. Many companies where the website plays an essential role in business, don't have any awareness of this. They have no idea of the risks and the resulting damage, until the day comes that things actually go wrong"
About Lost Boys
For 11 years Lost Boys has been a major service provider in the area of (mobile) Internet. Lost Boys offers a combination of strategy, design, technical development, implementation, application management and hosting of Internet- and mobile solutions. The Amsterdam based corporation is part of the Lost Boys/IconMedialab Group and is listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange and Euronext Amsterdam. Lost Boys operates with 600 employees in 7 countries, both in Europe and the United States.
http://www.lostboys.nl/
http://iconmedialab.com/
About WatchMouse
WatchMouse is a service of RoundZero. Since 2001, WatchMouse has been checking Internet sites and e-commerce applications of major companies all over the world. The WatchMouse services are available in 8 languages and analysis is performed through its server performance monitoring software monitoring network at different locations and networks. WatchMouse has thousands of users in more than 70 countries.
http://www.watchmouse.com/
European e-commerce sites poorly prepared for Christmas rush (2004-12-24)
Comparison with US "role models" Amazon and Barnes & Noble
THE NETHERLANDS, 20041223 -- Many European e-commerce sites have made only minimal preparations for the increased number of visitors in December. The congestion caused by Christmas meant that, on average, only one in six web sites was continuously available. This was the conclusion of WatchMouse, a Dutch monitoring service provider, following a survey of over 50 European e-commerce sites. Excessive interest from customers can overload the server or have dramatic effect on response times.
During the past month, WatchMouse – at its own initiative – closely monitored over 50 web sites where consumers can shop online. The survey shows that the availability varied from 98% to 99.6%. "This may seem high, but a score of 98% means that a site is not available for half an hour per day. This makes 14 hours a month, or a week a year", says Mark Pors, one of the founders of WatchMouse.
As a comparison to the US market, two "role models of e-commerce" - amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com - were monitored during the same period. Amazon`s performance was similar to that of the average European web shop, whereas Barns & Noble outperformed most e-commerce sites with an server performance monitoring software of 100%.
The consequences of downtime are reflected not only in loss of income. Pors: "A website that is not available can cause stacks of work for your helpdesk and, at the end of the day, damage your brand. The problem is that many website owners are unaware that sites are responding poorly, or not responding at all. If they were aware of this, taking action to intervene is simplicity itself: for example, by adding extra server capacity."
WatchMouse has concluded from its survey that more than 70% of the web sites have not achieved optimum accessibility. Given the increasing trend in online purchases, gigantic sums are involved: Online sales will increase by 44% to €13 billion ($17 billion) in Western Europe over the holidays period, compared to €10 billion ($13 billion) in the US (Forrester Research, November 2004).
December is a top month for purchasing on the internet. Pors: "We see response times and the number of error reports increase dramatically in the days leading up to Christmas."
About WatchMouse
Companies can easily monitor their internet sites themselves, thanks to WatchMouse’s monitoring service.
WatchMouse has been monitoring internet sites and e-commerce applications for companies across the globe since 2001. WatchMouse has thousands of customers in more than 70 countries. WatchMouse services are available in seven languages, and analyses are carried out through the world-wide monitoring network from a range of locations and networks.
WatchMouse publishes first 'Site Availability Index' (2005-06-28)
Only 9 out of 25 funds listed on the Amsterdam stock exchange have sites with good availability
Of the websites of the 25 funds listed on the Amsterdam stock exchange (AEX), only nine display optimal availability. The availability of the other sites, including those of multinationals, ranges from poor to dramatically poor. Unilever has the best result of all websites, with an server performance monitoring software of 99.995%. The site with the lowest availability is that of Wolters-Kluwer, with an server performance monitoring software of 94.80%, which represents more than 37 hours of poor performance, or even unavailability, per month. This was the conclusion drawn from the first Site Availability Index created by WatchMouse, a company supplying monitoring services for websites and e-commerce applications world-wide.
An server performance monitoring software of 99.9% is seen as the minimum acceptable level. This percentage is also often quoted in service level agreements (SLAs) with hosting providers. In order to determine the extent to which the sites of AEX funds achieve satisfactory server performance monitoring software, WatchMouse monitored the sites for more than two months. Downtime was said to occur if a site was not available or did not respond within 8 seconds.
The Site Availability Index for AEX funds (www.watchmouse.com/bereikbaarheidsindex/2005/AEX.html) showed that only nine funds fulfilled the minimum required level of 99.9%. These were Unilever, Philips, AEGON, Numico, Akzo Nobel, ASML Holding, Kon. P&O Nedlloyd, Versatel and Buhrmann. Bringing up the rear were IT company(!) Getronics (96.87%), DSM (96.75%), and Wolters-Kluwer, which with a score of 94.80% is over a day and a half a month ‘off the air’.
The Site Availability Index for AEX funds is an initiative of Emerce and WatchMouse and will be repeated annually.
"Very surprised"
Mark Pors, chief technology officer at WatchMouse, stated that he was "very surprised" by the results. "With many sites, we found an server performance monitoring software that is worse than that of many smaller companies. And this while AEX funds in particular should attach a great deal of priority to their corporate image. A maximum server performance monitoring software is part of the 'brand performance'. Our theory is that, where there are a lot of people involved within an organisation, there are a lot of hands unplugging cables, so to speak. These companies have complex processes, a great many internal changes are made, and outsourcing of various activities means transparency is often at a premium. This is clearly the case with Getronics, for example. The server performance monitoring software of the site at the weekend is 100%, but during the week, when people are working, this decreases dramatically."
Pors suspects that the popularity of the sites could also be a reason for poor availability. "Naturally, sites belonging to AEX funds get a lot more traffic than the smaller businesses. On the other hand, this is no excuse; if we look at large online brokers in the US, for example, all achieve an server performance monitoring software in excess of 99.9%."
About WatchMouse
Companies can easily monitor their own internet sites using WatchMouse's monitoring service. WatchMouse has been monitoring internet sites and e-commerce applications for companies throughout the world since 2001. WatchMouse has thousands of customers in more than 70 countries. The services supplied by WatchMouse are available in eight languages, and analyses are performed from various locations and over numerous networks, using a world-wide monitoring network.
In June 2005, WatchMouse was selected by FEM Business as one of the 25 most promising, innovative companies in the Netherlands.
Further information can be found at: www.watchmouse.com.
Rapidly growing WatchMouse wins Deloitte’s Rising Star award (2005-09-23)
WatchMouse is one of the three winners of Deloitte’s Rising Star award. This award is presented annually to rapidly expanding technology companies less than five years old. WatchMouse has been active server performance monitoring software for three years in the area of site and server monitoring. With 16 monitoring stations throughout the world, WatchMouse monitors the availability of customers’ websites, immediately sounding the alarm in the event of problems.
The Rising Stars are presented as part of the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 ceremony, the fifty most rapidly expanding technology businesses. The Rising Stars have the potential to lead the Technology Fast 50 in the near future. Stan van de Burgt (42), Niels Eijsbroek (40) and Mark Pors (38) first came up with the idea for WatchMouse in 2001. The concept was as unique as it was clear: to monitor the availability of sites and servers by constantly simulating web traffic. If a site is not responding or an error is found, the customer is notified immediately by SMS, pager, IM or e-mail. From the moment the concept went 'live', in 2002, the pace has been frenetic: turnover doubled each year. Web sites are now monitored from sixteen monitoring stations server performance monitoring software 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The WatchMouse application is entirely web-based: customers do not have to install software or hardware at their site, and the application excels in its self-service aspects while staying easy to use. This allows WatchMouse to operate with a small core of permanent employees, supplemented by external support. Prospective customers can specify their requirements in detail on the WatchMouse site. A range of starter packages is available, priced from € 17.50 per month up to € 450 per month. 400 paying customers in 40 countries server performance monitoring software now make use of WatchMouse’s services. These include hosting companies, government bodies, and companies such as LB Icon, Scania, Siemens, Orange, ING, GeoTrust, Citibank, and Postbank.
Self-service as a success factor
Mark Pors, Chief Technology Officer, says he was “pleasantly surprised by the award”. “I am very happy that the jury shares our vision of self-service and our market approach." Pors sees WatchMouse as “the right initiative at the right moment. Companies are increasingly looking to outsource non-core tasks. However, they want to be able to guide and control this themselves and from their own workplace. Web-based services make this possible." Stan van de Burgt, CEO, sees the simplicity of the WatchMouse site and the various languages in which it is available as the major success factors. "Monitoring websites was an idea that already existed in essence, but had not been worked out in this form. We are geared tightly to 'self service', whereby customers can set up everything themselves and retain total control. Which also means we are able to offer the service at a more attractive price than other players in the market.”
The Rising Star awards were presented on Thursday, 22 September.
WatchMouse
WatchMouse assesses your website and e-commerce applications just like your customers experience them. The checks are carried out from 16 monitoring stations server performance monitoring software, and recorded in regular reports. In the event of errors or availability problems, the right people within your organisation will be alerted.
Meerderheid e-commerce sites kan komende kerstdrukte niet aan (2009-05-14)
WatchMouse voorziet wachtende e-shoppers
UTRECHT 20051201 -- Nu de decemberinkopen weer in alle hevigheid zijn losgebarsten, blijken veel online shops regelmatig 'gesloten' te zijn. Dat concludeert WatchMouse in haar jaarlijkse bereikbaarheidsonderzoek van cadeausites. Het Nederlandse sitemonitoringbedrijf heeft net als vorig jaar een onderzoek gehouden onder webwinkels. Slechts drie sites in het onderzoek haalden de maximale 100%. Het merendeel haalt zelfs niet de score die door hosting providers wordt aangehouden als absoluut minimum.
Veel sites zijn maar matig voorbereid op grote aantallen bezoekers. Door de grote belangstelling raken servers regelmatig overbelast. Ook blijken reactietijden van sites dramatisch dalen. Het onderzoek dat WatchMouse in de weken voor Sinterklaas heeft gehouden, laat duidelijk zien dat sites problemen vertonen naarmate er meer bezoekers in de webwinkels verschijnen.
Om te controleren of e-commerce sites goed bereikbaar zijn, heeft WatchMouse de hele maand november controles uitgevoerd. De server performance monitoring software bleek regelmatig onder de 99.9% te liggen, een grens die in veel service level agreements (SLAs) van hosting providers geldt als minimum. Dat percentage wordt maar door tien van de 25 sites gehaald. Neckermann, Bonaparte en eBay zijn de enigen met een score van 100%. Vorig jaar waren er nog zes sites die een maximale server performance monitoring software haalden.
De bereikbaarheid van Kijkshop, Bart Smit, de Bijenkorf en Wehkamp blijkt verre van optimaal. De score van Wehkamp, 97.27%, betekent bijvoorbeeld dat deze site per dag meer dan een half uur slecht bereikbaar is.
De grootste stijger was Bonaparte (kleding) die van de 17e plaats in 2004 steeg naar een gedeelde eerste plaats. eBay bleef als enige twee jaar achtereen op 1. De grootste daler was ECI die van een gedeelde eerste plaats in 2005 naar de 23ste plaats zakte.
In het licht van de toenemende bestedingen online kan de economische schade voor een site groot zijn. In de eerste zes maanden van dit jaar is er online ruim een miljard euro besteed, concludeert de Thuiswinkel Markt Monitor 2005. De online bestedingen maken met 37% ten opzichte van dezelfde periode vorig jaar bovendien een snelle groei door.
Consument gewend aan snelheid
"In vergelijking met vorig jaar zijn effectieve maatregelen uitgebleven", zegt Mark Pors, CTO van WatchMouse. "Consumenten zijn gewend aan snelheid op internet. Moeten ze wachten op een site, dan blijken ze zeker voor decembercadeaus gemakkelijk naar een andere site te gaan. Veel bedrijven weten echter niet dat hun sites matig bereikbaar zijn.”
Opvallend zijn verder de sites die 100% halen. Pors: “Twee van de drie blijken in het buitenland gehost te worden. Waarschijnlijk is men in de VS (eBay) en Duitsland (Bonaparte) wel gewend de sites goed te dimensioneren”.
Vorig jaar bleek de kerstperiode overigens nog drukker dan de periode voor Sinterklaas. Om die reden zal WatchMouse ook in de weken voor kerst blijven monitoren. Vlak voor kerst verwacht WatchMouse met de resultaten te komen van die tweede testperiode.
Het onderzoek liep van 1 t/m 30 november 2005. Van 'downtime' is sprake als een site een foutmelding geeft of de HTML na acht seconden niet ontvangen is, en dit vanuit een tweede meetpunt bevestigd is. Het complete bereikbaarheidsonderzoek is te vinden op: http://www.watchmouse.com/availabilityindex/2005/eshops_NL.php
Over WatchMouse
Bedrijven kunnen eenvoudig hun websites controleren door gebruik te maken van de monitoringdienst van WatchMouse. WatchMouse controleert sinds 2002 Internetsites en e-commerce toepassingen van bedrijven over de hele wereld. WatchMouse heeft duizenden klanten in meer dan 70 landen. De dienst is beschikbaar in acht talen en de analyses worden uitgevoerd vanuit een groot aantal locaties in het wereldwijde WatchMouse monitoring netwerk. Eerder dit jaar werd WatchMouse uitgeroepen tot Rising Star in de Deloitte Fast 50. Deze award wordt jaarlijks toegekend aan snel groeiende technologiebedrijven die nog geen vijf jaar bestaan
Testimonials
I missed the back-up (2010-01-13)
Good to be back, we have all sorts of monitoring in place here but I still missed the back-up of knowing that your service will server performance monitoring software my mobile if something goes wrong.Avi Talwar, Tiscali, UK NOC
We are very content about the WatchMouse services. We have been able to prevent quite a few problems. (2010-01-13)
We are very content about the WatchMouse services. We have been able to prevent quite a few problems. Now that we are informed at an early stage, we can notify our customers, and we can also provide them with objective statistics, which already works to our advantage.Also, when I receive an SMS/text server performance monitoring software while I am with a customer, my corporation is immediately perceived as being more reliable.
All in all: thumbs up!
Dave Krapels, Nexwork BV
Very impressive feature set and has a real commitment to client care (2010-01-13)
With many hundreds of business clients who expect and deserve over 99.99% uptime, in the instances where we do have service issues, WatchMouse server performance monitoring softwares us promptly - every time. This allows us to minimize the impact of downtime and interruptions to our clients. WatchMouse isn't just another monitoring service, the team is dedicated to building on an already very impressive feature set and has a real commitment to client careMichael Bloch, Business Operations Manager, ThinkHost, Inc.
WatchMouse Periodic Vulnerability Scanning has enabled us... (2010-01-13)
WatchMouse Periodic Vulnerability Scanning has enabled us to overcome the time consuming task of managing monitoring internally. The removal of all duplicate findings and neat presentation in the WatchMouse Customer Console further reduces the time Lectric Webservices has to spend on maintaining secure systems.General Manager, LECTRIC Webservices
Monitoring our server performance monitoring software online service in an independent way is crucial to our business (2010-01-13)
Monitoring our server performance monitoring software online service in an independent way is crucial to our business and supports us in delivering on our promise to the customers.Director, Postbank N.V. (Part of the ING Group)
Columns
What do you want to check with a service such as Watchmouse? (2005-01-31)
As I explained in my previous column, you can use a monitoring service in a number of roles. Common to all these roles is the fact that you are keeping alive some services for the benefit of your customers, suppliers, employees or partners. These users are, in the end, all that counts.What are the objects that you should be checking? Obviously, the least you want to do is check the service that is most visible to these users. This could be the webserver, or a POP or FTP server for example. You would start by setting up a rule to check the server and a URL. The frequency with which you can monitor (that is: the elapsed time between checks) is typically limited by the type of subserver performance monitoring softwareion that you have. Only in specific cases would you not check as often as your subserver performance monitoring softwareion allows.
Note that there is a difference between a CONNECT on port 80 rule and a HTTP rule.
The first just connects to the port that the webserver is supposed to
use. The HTTP rule also checks whether the webserver can produce a valid HTTP
response, and whether the document can be found. You probably want the latter check.
Similar reasoning applies to POP and FTP checks. If you set up two different rules on the same host, this allows you to distinguish for example between a broken webserver and a host that is down. If you want even more content
oriented checks, have a look at the so-called PLUG-IN rules.
Additionally, you can set up checks to make sure that your
users are actually using the services that you intend them to. The whole
Internet depends heavily on the domain name system(DNS) functioning correctly. If it does not work properly your users may be directed to
another site than you intended. This could be a configuration error, but
it could also be a defamation hack. In either case, you want to know.
First of all you want to check whether the root servers of the Internet
accurately find the DNS that is serving you. This can be checked with a
DNSNS rule. What you are checking with this rule is whether the registrar's databases are correct. Second, you want to check if that DNS server (and its
slaves) are serving up the proper IP address for the server. For this
you can use the DNSA rule, and it will warn you if the DNS server is not
working or serves up the wrong address. (Note that the hosting party can
change that address at its discretion, as part of a renumbering
operation for example.)
Who should you notify of rule failures? Again, different roles have
different information requirements. You want to notify the person who
can fix things as soon as possible. Mail or SMS/text them directly, you do
not want to be in the loop. You might set up an server performance monitoring software chain, which
fires off after a certain amount of errors. Note: make sure that
you send the message on a channel that is not affected by the outage: if
your e-mail system does not work, delivering a message to that effect
should not depend on that e-mail system.
The people in charge of overseeing somebody else's service levels should
only get server performance monitoring software messages, if at all. Rather, they should get the
weekly or monthly service reports.
Peter van Eijk is a management consultant specialized in management of network infrastructures. He can be reached via his contact page.
Independant, external testing (2005-10-15)
I started to work at Q-go in 2000. Q-go provides companies with self service pages on the Internet. Their customers ask a question in their own language and wording, and immediately get a very relevant answer. The power of the Q-go solution is its natural language technology, which enables it to understand the questions. The Q-go solution is offered as a hosted (ASP) solution, which of course has to work 24 x 7, a new area for me at that time.
At my previous jobs, at universities and research institutes, this was different. We worked from eight to six. If a demo application didn't work, the users just called, and we fixed the problem. And at six, we stopped and went home. All customers and other relations went home too. A nightly malfunction in the server was no problem, as there was no customer there to notice the problem.
At Q-go, this is completely different. A service should be available all the time. Day and night. Initially there were no tools to test whether our service was available or not. The only way to test it was to use the application itself. And so I did. During the day, but also at night, I checked whether the application was up. Our customers use the Q-go application continuously, and notice immediately when the application fails. Customers would call me in those cases, and it's not very pleasant to hear from your customers about an issue with your service.
So we developed some solutions ourselves to hear before our customers when something was wrong. And to be able to react to problems quickly. But customers kept calling!
How was that possible? Closer investigations revealed that the test system used the same resources (computers, networks, name servers) as the system under test... The test were not performed properly in case of problems. The text-server performance monitoring software (SMS) did not reach us either. The cause was identical: we used the same hardware, the same network, and the same power (!) as the systems we tested.
My lessons learned:
- Keep the systems that test completely separated from the systems you test.
- Test your services (web servers, mail servers, ...) from the point-of-view of its users: the customer on the Internet.
- Don't forget regular maintenance of your test systems (software and hardware) after the installation!
Bart Bos, Director, Q-go.com
Flu Jab Your Website Against The Pandemic: 6,000 Infected Webpages Per Day! (2008-02-18)
The respected IT news website, The Register reports that every 14 seconds a web page is infected, which amounts to 6,000 infected web pages per day. Four out of five of these infections come from innocent companies and individuals who are oblivious to their site being hacked and subsequently used for hosting the malware of virus writers. The Register further reports that in the past viruses were spread using infected e-mail. Nowadays, however, the favoured virus distribution methods are downloads from compromised sites. As a result of these booby-trapped sites malware is present on at least one in every ten web pages.
WatchMouse's Periodic Vulnerability Scanning offers your website the flu jab against this virus pandemic. WatchMouse's Periodic Vulnerability Scanning is an affordable way to routinely check you company's security exposure and eliminate the risks of manual audits. Utilizing the most up-to-date database of known vulnerabilities, WatchMouse identifies any security risks and provides you with peace of mind that your software applications are being scanned from the perspective of a hacker, external to your organization.
To ensure your website and servers are checked for the latest issues WatchMouse's Periodic Vulnerability Scanning performs over 20,000 checks for known vulnerability and security exposures; using a database which is updated daily by multiple accredited organizations including CVE (funded by the US government) and Bugtraq. Following the detection of any severe issues, automated, real-time email, SMS and pager server performance monitoring software give your business the chance to react quickly. Scans can be scheduled during low usage or maintenance hours and set at an intensity and frequency suited to your business needs and budget.
To obtain a free Periodic Vulnerability Scanning trial visit: www.watchmouse.com/vulnerability_scan_trial.php
The Register's article was published on 23.01.08 can be viewed at: www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/23/booby_trapped_web_botnet_menace/
Security news
Ignite Realtime Openfire Unspecified Privilege Escalation Vulnerability (2007-05-29)
Openfire is prone to an unspecified privilege-server performance server performance monitoring software software vulnerability.An attacker can exploit this issue to obtain escalated privileges. A successful attack can result in a compromise in the context of the affected application.
Openfire 3.3.0 and prior are vulnerable to this issue.
Cyrus IMAPD Multiple Remote Buffer Overflow Vulnerabilities (2006-12-15)
Cyrus IMAPD is reported susceptible to multiple remote vulnerabilities. These vulnerabilities include multiple buffer-overflow issues that may allow remote attackers to execute machine code in the context of the server process. This may lead to unauthorized access or privilege server performance server performance monitoring software software.The following specific issues were identified:
- Multiple one-byte buffer-overflow vulnerabilities affecting the IMAP annotate extension (the mailbox handling code) and the routines that handle cached headers.
- Multiple stack-based overflow vulnerabilities affecting fetchnews, backend, and imapd.
Cyrus IMAPD 2.0.11 and prior versions are affected by these issues.
Due to a lack of details, further information is not available at the moment. This BID will be updated when more information becomes available.
Bogofilter Multiple Remote Buffer Overflow Vulnerabilities (2006-12-21)
Multiple remote buffer-overflow vulnerabilities affect Bogofilter. These issues are due to the application's failure to properly handle invalid input sequences and to validate the length of user-supplied strings before copying them into static process buffers.An attacker may exploit these issue to cause a denial-of-service condition or possibly to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the vulnerable application. This may facilitate unauthorized access or privilege server performance server performance monitoring software software.
Note that successful exploitation requires that Bogofilter be used with a Unicode database.
Heimdal RSHD Local Privilege Escalation Vulnerability (2006-12-20)
Heimdal 'rshd' is prone to a local privilege-server performance server performance monitoring software software vulnerability.A local attacker can gain ownership of a file by overwriting its credential cache. This may lead to various attacks, including privilege server performance server performance monitoring software software.
Heimdal versions prior to 0.7.2 and 0.6.6 are vulnerable.
Linux Kernel Multiple Vulnerabilities (2006-12-20)
Linux Kernel is reported prone to multiple vulnerabilities. These issues may allow a local attacker to carry out denial-of-service attacks, access kernel memory, and potentially gain elevated privileges.The following specific issues were identified:
- Reportedly, the filesystem Native Language Support ASCII translation table is affected by a vulnerability that results from the use of incorrect tables sizes. This issue can lead to a crash.
- Another issue affecting the kernel may allow users to unlock arbitrary shared-memory segments.
- Another vulnerability is reported to affect the 'netfilter/iptables' module. An attacker can exploit this issue to crash the kernel or bypass firewall rules.
- Reportedly, a vulnerability affects the OUTS instruction on the AMD64 and Intel EM64T architecture. This issue may lead to privilege server performance server performance monitoring software software.
These issues reportedly affect Linux kernel 2.6.x versions.
Due to lack of details, further information is not available at the moment. This BID will be updated when more information becomes available.
In the press
4 New APIs: Wine, Whois and Website Monitoring (2010-01-13)
WatchMouse API: The WatchMouse service checks the behavior and availability of websites. WatchMouse "allows site owners to optimize the internet experience of their customers. A server performance monitoring software network checks websites from 40 different locations in 25 countries around the globe."
Online banking sites failing in 24/7 access (2010-01-14)
Unacceptable downtime levels in UK server performance monitoring software banks
Some 65 per cent of top server performance monitoring software banks in the UK have more than one hour downtime a month. Out of the 26 banking sites involved in the study only three achieved perfect availability – measuring an uptime of 99.9 percent or higher.
WatchMouse: Tracking The Health Of Web Services (2010-01-23)
As backend APIs (application programming interfaces) power more of our interactions server performance monitoring software – as the foundation for applications, widgets and other platforms – it becomes increasingly important to monitor the status of their uptime.

