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HTTP Monitoring Guide

HTTP Monitoring is the foundation of website uptime monitoring. It checks if your websites and APIs are accessible and responding correctly.

What is HTTP Monitoring?​

HTTP Monitoring is like having a digital assistant that visits your website every few minutes to make sure everything's working properly. Think of it as the foundation of keeping your online presence reliable.

When you set up HTTP monitoring, we automatically check that your website can be reached from anywhere on the internet, responds quickly when visitors try to access it, returns the right success codes (like 200 for "everything's fine" or 301 for "this page moved"), and maintains valid security certificates so your visitors see that reassuring lock icon in their browser.

Key Features​

✅ URL Availability Checking​

This is the core feature that tells you if people can actually reach your website. We continuously monitor whether your website is reachable from different locations around the world, detect when network outages or server problems make your site unavailable, and work with all major HTTP and HTTPS endpoints so you can monitor everything from simple websites to complex APIs.

✅ Response Time Measurement​

Speed matters for your visitors and your search engine rankings. We measure exactly how long your site takes to respond to requests, track performance trends over weeks and months so you can spot gradual slowdowns, and identify when loading issues might be frustrating your visitors before they abandon your site.

✅ HTTP Status Code Validation​

Different status codes tell different stories about your site's health. We ensure your site returns the expected success codes like 200 (everything's working) or 301 (page moved properly), automatically detect problematic 4xx errors (like 404 page not found) and 5xx errors (server problems), and can be customized if your specific endpoints need different success criteria.

✅ SSL Certificate Monitoring​

Security certificates expire, and when they do, visitors see scary warning pages instead of your website. We perform automatic daily SSL certificate checks on all your endpoints, send alerts well before certificates expire so you have time to renew them, validate the complete certificate chain to catch configuration problems, and monitor for any unauthorized changes to your certificate authority.

✅ Custom Headers and Request Bodies​

Real-world monitoring often requires authentication or specific request formats. We support custom authentication headers for APIs that require login tokens, allow testing of specific API endpoints with custom request data, and offer POST, PUT, and PATCH request testing with our premium plans for comprehensive API monitoring.

Setup Process​

Step 1: Basic Configuration​

Required Fields:

  • Name: Descriptive monitor name
  • URL: Full HTTPS URL to monitor
  • Check Interval: How often to check your site

Step 2: Choose Check Interval​

Free Plan Options:

  • 10min - Every 10 minutes
  • 20min - Every 20 minutes
  • 30min - Every 30 minutes
  • 1hr - Every hour

Premium Plan Options:

  • 1min - Every minute (most responsive)
  • 5min - Every 5 minutes (recommended)
  • All free plan intervals

Step 3: Advanced Options (Optional)​

Custom Headers​

Perfect for API monitoring with authentication:

Authorization: Bearer your-token-123
Content-Type: application/json
X-API-Key: your-api-key
User-Agent: BareUptime-Monitor/1.0

Request Body (Premium - POST/PUT/PATCH)​

For testing API endpoints:

{
  "test": true,
  "health_check": "active",
  "timestamp": "2024-01-15T10:30:00Z"
}

Use Cases​

1. Website Uptime Monitoring​

Perfect for:

  • Company websites
  • E-commerce stores
  • Blog and content sites
  • Landing pages

Example Setup:

Name: Company Homepage
URL: https://mycompany.com
Interval: 5min
Method: GET

2. API Health Monitoring​

Perfect for:

  • REST APIs
  • Microservices
  • Health check endpoints
  • Third-party API dependencies

Example Setup:

Name: User API Health
URL: https://api.myapp.com/health
Interval: 1min
Method: GET
Headers: Authorization: Bearer abc123

3. SSL Certificate Monitoring​

Automatic Features:

  • Daily SSL certificate checks
  • 30-day, 7-day, and 1-day expiry warnings
  • Certificate chain validation
  • Issuer change notifications

Best Practices​

1. Choose Appropriate Intervals​

  • Critical services: 1min or 5min (Premium)
  • Business websites: 10min or 20min
  • Less critical sites: 30min or 1hr

2. Monitor Key Endpoints​

  • Homepage and main navigation
  • User authentication endpoints
  • Payment and checkout processes
  • API health check endpoints

3. Use Descriptive Names​

  • ✅ "Main Website - Homepage"
  • ✅ "User API - Authentication"
  • ❌ "Monitor 1"
  • ❌ "Test"

4. Set Up Proper Headers​

For APIs requiring authentication:

Authorization: Bearer your-token
Content-Type: application/json
X-Client-Version: 1.0

Monitoring Results​

Uptime Statistics​

Key Metrics:

  • Uptime Percentage: 99.9% uptime target
  • Average Response Time: Performance trends
  • Downtime Events: Detailed incident history
  • SSL Status: Certificate health overview

Incident Detection​

Automatic Detection:

  • Server downtime (5xx errors)
  • Client errors (4xx responses)
  • Timeout issues (>5 seconds)
  • SSL certificate problems

Troubleshooting​

Common Issues​

1. 403 Forbidden Errors

  • Check if your site blocks monitoring services
  • Whitelist Bareuptime IP addresses
  • Verify User-Agent restrictions

2. SSL Certificate Warnings

  • Check certificate expiration date
  • Verify certificate chain completeness
  • Ensure proper domain name matching

3. Slow Response Times

  • Monitor server performance
  • Check CDN configuration
  • Analyze database query performance

4. Intermittent Failures

  • Check server load balancing
  • Monitor DNS resolution issues
  • Verify third-party service dependencies

Advanced Configuration​

Multiple Location Monitoring​

Available Locations:

  • Free Plan: Iowa (USA), Germany
  • Premium Plan: Iowa (USA), Germany, US West, Asia Pacific

Custom Success Criteria​

  • Expected HTTP status codes
  • Response time thresholds
  • Content validation (upgrade to Keyword Monitoring)

Getting Started​

  1. Create your first HTTP monitor in the dashboard
  2. Set up notifications for downtime alerts
  3. Monitor SSL certificates automatically
  4. Review performance trends weekly
  5. Optimize based on insights from monitoring data

Need Help?​

  • Keyword Monitoring: Upgrade to monitor page content
  • Advanced Analysis: Try Advanced Page Monitoring (Premium)
  • Email Infrastructure: Use Email Domain Monitoring (Premium)
  • API Integration: See our API Documentation