Ping Monitor

Checks host reachability via TCP connection. Used to verify that servers and network devices are responding.

Use a Ping monitor for a simple host reachability check through one representative TCP port. Despite its name, it does not send ICMP Echo packets. It connects to TCP port 443 by default.

• Check reachability of a web host that exposes port 443
• Monitor connection success without evaluating HTTP status or response content
• Treat one representative port as the host-level availability signal

It is not suitable for devices that only answer ICMP. Use an HTTP monitor when the HTTP response matters, or a TCP monitor when a specific service port is an explicit part of the monitor.

1. Open “New Monitor” from the service detail page and select Ping.
2. Enter a publicly resolvable hostname without a scheme or path.
3. Select a TCP port that the host reliably accepts during normal operation. The default is 443.
4. Choose a timeout based on normal connection time, select an interval allowed by your plan, and create the monitor.

See the Monitor Screens reference for the fields, accepted ranges, and defaults shown in the dashboard.

	Ping Monitor	TCP Monitor
Purpose	Host reachability through a representative port	Specific service-port availability
Port	Optional (default 443)	Required
Connection method	Raw TCP connection to the selected port	HTTPS HEAD on 443 / 8443; raw TCP on other ports
Evaluation	TCP connection success	TCP or HTTPS connection success; no service-specific content check

• After DNS resolution, the monitor opens a raw TCP connection to the selected port.
• An open connection is up; connection refusal, DNS failure, or timeout is down.
• ICMP, HTTP status, TLS certificates, and application response content are not inspected.

See Monitoring Lifecycle for when a down result becomes an incident.

Symptom	What to check
System ping works but the monitor is down	This monitor does not use ICMP. Confirm that the configured TCP port is publicly open
The default configuration is down	Confirm that the host accepts TCP 443, or select another reliably open port
The connection is refused	Verify the port number and the service listening state
The connection times out	Check DNS, the public firewall, and the network path; raise the timeout if necessary
The monitor is up while the website returns an error	Ping checks connection success only. Add an HTTP monitor
The hostname cannot be saved	Use a public hostname rather than localhost, a private IP, or an internal host