Why it’s important to utilize a large checkpoint network

Checkpoints map

You may already know that Uptrends offers one of the largest network of checkpoints around the world with over 150 different locations. What does that mean for you though? How can you get the most out of this global monitoring network?

Monitor your performance in almost every region around the world

Your customers can be everywhere, so you should know how your website performs in every region. Fortunately, we’ve saved you the hassle and the cash it would take to travel to every major city. Our global network spans 150 locations on 6 continents. On top of this, we regularly update and expand our servers so that we can reach even more places. In our most recent update we added checkpoint servers in Australia, South Africa, and China.

checkpoint-selection

To add some perspective: SmartBear says it offers 80 checkpoints, Pingdom 60, StatusCake 32, Monitis 30 and Site24x7 16 (checked on 04/22/2016). We’re proud to say that we’re even located in areas where others are less present: think of Australia (6 locations),  Brazil (4 locations), and South Africa (2 locations).

With so many locations, you’ll be able to represent your user base in the most effective and realistic ways.

Though we have checkpoints all over the world, there are some regions that have a denser concentration of checkpoints than others. If you do business in the United States, for example,  you have your choice of 36 different checkpoints spread across the nation. Likewise, in Europe we operate 72 checkpoints in 25 countries.

So now it doesn’t matter if your website is based in the United States, United Kingdom, or United Arab Emirates! You can test and monitor exactly how your site performs all over with a few simple clicks.

Why low latency is important

In the monitoring world, latency is considered to be the fraction of a second (or even seconds) that influences page load time in the browser. Studies show that latency can greatly affect online sales. Even a slowdown of a couple seconds can negatively affect your website.

By utilizing Uptrends’ large network of checkpoints we empower you to find out where in the world your website’s latency is the highest, allowing you to take action in areas where it’s most necessary.

When downtime is detected we show you the traceroute to best indicate where the problem took place. If a problem is region specific, our vast network of checkpoints helps us pinpoint where in the world the downtime or performance bottleneck originated. Tip: You can also use our free traceroute tool to perform an ad-hoc traceroute from all over the world!

traceroute

When the price is right

Our competitors will often charge extra if you’d like to open up your website monitoring to a different region, or even have a pay-per-checkpoint pricing model. That’s not how we do things around here. Just by signing up with a Business or Enterprise account you have immediate access to all 150+ checkpoints. Plus we’re adding new checkpoints all the time because we believe in offering the best checkpoint network out there.

What can we test, exactly?

A moment ago we mentioned the importance of latency. Where a user is in the world compared to the host location of your website is going to affect performance. For this reason, you want the checkpoints you’re monitoring from to be in the same general area as your users. This is a great way to isolate region specific downtime and if your content is being delivered from the right location. Many of you may be using a Content Delivery Network (CDN) like Akamai, Amazon Cloud Front, Cloud Flare, or BitGravity. If you have a CDN located in Europe then you want to make sure that your users there are accessing that specific CDN and not, say, one located in the United States. By monitoring different locations you’ll be able to know if a web browser is connecting your customers to the wrong CDN or server.

Similar to making sure your CDNs are working properly, it’s imperative you keep an eye on your DNS as well. Uptrends can monitor your DNS to make sure it is pulling the correct IP addresses for the correct locations around the world. If your DNS is configured incorrectly it can affect the geographic specific features of your website like ads and even layout. By monitoring your global DNS you’ll be notified immediately if an issue has arisen.

Enabled for IPv4 and IPv6

As more and more websites are making the change to IPv6, it’s important to be ready for the future. Uptrends is on board by offering website monitoring support for both IPv4 and IPv6. Our complete list of global checkpoints details exactly which ones are IPv6 enabled. When selecting IPv6 for your monitor we will automatically exclude any checkpoint that is not currently supported by IPv6.

The power of three

Any fan of sci-fi or fantasy stories knows that the most powerful attributes come in threes. Our checkpoint monitoring system is no different. Three is the minimum number of checkpoints we’ll use for website monitoring in case of downtime, maintenance, and for confirming errors. In your dashboard options you can easily see your checkpoint response time by selecting “Performance details”. You can see where your most recent checks took place and how well they performed from each specific checkpoint.

loadtime-by-checkpoint

When NOT to use the entire global network

Just because we have 150 checkpoints all over the world doesn’t mean you need to use them. If you primarily only do business in one continent, or even one country, then by all means simply exclude the checkpoints you don’t need and only use the ones that are local to you. Another option is to set up multiple monitors side by side, allowing you to have maximum control over the fine details of your local performance and uptime monitoring while still collecting separate data for your global view. You can always make changes later if you find your website is getting more visitors from other regions.

Have you found our global checkpoints helpful, or do you keep your website monitoring situated more locally? Let us know!

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