Summary

This watch type is for connecting to a specified URL or IP address and port number with results analyzed by WebWatchBot.  This watch type also provides details on the Response Time, success and failure of that connection

Functionality

• Response Time – the amount of time that it takes for a packet to make a round-trip
• Reports errors:
• DNS server not found
• DNS server query failed
• Timeout

• Specify search text (optional) - normally an IP Address or hostname.

How does it work?

A DNS Server is queried to determine the domain name or IP Address of a specified domain name or IP address.  The results of this query  will determine if the watch item succeeds or fails.

Why Use this Watch Type?

The DNS Watch type is often used to ensure that a DNS server has the expected information for a domain name.  If the watch item's domain name is "domain.com", a query of a DNS server for a type "A" record would return one or more IP addresses for that domain.

What to monitor

Use the DNS Watch Type to query a DNS server to lookup a domain name and verify the IP Address to ensure that the IP Address is not unexpectedly changed.  It is also useful to query multiple DNS servers with the same domain name to ensure that the domain is visible to most if not all servers connected to the Internet.

Fields and Buttons

DNS Query (Required)

• Lookup - IP Address or hostname to lookup in the DNS server
• Type - A record type tells the DNS server to perform a particular type of lookup.  Unless you are familiar with DNS you should choose "A"
• There are 44 different query types available.  The most widely used are "A - host address" and "MX - mail routing information".
• A - host address
• NS - authoritative server
• MD - mail destination
• MF - mail forwarder
• CNAME - canonical name
• SOA - start of authority zone
• MB - mailbox domain name
• MG - mail group member
• MR - mail rename name
• NULL - null resource record
• WKS - well known service
• PTR - domain name pointer
• HINFO - host information
• MINFO - mailbox information
• MX - mail routing information
• TXT - text strings
• RP - responsible person
• AFSDB - AFS cell database
• X25 - X_25 calling address
• ISDN - ISDN calling address
• RT - router
• NSAP - NSAP address
• NSAP_PTR - reverse NSAP lookup (deprecated)
• SIG - security signature
• KEY - security key
• PX - X.400 mail mapping
• GPOS - geographical position (withdrawn)
• AAAA - IP6 Address
• LOC - Location Information
• NXT - Next Valid Name in Zone
• EID - Endpoint identifier
• NIMLOC - Nimrod locator
• SRV - Server selection
• ATMA - ATM Address
• NAPTR - Naming Authority PoinTeR
• UINFO - user (finger) information
• UID - user ID
• GID - group ID
• UNSPEC - Unspecified format (binary data)
• IXFR - incremental zone transfer
• AXFR - transfer zone of authority
• MAILB - transfer mailbox records
• MAILA - transfer mail agent records
• ANY - wildcard match

Optional Settings

• DNS Server - Enter the IP address or hostname of the DNS server to query
• Search Result - Enter text to search for in the DNS query result.  A DNS server will return one or more IP addresses (or none).  Example search text could be a single IP address.

Test

The current settings will be used to run a test on the watch item but will not affect the overall success.  By clicking this button, the "Test Watch Item" dialog box will appear