Network Monitoring Tool Spotlight - Downdetector

Many times throughout any given day there are the persistent ups and downs of internet services. Some last a millisecond and some last considerably longer, causing frustration and loss of productivity as well as the fear of what the issue is. You may find yourself asking, “Is it my router, my office, the East Coast?” or “How long will I be down for?”

In today’s age where many people are working from home, and have deadlines, internet outages are frustrating and sometimes you are left in the dark with long hold times and no information on if there is an actual outage just at home or the office, or if could it be more widespread. If only there was a way to know this information right now…. well, there is!

Catalyst Group uses a tool called Downdetector (www.downdetector.com).

Downdetector provides real-time status and outage information for a multitude of services that end users find they cannot go without in both their professional and personal lives for Internet providers, Online services and Public Cloud providers such as AWS and Azure, Social media, Finance, and Mobile providers. This is a simple and easy way to get a status on your internet service or application provider so you know what to expect, what is happening and can help you plan accordingly.

Simply go to the browser on your phone and type in downdetector.com and press go and it will bring you to their main screen (see below).

You can simply type in the name of your provider or application in the search block and click the read search button and it will show you if there is an outage real time along with outages in the last 24 hours.

While the information is generally real-time and relatively accurate, as with any tool, it is not perfect. It can provide piece of mind knowing that it may not just be your location or hardware that is causing an issue and just how widespread the outage or issue is. The best part of this is it is free so give it a try!

You can always try logging on to your Providers or Application portal, but sometimes they are slow to post outage data. You can also try calling your Provider for information as well.

Catalyst Group looks to provide information to help simplify IT and this is a small tip to help give you some visibility into internet or application issues and outages.

Brian Mulligan, Client Director, Catalyst Group