Question I have filled in an SMTP server and I'm testing an alert, but whenever I click 'Test' in the alert setup, I get 'Socket error 10060'. What's wrong? Solution The 10060 error indicates a connection problem with... Read More

Question I'm getting this error whenever I test an email alert: 'Socket error 10053 - Software caused connection abort'. What's causing this? Solution The 10053 error happens when PingPlotter or MultiPing is having problems... Read More

Question I am trying to setup auto email alert but get a 'Socket error 11004' when testing it. What's wrong? Solution The most common cause of this error in either PingPlotter or MultiPing is an invalid SMTP server specified. The... Read More

Question Is there any way to generate a SNMP Trap message using the PingPlotter alert system? Solution Neither PingPlotter or MultiPing have the ability to natively generate an SNMP Trap message, but both programs have the ability to launch an... Read More

QuestionI use Gmail, which requires STARTTLS (SSL) to send emails via their SMTP server. Is there any way to have PingPlotter and/or MultiPing send using STARTTLS?SolutionYes! For PingPlotter: PingPlotter uses OpenSSL to do STARTTLS conversations. ... Read More

QuestionI'm getting this error whenever I test an email alert: 'Socket error 10054 - connection reset by peer'. What's causing this?SolutionThis error happens when a connection is started (and working), but then closed by the other side of things... Read More

Question How do I log data to a live file as it is being collected? Solution Both MultiPing and PingPlotter can use the alert system to log live data (as it is being collected) to a text file. This technique requires setting up an alert with an... Read More

Question Can I specify more than one e-mail address for an alert? Solution Yes, to specify more than one destination e-mail address for an alert, just separate the e-mail addresses by commas or semicolons. Example: notification@yourdomain.com,alert... Read More

Question When I set up an alert, it never seems to fire - although the 'Test' button sends me an e-mail just fine. Solution Once you've set up an alert, you have to attach the alert to the IP address you want to monitor. This gives you... Read More

Question I sometimes get alerts where the emailed data makes it seem like the alert shouldn't have fired. Why am I getting false alerts? Solution Check to make sure that your "Maximum samples to hold in memory" isn't set too low. If your... Read More

Question I set an alert condition for an IP. The condition is to send an alert when there are 3 incidents over 2000ms in the last 6 pings. The max e-mail frequency is 30 minutes, and the duration to wait for worse condition is zero. However, I... Read More

QuestionCan alerts be configured for packet loss? I see that alerts can be configured on latency, but don't see how to get alerted when packet loss happens.SolutionYou can *absolutely* alert on packet loss, which is one of the primary things people... Read More

Question When I test an email alert, I get a "Connection Closed Gracefully" error.  What's the fix? Solution This is probably related to your virus scanner (we've seen it with Norton Antivirus, for example). You might have your... Read More

QuestionI'm getting a 'Socket Error # 10061, Connection refused' whenever I test email alerts.SolutionThe 10061 (Connection Refused) usually happens when the SMTP server refuses the connection from the client (PingPlotter or MultiPing). This can... Read More

Question When going to the alerts editor (Edit -> Alerts), I'm getting an error 'Email parameters not configured for email alerts. Go to Edit -> Options... E-Mail to correct.' What's up? Solution Primary solution Email... Read More

QuestionI'm using PingPlotter Pro to monitor multiple targets. Is there any way to make configuring alerts on each target easier?SolutionOne of the main things we find that many people do with alerts is to create a separate alert for each target... Read More

QuestionI'd like to have PingPlotter notify me when my web site has network problems and becomes unreachable. Is that possible?SolutionAbsolutely! You can set up a PingPlotter (or MultiPing) alert to 'watch' a specific target and tell you if the... Read More