Skip to content
WelcoYour alerts, by text.

Website down text alerts from any ping or uptime monitor

A website down text alert reaches the on-call tech when your site, a tower radio or the office router stops answering. The text names the site, the address and the time. Any uptime checker or ping monitor that emails an alert contact can send one, because you add your Welco address as that contact.

Text me when a site goes downBook a demo

7-day free trial, 15 message creditsCard required for verificationNo charge for 7 daysEmail reminder before billing

  • One email alert contact
  • Hosted or self-hosted monitors
  • No per-user fees

Works by email with

  • Ping & uptime monitors

Published:

A network map watched by Ping monitor: five hosts answer pings until North Ridge AP goes down (No ping reply) and the monitor raises the alert. The email reaches Welco and the phone shows: “Welco: North Ridge AP ping DOWN (100.72.18.41) at 3:38 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.”

Animation: a long Ping monitor alert email is trimmed into one short text: "Welco: North Ridge AP ping DOWN (100.72.18.41) at 3:38 AM. Reply STOP to opt out."

Down alerts before and after Welco

A failed check today

  • The check fails at 3 AM and emails a shared inbox.
  • Someone opens it at 8 AM, after customers have already called.
  • One dropped packet looks just like a real outage.
  • An old carrier email-to-text address may have stopped delivering.

With Welco as the alert contact

  • The tech covering tonight gets a text naming the site and the time.
  • Confirmation from several locations keeps single drops off the phone.
  • Each tower, office or client goes to the tech who covers it.
  • Existing email contacts keep receiving the same alerts.

What you need before you start

Wireless ISPs, MSPs and web teams run many kinds of monitors. Hosted checkers like ServiceUptime and AlertBot, server tools like PA Server Monitor, and small ping scripts all connect the same way. Expect about 10 minutes per monitor, with nothing to install. Welco turns each one into IT monitoring alerts by SMS.

  • A monitor that can email an alert contact. Nearly all of them can.
  • Your Welco address, which you get once you start free and your business is verified.
  • Techs invited to Welco, who join on their own phones. Each tech replies YES to a confirmation text before alerts start. No app is needed.

Set up a website down text alert in 5 steps

Every monitor names things a little differently. Look for words like alert contact, notification or recipient.

  1. Find where the monitor sends alerts

    Open the monitor's contacts or notification settings. Hosted checkers keep this in your account, while self-hosted tools often use a global email or SMTP section.

  2. Add your Welco address as an email contact

    Create a new email contact with your Welco address. Attach it to the checks that matter at night, such as your website, core router and tower links.

  3. Approve the sender in Welco

    Send one test alert and note its From address. Add it in Welco to lock sending to your monitor's address. Hosted services send from their own domain, so approve that exact address.

  4. Confirm failures before alerting

    Set the monitor to alert after 2 or 3 failed checks, or only when checks from more than one location fail. That setting stops more false texts than anything else.

  5. Test with a target that will fail

    Add a check for an unused IP address or a page that doesn't exist, wait for it to fail, then delete it. A Welco safe test run shows the result without sending a text.

Know your site is down before your customers call

Add one email contact to your monitor. The tech on call gets the text.

7-day free trial, 15 message creditsCard required for verificationNo charge for 7 daysEmail reminder before billing

Text me when a site goes downBook a demo

A website check failure as a text

Hosted uptime checkers often send a short subject with a status, then a long body of check details. The text keeps the host, the error and the time.

Alert email from alerts@uptimecheck.example, subject “(F) www.member-portal.example Ping (Failing)”. Welco trims it to one text of 97 characters: “Welco: member-portal ping FAILING, not responding from 3 sites at 7:12 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.”

Text received: Welco: member-portal ping FAILING, not responding from 3 sites at 7:12 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.

Characters357971 credit

Animation: the alert email "(F) www.member-portal.example Ping (Failing)" is trimmed into one text: "Welco: member-portal ping FAILING, not responding from 3 sites at 7:12 AM. Reply STOP to opt out."

Long check reports can be cut down with one-text trimming, so each failure stays one short message.

Tips for tower, office and website checks

Ping monitors can be noisy. A few settings in the monitor and in Welco make each text worth reading.

  • Interval and confirmation work together

    A 60-second check interval with 3 failures to confirm means about three minutes before a text. Wireless links that flap stay quiet.

  • Recovery notices are optional

    Some techs want the back-up message so they can turn the truck around. Others drop it with a drop rule on words like UP or OK.

  • Maintenance windows for planned work

    Pause the check or set a maintenance window before a tower climb or a site deploy. Most monitors then hold their alerts until it ends.

  • Reminders are extra texts

    If the monitor re-sends while a check stays down, each reminder becomes a text. Space reminders out or switch them off.

  • Power loss downs a whole site

    When a tower loses power, every radio and backhaul link drops together. Group them under the upstream link if your tool allows, and outage storm limits cap the rest.

  • Site names route the text

    Start each monitor name with the site or client. Welco rules text the tech for that area, and shift-based routing hands nights to one person.

When a down alert doesn't text

Check each hop in order. The first missing step is the fix.

The monitor's history shows no notification

Where to look
The contact isn't attached to that check, or confirmation hasn't finished.

The monitor sent it, but Welco shows nothing

Where to look
A wrong address, or a mail filter on a self-hosted monitor.

Welco's feed shows a refused message

Where to look
The monitor's From address isn't approved yet. Hosted services may use a new domain.

The phone stays quiet

Where to look
Delivery receipts per phone explain it, such as a phone switched off.

Frequently asked questions

Can I get a text when my website goes down?

Yes. Any uptime checker that can email an alert contact can text you through Welco. Add your Welco address as the contact on your website check, and each failure becomes a text for every tech who opted in.

How do I avoid a text for one dropped ping?

Alert only after 2 or 3 failed checks in a row, or only when more than one location agrees. Wireless links drop single packets all the time, and that confirmation step stops most false texts.

Can each tower or client go to a different tech, with nights to one person?

Yes. Start every monitor name with the site or client, such as North Ridge or Client 14. Welco rules match that name and the time of day, and one Welco address handles all of them.

Will I get texts when a site comes back up, or during maintenance?

Only if the monitor sends them and you keep them. A Welco rule can drop up messages or send them to one person. Pause checks or set a maintenance window before planned work.

Can the tech reply to a down text to acknowledge it?

No. The monitor never sees the reply, because Welco emails it back to whoever sent the down alert last. That shows the team who answered. Pause or acknowledge the check in the monitor itself, and read how replies come back by email.

What does an uptime alert text cost?

No per-user fees and no hardware. A short down alert uses one message credit, and long reports use more unless trimmed. Point a test check at Welco during the 7-day free trial with 15 credits. Plans on pricing have no overage, and your card waits until you approve one.

Get a text the next time a tower or site goes dark

Add your Welco address as an alert contact. That's the setup.

Text me when a site goes downBook a demo

7-day free trial, 15 message creditsCard required for verificationNo charge for 7 daysEmail reminder before billing