When you browse the Internet with a Web Browser, you jump from page to page, or more specifically, from URL to URL. The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) of a page defines the exact, unique location of that page on the Internet. Your browser uses the HTTP protocol to request the desired information, and display it on your screen. As you are browsing, the page's URL changes with each page. Your Browser keeps track of the URL in the "Location" or "Address" field, as shown below using Netscape.
When you enter a URL into KnightGuard.Net's database to be monitored, the format is exactly the same as the one used by your browser.
The URL to monitor Typically, you'll need only one monitored URL per server or Web Site. This URL could be just the main Home Page Address; ie. http://www.knightguard.net/ for the exmple above. However, we recommend creating a separate,dummy Web Page for KnightGuard.Net to monitor. In our example case, a suitable dummy page could be something like http://www.knightguard.net/dummy.htm. The file dummy.htm should at least have a Title (see below), and some text. Ours might look like: <html> <head> <title>Monitored by KnightGuard.Net</title> </head> <body> This site monitored by <a href="http://www.knightguard.net">KnightGuard.Net</a>.<BR> </body> </html> Redirection Some servers use URL Redirection to redirect the user to another site. KnightGuard.Net will not follow the redirection request, but consider the request to redirect as a successful session. For this reason, you should always monitor the true site URL, not a redirected URL. Page Titles When KnightGuard.Net downloads your page for the first time, it also remembers the page Title, contained within your HTML code's <TITLE> tags. If this title ever changes (as in when the server responds with a "404 Error, file missing" error), you'll be notified. For this reason, we recommend that every page monitored have a descriptive Title. You will only receive one notification of a title change. This is because KnightGuard.Net refreshes the Title it is keeping track of for your URL. Thus, when the title changes, you'll be notified, and KnightGuard.Net updates the title in it's Database. During the next check, if the title is the same as the previous title downloaded you will not be notified. The same is true if a missing file is replaced. The title on file might be "404 Error, file missing". Once you replace or restore the appropriate file, the title changes, and you are alerted during the next monitoring cycle. Dynamic HTML Some dynamic Web Pages might update the Title automatically, say for the Date or search criteria. These pages should not be monitored, as KnightGuard.Net will send an alert each time. In these instances we recommend creating a dummy, static page to monitor, with a unique title that does not change. Hit Statistics Please note that since KnightGuard.Net monitors your URL by requesting a page from your Server, the each request will will count as one "Hit" to the page, and be counted in your server logs. If you count on your logs to see how effective your marketing efforts are (and you should be!) KnightGuard.Net will skew those statistics. For this reason, we recommend creating a seperate page on your server - one that is not linked from anywhere else on your site - that can be used exclusively by KnightGuard.Net. The URL for such a page might be (for the example started above) http://www.knightguard.net/watchme.htm. This way, site statistics for other pages are not affected. |
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a service of Sewell Computer