7.11Websites you can and can't check
Browser monitors can check public websites only. Every page the script opens, and every file those pages load, must be on a public internet address. Only http:// and https:// addresses work.
A browser monitor cannot open:
- your own computer, such as
localhost, - sites on an office or home network, or other private addresses,
- servers you can reach only through a VPN.
If a page is not public, the step fails with one of these messages:
| Message | What it means |
|---|---|
destination is not a publicly routable address: <host> | The address is private or local. |
could not resolve <host> | The name does not lead to a public address. Check the spelling. |
could not connect to <host> | obsrvly could not reach the site. |
For https:// pages on a blocked address, the step fails with a network error from the browser.
What to do instead#
- Make the page reachable from the internet, for example a public test site. Protect it with a login, and sign in with secrets (7.8).
- To watch a job or service inside your network, use a heartbeat monitor (chapter 5). Your system pings obsrvly, so obsrvly does not need to reach it. What happens when a ping is missed follows your alert policy.