Why do status monitoring tools say my website is down?
If you're using a security solution and your Website Uptime Monitoring tool says your website is down although you are able to access it - there could be a few possible reasons.
If the website uptime monitoring tool uses an IP address belonging to country you have blocked access to in Astra, then the tool would not be able to access your website & incorrectly report that your website is down.
Ask your vendor for the IP address used to check your website
Visit https://whatismyipaddress.com/ip-lookup and perform a lookup for this IP address
Note the country this IP address belongs to
Now login to your Astra Dashboard and navigate to the Threats page
In the Trusted/Blocked List, check if this country is blocked
Add the IP ranges used by the tool to the Trusted List from the Threats page in your Astra Dashboard. You can ask your vendor to provide you with the CIDR ranges.
Instead of blocking access to a country from the Threats page, you can create a Booster rule to block countries where the User-agent does not match that of your tool
Remove the Geo-restrictions for that country so that the tools are able to access your website
Many uptime/SEO tools set the Google Bot User-agent when accessing your website. Since this is a Fake Google Bot, our Bot Blocking module blocks the IP address permanently and prevents it from accessing your website.
Example of a User-agent: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +https://www.google.com/bot.html)
Ask your vendor for the IP address used to check your website
Now login to your Astra Dashboard and navigate to the Threats page
In the Threat table, search for the IP address provided by the vendor
If an entry exists over there, it means that this IP was blocked and was pretending to be Google Bot
Update your uptime monitoring tool dashboard to use a standard user-agent
Add the IP ranges used by the tool to the Trusted List from the Threats page in your Astra Dashboard. You can ask your vendor to provide you with the CIDR ranges.
You have blocked access to certain countries
If the website uptime monitoring tool uses an IP address belonging to country you have blocked access to in Astra, then the tool would not be able to access your website & incorrectly report that your website is down.
How to check
Ask your vendor for the IP address used to check your website
Visit https://whatismyipaddress.com/ip-lookup and perform a lookup for this IP address
Note the country this IP address belongs to
Now login to your Astra Dashboard and navigate to the Threats page
In the Trusted/Blocked List, check if this country is blocked
Solution
Add the IP ranges used by the tool to the Trusted List from the Threats page in your Astra Dashboard. You can ask your vendor to provide you with the CIDR ranges.
Instead of blocking access to a country from the Threats page, you can create a Booster rule to block countries where the User-agent does not match that of your tool
Remove the Geo-restrictions for that country so that the tools are able to access your website
Tool used the Googlebot User-agent
Many uptime/SEO tools set the Google Bot User-agent when accessing your website. Since this is a Fake Google Bot, our Bot Blocking module blocks the IP address permanently and prevents it from accessing your website.
Example of a User-agent: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +https://www.google.com/bot.html)
How to check
Ask your vendor for the IP address used to check your website
Now login to your Astra Dashboard and navigate to the Threats page
In the Threat table, search for the IP address provided by the vendor
If an entry exists over there, it means that this IP was blocked and was pretending to be Google Bot
Solution
Update your uptime monitoring tool dashboard to use a standard user-agent
Add the IP ranges used by the tool to the Trusted List from the Threats page in your Astra Dashboard. You can ask your vendor to provide you with the CIDR ranges.
Updated on: 30/06/2022
Thank you!