Free Ping Monitoring, and Free Remote Access

PA-Ping is a powerful and simple to use uptime and availability monitor. You can use PA-Ping to ping as many devices as you need, for free. There are no limits. PA-Ping runs on the same monitoring engine that powers our powerful PA Server Monitor software.

Quick Feature List

Self-hosted - all data stays under your control
Fully functional Ping monitor
Full alerting, including event escalation, alert suppression, and event deduplication
Full historical reporting - every ping response is kept in a database for as long as you want (configurable)
Enable remote access to monitored computers, without a VPN, for free. Perfect for remote support or unattended access.
Uses monitoring templates for very fast configuration
Do periodic ping scans to find new devices on the network
Multiple group-level status reports to quickly see network status

Download PA-Ping

Documentation

Because PA-Ping is essentially a ping-only version of PA Server Monitor, the documentation for PA Server Monitor is helpful and accurate.

Getting Fancy

Organize the devices into groups. You can right-click the top Servers/Devices group and create new groups underneath. You can drag and drop servers into different groups. You can use Bulk Config to quickly move many computers into a group at once. You can define group-level reports, all with a nice user interface.

How does Remote Access work?

You install the "Central Monitoring Service" on a Windows computer at your site. Open an incoming port in your firewall and point to the Central Monitoring Service.

At each client site you install a "Satellite Monitoring Service" on a single computer. These Satellites will make outgoing HTTPS requests to your Central Monitoring Service. There are no ports to open in client firewalls.

Tunneling

With these pieces in place, you can securely tunnel requests from the local network where the Central Monitoring Service is installed to devices at each remote site. We've made this very easy if you want to tunnel Remote Desktop sessions.

We call these SNAP Tunnels. They can safely tunnel from any port on the Central Monitoring Service to any port on any device that the Satellites can access.

If you just want to Remote Desktop to a computer, one menu selection will take care of setting up all the tunneling for you automatically.

Getting Started with Remote Access

Setting this up can take less than 30 minutes (about 10 minutes per remote client site). Just pinging does NOT need these steps.

Download the installer and setup the Central Monitoring Service (8 minutes)
Decide which port you want connections happening on. By default the Central Monitoring Service listens for HTTPS requests on port 81. This can be changed. (1 minute)
Expose this port through Windows Firewall (2 minutes)
Forward this port from your external router to the Central Monitoring Service (3 minutes)
Install the Satellite Monitoring Service on a single server at a remote client site (3 minutes)
Configure the Satellite to point to your Central Monitoring Service (4 minutes)
In the Console application at your Central Server site, go to the Satellites tab, and right-click the Satellite and "Accept" it (allow it to communicate) (1 minute)
(Optional) You can right-click the Satellite and setup Down Notifications to alert you if the Satellite is not connected.
Add computers at remote sites so you can connect to them. This can be done manually or via a ping scan from the Satellite. Don't worry about Auto Configuration or setting the the server type. (3 minutes) TIP! It is important to choose the correct Satellite that will be able to reach these devices when you add them.

For each technician that will access the remote servers:

Give them a login.
Filter what clients they can access (see Getting Fancy below for organizing devices into groups). We also recommend enabling two factor authentication (2FA) when filtering access.
Have the tech install the Console application on their workstation

Download PA-Ping

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it really free?: Yes, now and forever.
Can it be installed on the server with PA Server Monitor, PA File Sight or PA Storage Monitor?: Yes, the products won't interfere with each other in any way.

Feedback

We welcome feedback about this project. Please contact us and let us know what you think.