Give a public host a gentle ping

Reachability, one small signal at a time

An ICMP monitor sends one small echo request per check to one validated public IPv4 or IPv6 address. A reply means that address answered ping; it does not prove a website, database or application is healthy. Some healthy hosts intentionally block ICMP.

Monitor only hosts you own or are authorized to check. ICMP monitoring is included in every plan and uses your existing monitor allowance and minimum check interval.

Set up your lookout

Choose a public hostname or IP address. Put IPv6 literals in brackets, for example icmp://[2606:4700:4700::1111]. Do not include a port, path or credentials.

1. Open Monitors → Endpoint monitors and choose Add monitor.
2. Choose Check a service, then ICMP ping.
3. Enter a name and a target such as icmp://example.com. Choose IPv4 only or IPv6 only under Address family to watch one network explicitly.
4. Choose the interval, timeout, confirmation thresholds and optional maintenance window, then save.

Understand replies and silence

A reply within the total timeout is a successful check. No reply before the deadline is a failed check; your usual confirmation thresholds control incidents and alerts. Latency is the overall check duration, including DNS resolution and launching the ping process, rather than an isolated network round-trip measurement.

A hostname may have several addresses. Each check uses one validated address in the selected family, without fallback. Automatic keeps IPv4 for hostnames and uses IPv6 for a bracketed IPv6 literal. Create separate monitors to watch both families. All DNS answers must be public, even those not selected.

If the monitoring worker lacks ping capability or reports that its IPv6 network is unavailable, no false downtime or recovery result is saved. An automatic hostname check with only IPv6 answers also stays delayed; select IPv6 only to watch that address. The last confirmed status remains, and freshness eventually shows delayed monitoring. Contact support if checks stay delayed.

When a healthy host does not reply

Check whether your host and network firewalls allow ICMP echo requests and replies. ICMP is not a TCP port: opening port 80 or 443 does not enable it. A proxy or network provider may block or rate-limit ping while web requests still work.

Use HTTP/API monitoring for application responses, TCP for a listening port and TLS for certificate validation. ICMP cannot replace those checks. Existing permissions, pause/resume, maintenance, incidents and notification preferences apply.

Slack, Teams and mobile push are available on every plan. Monitor email alerts require a paid plan. Exports retain the ICMP target, and imports start paused.