Frequently Asked Questions

ServerStats+

  • How do the upgrades work? Does this set up an automatic renewal?
    • Upgrades allow you to monitor additional hosts for a thirty day period. They are handled inside the app and billed via the iTunes Store. They DO NOT automatically renew.
  • Some of the hosts are showing as down, but I know that they're up! What's going on?
    • ServerStats+ performs testing from remote servers, not from the iPhone/iPod touch itself. If the machine does not respond to ping requests from our servers, it will be shown as down. If you would like to allow our test servers to ping machines through a firewall, please contact us and we will be happy to give you information on the IP ranges of our test servers.
  • ServerStats+ stops sending push notifications after I reboot my iPhone/iPod touch...
    • An app must re-register for push notifications each time the device is booted. ServerStats+ must be started once after each boot to permit it to receive push notifications.
  • I want to change the interval between host testing. How do I do this?
    • In short, you cannot. As the testing is performed on central servers, maintaining a reasonable network load requires that testing intervals be standardized across all users and hosts at a reasonable value. Presently, hosts are checked every 15 minutes. There are no plans to increase this value. If resources permit in the future after demand stabilizes, the value may be lowered.
  • I've found a bug (or have a feature request)! What should I do?
    • Please contact us! Our primary source of information is user bug reports and feedback. We are happy to add additional functionality and fix existing problems.

Server Status/PortAbility

  • Some of the hosts are showing as down, but I know that they're up! What's going on?
    • Either these machines are not responding to ping requests from the Internet, or (more likely), the ping requests are timing out. Increase the timeout value in the Settings menu (bottom right corner of app) to allow more time.
  • Hey, the app only pings hosts when I'm actually looking at it. Shouldn't it do this all the time?
    • Ideally, that would be an option. However, Apple does not allow apps to run in the background. Therefore, there is no way to perform the pings when the app isn't open. The new push notifications in iPhone OS 3.0 don't solve this problem, either.
  • Can you add more ports/services to PortAbility so that I can check X service on my machine?
    • You can do it yourself. PortAbility has an "Add Custom Service" feature in settings that will permit you to test whatever port you wish. The default options are just the most popular ones. If you think that there are any ports missing that should be available by default, please let us know so that we can consider adding them in the next update.
  • What if I have machines to test that are only accessible from my internal network? Can these apps test those machines as well?
    • Probably. If you're on an internal Wi-Fi network with access to the machines, that will allow it to probe them. Additionally, if you have VPN access to the machines you wish to test, you can configure your iPhone to connect to the VPN and then run the apps.