When a site you look after moves to a different host or behind a CDN, you get an alert that names the old network and the new one, even if the site never goes down.
How sites move without notice
A client's developer migrates the site over a weekend. A hosting account is closed and the domain gets pointed somewhere else. A DNS edit sends traffic to an old server. The site keeps answering, so uptime checks stay green, while the thing you maintain runs somewhere you didn't choose and can't reach.
What OctoPing checks
OctoPing resolves the site's hostname to its IPv4 and IPv6 addresses and looks up the network operator behind the address, which is its ASN (for example AS13335) and the organization that owns it. It also recognizes the networks of well-known CDNs such as Cloudflare, Fastly and Akamai, so it can tell a site that sits behind a CDN from one that doesn't.
Hosting checks start switched off and you turn them on for the sites where an unannounced move would matter. The default is one lookup every 6 hours, and you can choose every hour, every 6 hours, every 12 hours or every day. Each lookup is kept in the site's hosting history in the app.
What counts as a change
- The network operator (ASN) differs from the last successful lookup.
- A CDN appears in front of the site or disappears from it.
- The site switches from one CDN provider to another.
Two things stay quiet on purpose. Addresses that change inside the same network, which CDNs do all the time, are recorded in the history without an alert, so a rotation doesn't wake anyone up. A lookup that can't identify the network never alerts and never becomes the baseline, so a lookup problem can't be mistaken for a move. The first successful lookup sets the baseline.
What the alert says
The subject reads Hosting Changed with the site's address. The body shows the previous network and the new one side by side, adds the CDN name when the new network is a CDN, and says the site appears to have moved to a different hosting provider.
Website: https://example.com
Status: Hosting provider changed
Previous hosting:
ASN: AS64500
Provider: Example Hosting Ltd
New hosting:
ASN: AS64501
Provider: Example Cloud Inc
The website appears to have moved to a different hosting provider.
View details in OctoPing: <link to the site>The alert is on by default for new alert rules and goes out through email, Slack, Discord, webhook or browser push, depending on the channels you've set up. It has its own switch on each rule, so you can silence it for one channel without touching down alerts. A client who is a contact on a status page showing the site gets the hosting alert too.
A move often comes with DNS edits. Pair this check with DNS change monitoring to see the nameserver and mail changes that travel with it.
How it fits the price
Every site gets hosting change detection along with uptime, SSL and the other checks, and no plan limits which checks a site can use. Plans start at $19 a month for 20 sites. See pricing for the full list.
Every account starts with a 14-day free trial. No card required. Start your 14-day trial, add a client's site, and the checks you turn on start with it.
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