Knowledge Base

Question When I test an email alert, I get a "Connection Closed Gracefully" error. What's the fix? Solution This is probably related to your virus scanner (we've seen it with Norton Antivirus, for example). You might have your virus... Read More

Question I have filled in an SMTP server and I'm testing an alert, but whenever I click 'Test' in the alert setup, I get 'Socket error 10060'. What's wrong? Solution The 10060 error indicates a connection problem... Read More

Question I'm getting this error whenever I test an email alert: 'Socket error 10053 - Software caused connection abort'. What's causing this? Solution The 10053 error happens when PingPlotter or MultiPing is having problems... Read More

Question I am trying to setup auto email alert but get a 'Socket error 11001' when testing it. What's wrong? Solution The most common cause of this error in either PingPlotter or MultiPing is an invalid SMTP server specified. The... Read More

QuestionI'm getting this error whenever I test an email alert: 'Socket error 10054 - connection reset by peer'. What's causing this?SolutionThis error happens when a connection is started (and working), but then closed by the other side of things... Read More

Question I use Gmail, which requires STARTTLS (SSL) to send emails via their SMTP server. Is there any way to have PingPlotter and/or MultiPing send using STARTTLS? Solution Yes! Starting with version 3.40 of PingPlotter and 2.10.0 of MultiPing,... Read More

Question Is there any way to generate an SNMP Trap message using the PingPlotter alert system? Solution Neither PingPlotter or MultiPing have the ability to natively generate an SNMP Trap message, but both programs have the ability to launch an... Read More

Question I'm getting a 'Socket Error # 10061, Connection refused' whenever I test email alerts. Solution The 10061 (Connection Refused) usually happens when the SMTP server refuses the connection from the client (PingPlotter or... Read More

Question I'm using PingPlotter Pro to monitor multiple targets. Is there any way to make configuring alerts on each target easier? Solution One of the main things we find that many people do with alerts is to create a separate alert for each... Read More

Question How do I log data to a live file as it is being collected? Solution You can use PingPlotter’s alert system to log live data (as it is being collected) to a text file. This technique requires setting up an alert with an event to "Log to... Read More

Question When I set up an alert, it never seems to fire even though the 'Test' button sends me an e-mail just fine. Solution Once you create an alert, it must be attached it to the IP address or DNS name you want to monitor. This gives... Read More

Question When going to the alerts editor (Edit -> Alerts), I'm getting an error 'Email parameters not configured for email alerts. Go to Edit -> Options... E-Mail to correct.' What's up? Solution Primary solution Email... Read More

Question Can alerts be configured for packet loss? I see that alerts can be configured on latency, but don't see how to get alerted when packet loss happens. Solution You can absolutely alert on packet loss, which is one of the primary things... Read More

Question I'd like to have PingPlotter notify me when my website has network problems and becomes unreachable. Is that possible? Solution Absolutely! You can set up a PingPlotter alert to 'watch' a specific target and warn you if the... Read More

Question Can I specify more than one e-mail address for an alert? Solution Yes, to specify more than one destination e-mail address for an alert, just separate the e-mail addresses by commas or semicolons. Example: Another possibility is to set up... Read More

Question I set an alert condition for an IP. The condition is to send an alert when there are 3 incidents over 2000ms in the last 6 pings. The max e-mail frequency is 30 minutes, and the duration to wait for worse condition is zero. However, I... Read More

Question I sometimes get alerts where the emailed data makes it seem like the alert shouldn't have fired. Why am I getting false alerts? Solution Note: This answer pertains to PingPlotter V4. Check to make sure that your "Maximum samples to hold... Read More

Question I get an authentication error when I attempt to connect to my email server, but I know for sure I've used the right username and password. What am I doing wrong? Solution You're most likely doing nothing wrong. There are two main... Read More

Microsoft Teams: (Skip steps 1-6 if you already have an account) Click here to sign up for MS Teams Sign up your account for work / organization You'll get a message saying something like "Setting up Teams" Download the... Read More

Question Can I use PingPlotter/MultiPing to automatically notify my provider of issues I'm having? Solution The only time you should direct an email alert from PingPlotter/MultiPing to a service provider is when they have explicitly instructed... Read More

Question I'd like to add a subnet mask to my Route Changed / IP Address in Route alert condition, but I'm unsure of how this will affect when the alert fires?  Answer Route Changed: When a subnet mask is applied to a ... Read More

Question I've been seeing a lot of packet loss at intermediate hops. Is it possible to set up an alert on each intermediate hop in a route with PingPlotter? Solution There are very rarely any situations that would call for an alert to be set... Read More

QuestionI see some strings in the Trigger column of the Alert Events Log. What do they mean? SolutionEach string in the Alert Events Log Trigger column means that an alert condition was triggered. Pass: "When Alert Conditions End" has... Read More

Question I’m receiving error "Help: EInformationalException:SMTP server error. Your SMTP server (smtp.gmail.com) returned: 535 Username and Password not accepted." What can I do to fix it? Solution The "535 Username and... Read More

Question How can I schedule a trace to pause or stop automatically? Solution Adding the Pause Trace Alert parameter to PingPlotter 5 You can install this alert parameter by:  Install PingPlotter as a... Read More