How to Monitor Password-Protected Pages

Password-protected pages are vital for security, but what happens when they go down? This guide helps you monitor these pages, ensuring they’re always accessible.

The Step-by-Step Process

Step 1: Set Up General Settings

1. Enter the protected page's address (e.g., example.com/protected) into the URL field. 
2. Give your monitoring task a clear name, like "Protected Page," in the Name field. 
3. Choose how often you want the tool to check the page (e.g., every 5 minutes) and set that in the Check Frequency field.

Step 2: Configure the Request and Response Settings

1. Set the Request Type to “HTTP” and the HTTP Method to “POST.”
2. In the Body section, use x-www-form-urlencoded format and add your credentials as key-value pairs. For example: username=practice&password=SuperSecretPassword!.
3. In the Headers section, add Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded.
4. In the Response Text field, add a text string that confirms successful login. For example, if login success leads to "Welcome, testuser," add "Welcome, testuser." Optionally, in the Headers section, check for a Set-Cookie header to confirm a session cookie was set.

Step 3: Verify the Protected Page

1. In the Response Text field, add a string that's always present on the protected page when it's working. For example, if the protected page always says "Authorized Access," add Authorized Access.

Step 4: Monitor and Troubleshoot

1. Your tool will now run checks at the specified frequency. View the results in your monitoring tool's dashboard. 
2. If a check fails, examine the logs in the Failed Checks section. 
3. You may edit the settings and add alerts, too.