How to Monitor Password-Protected Pages

While password protection is essential for security, it creates a potential point of failure for user access. Effective monitoring must verify that your login gates are actually open to authorized personnel. Pulsetic simplifies this by treating authentication as a standard part of the check, ensuring your private pages are secure yet accessible.

Steps to Set Up Authentication Monitoring

1. Log in to your Pulsetic dashboard and navigate to the Monitors section. Click Add Monitor to create a new website monitor for your protected URL, or click on an existing monitor and open its Advanced Settings.
2. Configure your login method. Select the option that matches your login experience:
   • Option A: Server-Side Authentication (Basic/Digest)

     • Use this option if visiting the URL triggers a generic grey system pop-up at the top of your browser asking for a username and password (common for .htaccess ).

       

   • How to configure:
     • Scroll to the Request section. Set the HTTP Method to GET.

     • Locate the Auth type dropdown and select Basic (standard) or Digest (higher security). Enter your authorized test Username and Password in the dedicated fields.

       

   • Option B: Form-Based Authentication (Custom Login Page)

     • Use this option if your URL loads a styled web page with visual text boxes for "Username" and "Password" built into the page design.

       

   • How to configure:
     • Scroll to the Request section. Set the HTTP Method to POST.
     • In the Body section, select the x-www-form-urlencoded  format. Add your credentials as key-value pairs based on your form's field names (e.g., username=practice&password=SuperSecretPassword! ).

     • Next, under Request Headers, click Add new header and enter Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded .

       

3. Regardless of which login method you chose in Step 2, you must tell Pulsetic what a "Successful Login" looks like so it knows the authentication actually worked.
   • Scroll to the Response section.
   • In the Response text / Keyword field, enter a specific text string that is only present on the protected page after logging in.
   • Example: If a successful login redirects to a dashboard that says "Authorized Access" or "Welcome, testuser", type that exact phrase here. If Pulsetic logs in but cannot find this text, the check will fail.
4. Click Update.
5. Scroll down to the Request Preview section. Click the Run Check & See Result button to immediately test your settings.
• Success: You see Status 200 OK and the Response Body shows the content of the protected page.
• Failure: You see Status 401/404. Check your credentials or try switching between Option A and Option B.