I needed a solution to check every x-minutes if my IP camera is still online.
I use the Pushingbox.com service to send a notification when a certain host is not available. Checkout Pushingbox.com to see which kinds of notification services they offer. At least a notification to email and Prowl! is possible.
I’ve combined the python script from the French blog site: GuiguiAbloc with another script to regularly check if a specific service is available and when not, to send a notification via Pushingbox.
The script expects the URL to check as an argument, i.e.: python hostnotify.py http://192.168.1.34:8080
I have not tried all kind of services, but for HTTP services it works. I use this script to check every x-minutes if my IP camera is still online. When the build in webservice of the camera is not available, I receive a notification via Pushingbox. This script is more reliable then doing a PING to a network address. To check regularly, add the script to the crontab of your system and execute the script every x-minutes. The crontab should be something like this for every 5 minutes:
*/5 * * * * /home/Python/hostnotify.py http://192.168.1.34:8080
Make sure you setup a scenario on Pushingbox.com and add the DEVID of the scenario to the source code.
Actually, in my setup I’ve included source code that besides sending a notification, it also sends a command to my Domotica Gateway which switches the camera off and on to do a reset.