HTTP Quick Check

The simplest possible check: fetch the page, confirm it returns 2xx.

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NetTests can run this check on a schedule, preserve historical results, compare changes over time, and alert you the moment something breaks.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What does HTTP Quick Check actually do?

It sends a single GET request for the page and reports whether the HyperText Markup Language (HTML) body came back with a 2xx status — nothing more. No images, stylesheets, or scripts are fetched, and nothing is rendered in a browser. It's the lightest-weight "is this URL up" check available, built for frequent polling in a monitor rather than one-off debugging.

How is this different from Load Site?

Load Site renders the page in a real headless browser and times every sub-resource (images, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), JS, fonts) — useful for performance debugging, but much heavier. HTTP Quick Check only fetches the main HyperText Markup Language (HTML) document and checks the status code, so it's cheap enough to run every minute.

How is this different from HTTP Headers or HTTP Request?

HTTP Headers inspects response headers and the redirect chain via a HEAD request. HTTP Request gives full control over method, headers, auth, and body. HTTP Quick Check skips all of that — it's a fixed GET request whose only question is ok or not-ok.

What counts as "down"?

Any non-2xx status code (4xx, 5xx, or an unexpected redirect target), a request timeout, a Domain Name System (DNS) failure, a refused connection, or a Transport Layer Security (TLS) handshake error all report as not-ok, with the specific reason shown rather than raising an error page.