Well, from my experience with servers, most of the time when they are in a failed state, they still respond to a ping, so what you have is poor-man's insurance.
The real monitors will watch the event log or specific services or SNMP traps. SQL server, FE can generate SNMP traps.
I use Whatsup Gold from Ipswitch to monitor not only servers but all manner of SNMP devices. I usually know when something goes down before my users or co-workers do.
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Give a man a fish and he will be back for more. Slap him with a fish and he will go away forever.
