General settings

The General tab contains the core application and monitoring settings:

Startup options

Start with system

Launches Ping Monitor automatically when you log in. The application starts and begins monitoring all enabled hosts without manual intervention.

Start minimised to system tray

The application window will be minimised to the system tray when it starts, keeping it out of the way while monitoring runs in the background.

Minimise to system tray on close

Instead of closing the application, clicking the close button hides the window to the system tray. Double-click the tray icon to restore the window. This ensures monitoring continues even when the window is dismissed.

Ping settings

Ping interval

How often each host is pinged, in seconds. The default is 1 second. Shorter intervals provide more responsive monitoring but generate more network traffic. Longer intervals reduce load but may delay detection of status changes.

Timeout

The maximum time to wait for a ping response, in seconds. The default is 3 seconds. If a host does not respond within this time, the ping is counted as lost. Increase this value for hosts on slow or distant networks.

Data retention

Keep history for

The number of days to retain ping history in the database. The default is 7 days. Older data is automatically purged to keep the database size manageable. Longer retention periods allow for more historical analysis but consume more disk space.

Individual hosts can override the global ping interval and timeout values. See the host editing dialog for per-host settings.