This is a straightforward program that allows you to automatically monitor multiple internet hosts for downtime.  It can monitor PING (linux only for now), WWW, and Echo (port 7) host responses.  The program can display the results in a GUI (as pictured above) or email you when the hosts go down.  Configuration is performed through 2 very straightforward files:  a program configuration file (hoststatsmonitor.conf), and a list of hosts to be monitored (hostlist.txt).

To get the GUI running, simply double click the program or run it from the command line using the syntax
 
    java -jar HostStatusMonitorApp.jar

The source code is released under the GPL version 3 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html) and can be found at http://sourceforge.net/projects/hoststatus/ where you can also submit bugs/feature requests.  Note that this program works under Linux, but not under windows because the OS level "ping" command is slightly different.  This could be fixed with some tweaking or the right incentive given my limited time. 

Link to this page if you find this program useful.  I'm also happy to give credit and commit changes back in the code tree if you make improvements to this work.

This program is provided without any warranty and may not be suitable for any purpose at all.