--- title: Blog — page 5 of 9 description: Practical guides on monitoring, reliability, and performance — plus product news and lessons from the WatchFor team. canonical: https://watchfor.io/blog/page/5 --- # What we watch for — page 5 Practical guides on monitoring, reliability, and performance — plus product news and lessons from keeping our own systems online. [All](/blog)[Monitoring](/blog/category/monitoring)[Networking](/blog/category/networking)[Performance](/blog/category/performance)[Security](/blog/category/security)[Reliability](/blog/category/reliability)[Email](/blog/category/email)[DevOps](/blog/category/devops)[Engineering](/blog/category/engineering)[Guides](/blog/category/guides) [All articles](/blog/all) 229 posts · 167 article s · [62 tool guides](/blog/category/guides) · page 5 of 9 [ReliabilityMay 27, 2026 ## On-Call Best Practices: a rotation that doesn't burn people out Done badly, on-call wrecks sleep, morale and retention. Done well, it's a fair, calm safety net the whole team trusts. Here's how to build the second kind.WatchFor Team4 min read](/blog/on-call-best-practices)[MonitoringMay 23, 2026 ## Website Downtime: the most common causes (and how to prevent each) Most outages aren't mysterious — they come from the same short list of causes, again and again. Here's that list, what each one looks like, and how to stop it taking your site down.WatchFor Team4 min read](/blog/website-downtime-causes)[MonitoringMay 20, 2026 ## Observability vs Monitoring: what's the difference (and do you need both)? Monitoring tells you something broke. Observability helps you figure out why. Here's how the two differ, where each fits, and why modern teams lean on both.WatchFor Team3 min read](/blog/observability-vs-monitoring)[ReliabilityMay 16, 2026 ## Incident Metrics Explained: MTTR, MTTD, MTBF and friends MTTR, MTTD, MTBF, MTTA — the alphabet soup of incident metrics, explained in plain English. What each measures, how to calculate it, and how to actually improve the numbers.WatchFor Team3 min read](/blog/incident-metrics-mttr-mttd-mtbf)[NetworkingMay 13, 2026 ## 502 Bad Gateway: what it means and how to fix it A 502 Bad Gateway means the server in front of your app couldn't get a valid response from the app itself. Here's what's really happening, the usual causes, and how to fix — and prevent — it.WatchFor Team4 min read](/blog/502-bad-gateway)[NetworkingMay 09, 2026 ## DNS Record Types Explained: A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT and more Setting up a domain means meeting a zoo of record types — A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT, NS. Here's what each one does, when to use it, and the gotchas that trip people up.WatchFor Team4 min read](/blog/dns-record-types-explained)[SecurityMay 06, 2026 ## How HTTPS Works: the TLS handshake, explained simply That little padlock does a lot of work. Here's what actually happens when you connect over HTTPS — the TLS handshake, certificates and encryption — without the cryptography headache.WatchFor Team3 min read](/blog/how-https-works)[NetworkingMay 02, 2026 ## Ping, Traceroute & MTR: network troubleshooting basics When something's slow or unreachable, three classic tools tell you whether it's you, the network, or them. Here's how ping, traceroute and MTR work — and when to reach for each.WatchFor Team3 min read](/blog/ping-traceroute-mtr)[ReliabilityApr 29, 2026 ## Incident Response: a step-by-step playbook The alert just fired. Now what? A clear, repeatable incident-response process — from detection to all-clear — so the answer is never 'everyone panic'.WatchFor Team3 min read](/blog/incident-response-playbook)[EmailApr 25, 2026 ## Email Authentication Explained: SPF, DKIM & DMARC If your emails land in spam — or scammers send mail pretending to be you — these three records are why. Here's what SPF, DKIM and DMARC do, how they work together, and how to set them up right.WatchFor Team4 min read](/blog/spf-dkim-dmarc-explained)[PerformanceApr 22, 2026 ## Latency & Percentiles: why p99 matters more than the average Your average response time looks great — so why are users complaining? Because averages lie. Here's why percentiles like p95 and p99 tell the real story of how your service feels.WatchFor Team3 min read](/blog/latency-percentiles-p99)[MonitoringApr 18, 2026 ## Webhooks 101: what they are and how to use them A webhook is how one app says 'hey, this just happened' to another — instantly, without anyone asking. Here's what webhooks are, how they differ from polling, and how to use them well.WatchFor Team3 min read](/blog/webhooks-101)[NetworkingApr 15, 2026 ## 503 Service Unavailable: what it means and how to fix it A 503 means your server is alive but can't handle the request right now — usually overload or maintenance. Here's what's happening, how to fix it, and how to keep it from surprising your users.WatchFor Team3 min read](/blog/503-service-unavailable)[NetworkingApr 11, 2026 ## 504 Gateway Timeout: what it means and how to fix it A 504 means a proxy waited for your app to respond — and gave up. It's the signature of something slow, not something dead. Here's how to find the slowness and fix it.WatchFor Team3 min read](/blog/504-gateway-timeout)[PerformanceApr 08, 2026 ## What is a CDN? (And do you actually need one?) A CDN makes your site faster by serving it from locations close to your users. Here's how that works, what you actually gain, and whether your site needs one.WatchFor Team3 min read](/blog/what-is-a-cdn)[NetworkingApr 04, 2026 ## TCP vs UDP: the difference, explained simply Two protocols carry almost everything on the internet. TCP is the careful courier; UDP is the fast one that doesn't look back. Here's how they differ and when each is the right choice.WatchFor Team3 min read](/blog/tcp-vs-udp)[MonitoringApr 01, 2026 ## Rate Limiting & HTTP 429 Explained Rate limiting is how services protect themselves from too many requests — and HTTP 429 is how they say 'slow down'. Here's how it works, and how to handle it gracefully on both sides.WatchFor Team3 min read](/blog/rate-limiting-explained)[NetworkingMar 28, 2026 ## IPv4 vs IPv6: what's the difference (and why IPv6 exists)? Every device online needs an address — and we ran out of the old kind. Here's the difference between IPv4 and IPv6, why the switch is happening, and whether you need to care.WatchFor Team3 min read](/blog/ipv4-vs-ipv6)[EmailMar 25, 2026 ## Email Blacklists (RBLs): why you're blocked and how to get off If your email suddenly stops arriving, a blacklist may be the culprit. Here's what RBLs are, how you end up on one, and the step-by-step to get off — and stay off.WatchFor Team3 min read](/blog/email-blacklists-rbl)[ReliabilityMar 21, 2026 ## Disaster Recovery: RTO vs RPO explained When the worst happens, two numbers decide how bad it really is: how much data you lose, and how long you're down. Here's what RTO and RPO mean, and how to set targets you can actually meet.WatchFor Team3 min read](/blog/disaster-recovery-rto-rpo) --- Canonical page: https://watchfor.io/blog/page/5 · Site guide: https://watchfor.io/llms.txt