>What about sending a notice to a pager, or a text message to your cell phone instead? For instance anyone can send a text message to my cell from this page
>http://www.rogers.com/english/wireless/sendpcs.html Your cell company probably has a similiar service or webpage.

I don't like to rely on cell phones or pagers because they do not always work. For example, my cell phone at home has low reception. The same could be if I would have a pager.

>The sever application could do some simple IE automation to fill in your phone number and then put in a specific message "chat server down" or a generic message "check the UT server". This might be a little more robust that relying on a special modem to be installed on the server.

Yes, it would be more robust. We already use that on UT for those who wishes to receive replies to their remote devices if they are not logged into UT.

>Another option, have you looked at Web Monitor from WestWind?
>http://www.west-wind.com/webmonitor.asp
>This system could send an email to your cell phone with a message that the server is down.

It's not a question of detecting but to decide on the mecanism which will receive the information.