TCP monitoring verifies that a service is accepting connections on a specific port by attempting to establish a TCP connection. Unlike HTTP monitoring, which checks web endpoints, TCP monitoring works for any service that listens on a network port — databases (MySQL on 3306, PostgreSQL on 5432), mail servers (SMTP on 25/587), Redis (6379), and custom services.
A TCP monitor typically measures connection establishment time (how long it takes to complete the TCP three-way handshake) and reports whether the connection succeeded or failed. Some TCP monitors also send data and validate responses for protocol-specific checks.
TCP monitoring is useful for services that don't expose HTTP endpoints but are still critical to your infrastructure. For example, you might use HTTP monitoring for your web application and API, but TCP monitoring for your database server, cache layer, and message queue. Hyperping supports TCP monitoring alongside HTTP, DNS, and other check types.
