When a web site is unavailable, often the question is whether it’s you, or whether the web site is generally down for everyone else, too. PowerShell can ask a web service to check web site availability for you. Here is a simple wrapper function:
function Test-Url { param ( [Parameter(Mandatory,ValueFromPipeline)] [string] $Url ) Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Web $check = "https://isitdown.site/api/v3/" $encoded = [System.Web.HttpUtility]::UrlEncode($url) $callUrl = "$check$encoded" Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $callUrl | Select-Object -Property Host, IsItDown, Response_Code }
It calls a RESTful API and submits the URL to check via URL arguments. That’s why the URL to test needs to be URL-encoded. Next, the code calls Invoke-RestMethod and received the test result as an object.
PS C:\> Test-Url -Url powershellmagazine.com host isitdown response_code ---- -------- ------------- powershellmagazine.com False 200
Please note that the web service used in this example is free, and does not require registration or an API key. The downside is that the web service is throttled, so if you check a large number of URLs, it may respond with an exception stating that you submitted too many requests. When this happens, just wait a moment and try again.
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