Automatic redirection is when a domain is configured to redirect to another domain (eg; example.org to example.com). 

When this happens the server hosting the first domain, example.org, would respond to the request for example.com with a redirect HTTP code and then the redirected-to domain would respond accordingly. 

RapidSpike’s HTTP uptime monitors have a setting called ‘Follow Redirects’ which tells the monitor whether or not to follow the redirect HTTP codes to the second domain. 

If this is set to disregard the redirect, the monitor will check the first domain’s HTTP code (usually 301 or 302). Otherwise, the monitor will ‘follow’ the instruction to the redirect-to domain and test that domain’s HTTP code.

Sometimes, domains become stuck in ‘redirect loops’ (e.g. example.com redirects to example.com, which redirects to example.com). To avoid this we cap the number of redirects we’ll follow to 5.