Smokeping alerts will not work by default. Key aspect is that the Perl CPAN module Net::SMTP is missing. You must install this module and one missing item for CPAN by doing: # apt-get install ncftp # perl -MCPAN -e shell Now you'll be presented with many questions. Just choose the default for everything. Choose a few CPAN ftp servers that are local. Once your CPAN environment is configured, then to install the Net::SMTP module you do: cpan> install Net::SMTP Again, you will be asked several questions during installation. Press to choose the defaults. You can verify that Net::SMTP is install in CPAN by doing: cpan> install Net::SMTP again and you will get back: "Net::SMTP is up to date." Now to exit and continue do: cpan> quit # /etc/init.d/smokeping restart and, in theory, alerts should now work if you have configured Smokeping correctly.