Our programmer writes little code snippets to monitor our servers and I use an advanced app to monitor various applications that run on servers we manage. If you need to monitor your server but don't have access to a programmer or a budget that affords the more expensive monitors, you might want to try out Simple Server Monitor.
It supports Ping, HTTP, FTP, SMTP, IMAP, POP, and custom port monitoring. In the event of failure, it can send an email alert. It normally sells for $49.95 but there is a 20% off coupon until March 31 (coupon code - V20BETA). It runs as a windows service so it's completely unattended.