Email/SMS alert on webserver crash

Hi,
Im looking for a way to find out how many
crashes my remote webserver has. I dont
think my ISP is providing me with
accurate logs and so Im wondering if
there is some way I can have a machine
pinging the server from my office and then
alerting me via email/SMS/pager when it
fails.

I’d really appreciate any help on this.

Thanks,

Paul