How To Check if a Website Is Down: An Ultimate Tutorial 

The question “Whether is website down or not?” baffles both casual users and website administrators quite many times. In this ultimate tutorial, we will explore various methods to determine whether a website is going down.

Key Takeaways

• Six “is website down” checkers help users avoid wasting time and enhance the quality of your web experience.
• Understanding the reasons behind the website downtime, which is crucial to your web journey. Moreover, learning what to do if a website is down with a tutorial to troubleshoot every downtime and fix it quickly.

Checking With IsItDownRightNow

IsItDownRightNow is a helpful tool to rapidly scan the status of your own or any other website. Here is the detailed tutorial:

• Step 1: Visit the website: https://www.isitdownrightnow.com/
• Step 2: Type your URL into the text box

• Step 3: Click “Check” button
• Step 4: Receive information on your website

IsItDownRightNow provides helpful information, including whether your website is down, your website response time, and the latest downtime.

Checking With Host Tracker

Host Tracker is a simple-to-use platform. Just follow these steps:

• Step 1: Visit the website: https://www.host-tracker.com/
• Step 2: Click “Instant Check Your Website”
• Step 3:  Type your URL in the search box, and click “Check”
• Step 4:  Wait for your results to load

This tool displays ‘ping’ results from 158 global agents, showing if your website is operational across various locations. It helps identify general or localised accessibility concerns.

Especially, if you are interested in a specific geographic region, you can also pick to just ping from agents such as Africa, Asia, Australia, East Europe, Iran, North America, Russia, South America, and West Europe.

Checking with Site24x7

Site24x7 monitors your site across 60+ locations, including China, Barcelona, London, New York, and Sydney. Besides checking online status, it provides data on response time, DNS resolution, connection time, plus first-byte and last-byte time. 

Here is the step-by-step guide to check your website online status using this tool:

• Step 1: Visit Site24x7, and you will see a field where you can enter your website domain.
• Step 2: Fill it in with your URL or “Domain Address” and click “Test Now” to gather information.
• Step 3: You have to wait 2 – 3 minutes until all information is gathered. Then you see the graph and table for details. 

Your website is up if the Status for each location shows “OK”. Here is an example of Hostinger’s test result: 

Alternatively, if the site is down, it will show “-” and “Host Unavailable” under “Status” and “IP” respectively:

Checking with Website Planet

Website Planet is another helpful online website checker tool. It will inform you whether your website is up or down in real-time. Just follow the steps below for a quicker check:

• Step 1: Visit Website Planet
• Step 2: Enter your URL on the field and Click “Check” button
• Step 3: Wait for the result whether your website is online or none

This is what you will see if the website is up:

And if your website is down, you will see:

Checking With Uptrends

Like Host Tracker’s Ping search, Uptrends allows users identify website access issues from various global locations. However, the results are easy to interpret, featuring average load times for each site, and pinpointing the problem. 

Here are the steps to use Uptrends:

• Step 1: Visit https://www.uptrends.com/tools/is-my-website-down.
• Step 2: Enter your URL in the “I want to test” box.

• Step 3: Choose “All checkpoint” or a specific location.
• Step 4: Click “Start Test” and check out your results. 

Uptrends also offers a notification service like Host Tracker, allowing you to stay updated on website changes.

Checking with HideMy.name Proxy Server

HideMy.name provides an innovative approach using a proxy server to verify your site’s status. Accessing your website through a proxy server in various regions allows you to confirm its availability across different locations. 

Here is the tutorial to check with HideMy.name Proxy Server:

• Step 1: Visit HideMy.name, then click “Free trial” 
• Step 2: Enter a valid email address and press “Get code”. This way, you will receive a free VPN login code in your mailbox (you will need it later)

• Step 3: Install the software by clicking “VPN for Windows”. You can also install the Mac, Linux, or Android version of the software
• Step 4: Open the HideMy.name VPN program on your computer and enter the code 
• Step 5: Choose a country to test your website connection

If your site remains inaccessible after changing server locations, it indicates a local outage. Verify its availability by testing from various global locations.

What Causes Website Downtime?

If you encounter a website downtime, the first and foremost step is to investigate the cause. Here are 10ncommon reasons for website downtime: 

Code Error

The code is the backbone of your site’s functionality, and a seemingly small mistake can cause a catastrophic impact on its performance. 

A single typo, a missing semicolon, or a misplaced character in your code can disrupt the entire structure of your website. Consequently, code errors disrupt user experiences and challenge your site’s reliability. 

Server Overload

A sudden influx of web traffic can result in your site crashing or experiencing disabled functionalities if your hosting cannot handle it. Another potential cause could be your server host undergoing system updates, necessitating a short period of your site’s operations.

DNS errors

The Domain Name Server (DNS) helps people easily access your website. However, there are occasionally issues with DNS which can lead to your website crashing. Cybercriminals sometimes target DNS infrastructure to compromise translation, redirect users to fake websites, or cause widespread disruptions. 

These attacks can take various forms, such as Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, where a network of compromised devices floods the DNS servers with massive requests, overwhelming their capacity to respond.

Plugin issues

Many websites use plugins to enhance functionality, like inventory management and SEO. However, neglecting plugin updates can lead to disruptions. 

While most plugins are secure, staying vigilant about updates is crucial. You should check user feedback before installing third-party plugins to avoid introducing glitches or bugs to your website.

Issues with the web hosting provider

Inadequate hosting leads to website downtime, so users should opt for web hosts with strong uptime guarantees for better protection against such incidents.

Malicious cyber attack (DDoS)

Be cautious of sudden traffic spikes, as they might indicate malicious intent. Unusual traffic could be hackers attempting a DDoS attack, overwhelming your site.

Moreover, inadequate security protocols make your site vulnerable to such attacks.

Network and connectivity problems

Network congestion, routing problems, and misconfigured proxy servers can all cause your website to go down. 

Especially you should ensure that your site’s firewall and security settings function correctly.

Hardware and software issues

Power outages continue to be a major cause of widespread downtime. 

User need to refrain from regular hardware maintenance to avoid unexpected failures and downtime. Moreover, using outdated and incompatible WordPress plugins and themes can also cause accessibility problems for site users.

Content Management System issues

Your CMS version and server software might have become incompatible, and conflicts with plugins or themes. Moreover, if the core files of your CMS become corrupted, your website can also experience a significant decline in performance.

Third-party service failures

External API or web service failures, problems with payment gateways or transaction processors, and CDN outages are typically beyond your control. Unfortunately, when these third-party services experience downtime, they cause your website to be affected as well.

What To Do If a Website is Down

After you have covered the common reasons why this might happen, what to do next? What should we do when the website is down?

Diagnosing Website Downtime

Here’s a step-by-step guide on diagnosing website downtime:

• Step 1: Confirm site downtime (using reviewed tools above). Check server status, resources, capacity, and logs for errors.
• Step 2: Be thorough. Test the site on other devices and browsers, and clear cache and cookies if still down. 
• Step 3: Identify why your site is down (review the abovementioned reasons).

5 Troubleshooting Tips to Prevent Your Website From Going Down

Now that you’re aware of your website downtime, it’s time to take immediate action to troubleshoot and resolve the issue. Here’s how:

Employ a Content Delivery Network

Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) enhance website speed and accessibility by placing caching servers globally. These servers store cached content, enabling fast delivery to users nearby. Besides, CDNs can prevent malicious bots and analyze IP addresses to filter traffic.

Choose a Reliable Host

Your hosting provider must handle high traffic and offer reliable service. You need to keep quality high for a lower price, especially for online businesses with heavy traffic by opting for a provider offering a high uptime guarantee in the service level agreement, often above 99.9%. 

Get a Website Monitoring Service

Website monitoring services track your site and alert you about downtime. They can’t prevent outages but provide early notifications. 

Users should pick monitoring software that checks your site often, sends alerts through different channels, and sets up a straightforward status page for users. 

Review your domain name

If your domain name experiences issues, it can directly impact your website’s availability. Therefore, maintaining accurate and up-to-date domain registration information is essential to prevent disruptions to your site’s accessibility.

Backup your data 

Regular backups are essential for your business. Even with proactive measures, downtime can occur. 

Users need to keep data backups locally and in the cloud, sets up a secondary hosting account with another provider for data redundancy. This prevents domain-related issues by enabling auto-renewal or extending domain periods.

Improving user experience and customer relationship

One of the solutions to handle site downtime is to improve user experience and maintain customer relationships.

Engaging with social media

Using platforms like Twitter is effective for promptly informing users of website downtime, enabling direct and concise outreach to customers.

Being prompt!

Timely communication enhances how your users perceive your brand, both at the present and in the future. Swiftly addressing downtime demonstrates your commitment to customer satisfaction and also builds a sense of trust and reliability.

This approach can lead to lasting positive impressions and stronger user relationships.

Establishing a maintenance page

Consider having a simple landing page that informs visitors about the current downtime and reassures them that the site will soon be fixed. This approach helps keep your visitors informed and alleviates any concerns regarding the website’s availability.

Embrace the power of sharing!

When updating your website’s downtime, boost sharing more information rather than less. This approach helps users build trust and fosters loyalty among your audience.

FAQs

Final Thoughts

We hope that the tools below in this guide will help you identify common issues with “Is website down” problem and swiftly take action to resolve any problems.