Have you ever visited your website to check things out and been greeted with the dreaded 404 error? Of course, you assume your website is down. You write your web hosting company to find out what’s up and learn that your site really isn’t offline but instead, the problem lies with you. Happens all the time.
A number of things can cause your website to appear offline, even when it’s not.
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ISP trouble
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Networking difficulty
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Bad routing
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Virus and malware software
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DNS issues
Before writing your web hosting company to see why your site is offline, it’s always best to check to make sure your site is actually down. Here are some tools made for just that purpose.
Down for Everyone or Just Me?
Down For Everyone or Just Me is a simple a simple, but highly accurate web based app that allows you to input any URL and determine whether it’s online or off.
Where is it Up?
Where is it Up checks your website from multiple locations around the world and displays detailed results, including how long it takes to access your website from various points.
Network Tools
Perform basic traceroutes and ping your domain with online Network Tools.
View my DNS
View my DNS is capable of not only checking to see if your web server is up, but also your mail and FTP services, in addition to SQL, HTTPS and SSH.
Down or is it Just Me
Down or is it Just Me is another simple text based search tool that will verify that your website is online.
Before firing off an email to your web hosting company when your website isn’t responding on your computer, be sure to do a quick search on any of the above websites to verify that your site truly is offline. You’ll save your web host some time and yourself from embarrassment.