Website unreachable? How to check whether your site is really offline

Sometimes your environment or website seems to be down all of a sudden: the page does not load, you see an error message or the screen stays blank. In by far the most cases the site is simply online and the cause lies somewhere else: a temporary block on your connection, an old link or a cache problem in your browser. With the steps below you can work out for yourself what is going on in a few minutes. And if you cannot resolve it, you will know straight away which details we need to help you quickly.

Step 1: check whether the site is offline for everyone #

1. Go to downforeveryoneorjustme.com.
2. Enter the address of your site, for example my.yourdomain.com, and press enter.
3. If the checker says the site is online (“It is just you”), the site is reachable and the cause lies with your connection or device. Continue to step 2.
4. If the checker says the site is offline for others too, go straight to step 6 and send us the details requested there.

Step 2: test on a different internet connection #

This is the most important test. Take your phone, switch off wifi so that you are using the mobile network, and open the site again.

• If the site does work on your mobile network, your normal internet connection (or its IP address) is the cause. The most common reason: the platform’s security has temporarily blocked your IP address, for example after several failed login attempts. A block like that disappears by itself after a while. If you would rather not wait, send us your IP address (see step 6) and we will lift the block straight away.
• If the site does not work on the mobile network either, continue to step 3.

Step 3: check the exact URL #

1. Check that you are using the right address. Your own environment runs on your subdomain, for example my.yourdomain.com.
2. Watch out for typing errors in the address and for old browser bookmarks: links in your bookmarks may be out of date. Save a fresh bookmark after you have logged in.
3. If you get a 404 message (page not found), the site itself is simply online and only that specific link is wrong (it could also be that you are not logged in, in case it is a URL you can normally see).

Step 4: try a different browser or an incognito window #

Open the site in an incognito or private window (Ctrl+Shift+N in Chrome), or in a different browser. If it does work there, the problem is in the cache, the cookies or an extension of your usual browser. In that case, clear the cache or delete the cookies for the site.

Step 5: read the message your browser shows #

• “The connection was refused” or “took too long”: a reachability problem; steps 1 and 2 show where it lies.
• “403” or “Access denied”: usually a temporary IP block; run the test from step 2.
• A certificate or privacy warning: often temporary, or caused by the network you are on (public wifi, for example); try a different connection.
• “404 page not found”: the site is online, only this link is wrong (see step 3).

Step 6: still offline? Send us these details #

If the steps above do not resolve it, send us a message with the following details. They let us search in the right place immediately and, for example, lift a block right away:

1. The exact URL you are trying to open.
2. A screenshot of your full screen, including the address bar and the error message.
3. The time at which it went wrong.
4. Your IP address: you can see it by going to whatismyipaddress.com (the IPv4 address is enough).
5. Whether or not it worked on a different internet connection (step 2).

Finally: we monitor the availability of the platforms continuously. If there really is an outage, we are almost always already working on it by the time you notice it.