What to do when my site is down?
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In case you are not able to access your website and it seems to be down, you can follow the suggested steps to troubleshoot the issue.
Is the website accessible from other locations?
Use a proxy service such as:
If your IP is blocked, your hosting provider will be able to track the exact reason and unblock it for you.
Is the website showing an error message? If yes – what kind of an error is this?
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- 403 Forbidden – this error suggests that there is a problem with the ownership or permissions of the files/folders of your website or a limitation imposed in the .htaccess file of your website;
- 404 Not Found – this error suggests that the file/directory you are trying to access through your website does not exist on the server;
- 500 Internal Server Error – this error means that the server was not able to process your request due to the server or website configuration;
- 504 Gateway Timeout – the error means that your request took too long to be executed, exceeding the Web Server’s globally defined timeout value.
Have you made recent changes/modifications that might have resulted in this issue?
A proper course of action would be to:
- Revise the work that was done on the website
- Determine the exact changes that were done
- Try to backtrack the modifications in an attempt to resolve the problem
- Restore from the backup to the latest working version you are aware of
Is there work being done on the website at the moment?
When performing modifications on your live website, it is expected that you will observe changes on your site. This is why drastic changes over your live site are not recommended. Instead, you can create a development environment of it where you can test the functionality of the website prior to and after the modifications that need to occur.