Can not figure out if a site is down just for you or for everyone? Discover all the methods to find out
One of our favorite sites no longer responds or is no longer reachable?
Is it the fault of our connection or is the problem of the site or more precisely of the server?
These questions can come to mind at any time, particularly if sites like Facebook, Twitter or Instagram do not work (they are rare events, but they can happen at any time).
To understand if it is our fault or a general problem we can use different methods, ranging from understanding if the Internet connection is working properly, if the site is really down or if other users have the same problem.
We have collected below all the tools to understand in total autonomy if a site is not reachable to any other user or only to us.
Checking the Internet connection
The Internet connection icon on our PC (lower right on Windows 10) may show the yellow triangle even after several minutes from the actual absence of a line (sometimes it does not warn you!); in these cases we can immediately understand if there is data line or not by checking the lights of our modem or router to which the PC is connected.
If the lights DSL (which indicates the actual presence of the carrier from the centre up to our house) and Internet (which shows the correct allocation of IP and DNS for our line) are regularly turned on, the connectivity is still present so the problem is somewhere else.
These lights can be different on each model of modem or router, but it takes very little to understand if there is connectivity or not (we can also refer to the user manual to understand which light indicates the connectivity to the network).
If the problem is limited only to the PC in use (other devices on the network open the site), we can also try the network ping route.
Open the Start menu and look for Command Prompt; From the black window that will open, type the following command:
ping <site_name>
We will run a small test on the transmission of packets on the network.
If the test fails, you will see a result similar to the one shown in the image below.
Lost packages are a good indicator of connection problems, but they may still be legal to a problem with our line.
In this case we recommend first of all to restart the modem/router to see if the connection is resumed, then to test the connection via a device connected via Ethernet cable (to exclude any type of interference on WiFi at home) and finally as a last resort call the telephone operator so that it can check our line to understand why Internet access is no longer working.
Sites to verify that a site is down
To get the irrefutable proof that the problem concerns only the site and not our Internet connection we will have to use sites specialized in ping, performing the operation just seen but from an external server (so as to have an irrefutable proof in the site malfunction).
One of the best sites we can use is Down For Everyone or Just Me, reachable from here -> Down For Everyone or Just Me.
This very simple site offers a small field to insert the site (immediately after Is ) and allows you to understand in seconds if the site is really down or the problem is to be found elsewhere.
In fact, if the site is fully functional, it will show a window similar to the one shown below.
If the site can not be reached by anyone on the Internet, a window like the one shown below will appear.
If we get this last window as an answer, the site is not reachable by anyone in the world, so our connection has nothing to do with it.
The causes can be many: from a simple expired and not renewed hosting to real DNS or IP blocks imposed by the authorities in order to make a site more accessible.
Apart from these serious scenarios, sometimes an unreachable site is simply “victim” of an update of the server or its components, or is facing problems with the hosting service (very likely).
Other similar services that we can test to have a feedback on the reachability of a particular site can be found in the following list:
Another very practical solution: check the social
To check if a site is down for everyone or only on our connection we discovered one of the most effective methods: see if social networks talk about it!
If the unreachable site is very famous (such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Gmail, Instagram etc.) users will immediately share the news on social media (at least those that work!).
So a good way to get this kind of control is to see immediately if the social media talk about it, in particular we recommend use the Twitter homepage.
By subscribing to the microblogging service you can see the most important messages, with the related hashtags referring to the unreachable service (#whatsappdown was one of the most used when WhatsApp went out of service for a few hours).
First we open Twitter from the link here -> Twitter.
We immediately check the homepage: do we talk about the unreachable site?
If we do not see anything about it, we will log in or register using the buttons at the top right of the page ( Sign up and Log in ).
Once inside the personal page we check the left column, where the most popular hashtags are present or are receiving a lot of interactions ( Trends for you ).
If among the hashtags we see something referring to the site or service that does not work, we can reassure!
If necessary, we can also click on the hashtag to track all messages and interactions on the topic, so as to realize when the site or the service is no longer reachable.