connection (or your broadband company’s DNS servers). Chances are that
you and your client are located in the same building and the whole building
has lost connectivity, or perhaps you have the same broadband company
and its engineers have taken the day off. You will need to check the website
on your mobile phone or phone a friend. To be doubly sure, ask your friend
to check Where’s It Up? or Down for Everyone or Just Me?, which will
confirm whether your website is down just for you or for everyone.
If the website is definitely down, then frown confusedly and keep reading. A
soft yet audible sigh would also be appropriate. You might want to locate
the documents or emails that your Internet hosting service sent you when
you first signed up with it. It should have useful details such as your IP
address, control panel location, log-in details and admin and root
passwords; these will come in handy.
2. Figure Out What Has Gone Down
A website can appear to have gone down mainly for one of the following
reasons:
- A programming error on the website
- A DNS problem, or an expired domain
- A networking problem
- Something on the server has crashed
- The whole server has crashed
To see whether it’s a programming error, visit the website and check the
status bar at the bottom of your browser. If it says “Done” or “Loaded,”
rather than “Waiting...” or “Connecting...,” then the server and its software