How to Know If Your Website Is Down (Even If It Works for You)
Sometimes your website loads for you but fails for customers in other locations, on different networks, or behind different DNS resolvers. This guide gives you a fast, reliable checklist to confirm whether a real outage is happening.
Quick checklist
- 1 Test from another network and device
- 2 Try private browsing / clear cache
- 3 Check DNS resolution with dig/nslookup
- 4 Use multiple DNS resolvers
- 5 Confirm with external monitoring
Step 1: Check from another network or device
Use a second network
Try loading the site using a mobile hotspot or another Wi‑Fi connection. This helps you determine if the problem is isolated to your current ISP or local network settings.
Try a different device or browser
A problem on a single device can look like downtime. Testing on a different device or browser quickly rules out local issues.
Step 2: Rule out browser caching issues
Use private browsing
Open the site in a private/incognito window to avoid cached pages, extensions, or stale cookies.
Clear cache if needed
Cached files can cause display or loading errors. Clearing your browser cache is a simple way to remove stale content.
Step 3: Verify DNS resolution
Use dig or nslookup
Run dig or nslookup to confirm your domain resolves to the expected IP. If DNS is incorrect or stale, some users will see errors while others won’t.
Check propagation with a DNS tool
Online DNS checkers let you view results from multiple locations to see if changes are still propagating.
DNS responses are cached based on TTL values. If you recently changed DNS records, some users may still see the old value until caches expire.
Step 4: Query multiple DNS resolvers
Use public resolvers for a quick cross‑check
Query a public resolver like Google or Cloudflare to compare results against your local ISP. Differences can indicate resolver-specific caching or propagation delays.
Step 5: Confirm with external monitoring
Check from multiple locations
Independent checks from multiple locations help distinguish real outages from a single-network issue and reduce false positives.
Uptime Basics monitors from AWS infrastructure and can alert you when multiple checks confirm downtime.
Quick decision flow
- If it fails on another network, it’s likely a real outage.
- If it only fails locally, check DNS, cache, and your network.
- If DNS differs across resolvers, wait for propagation or fix records.
- If external checks agree it’s down, start incident response.
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