Website is down (I use IdeaHost)

Maybe the obstacle that prevents you from accessing a certain website is the great amount of cookies and cache files stored in your device.

To learn how to clear the browser's cache (and cookies), check out the don't know how to clear the cache solutions.

It's possible that the browser itself prevents you from browsing the net and loading websites. A simple restart of the browser program itself could solve the problem.

To restart the browser click the X icon in the top-right corner of the browser (or in the top-left on Mac OS), and click the browser icon from the desktop. Try loading the same website again.

Maybe the website is down because of an ISP- or hosting-related issue. Try again in 10-30 minutes to check if it's back online. If it's still offline, report the issue to the hosting provider which will resolve it quickly.

If you (or the website administrator) recently updated the DNS settings of the website or registered a new domain, please note that it can take up to 48 hours for these changes to take effect, so, the website may appear that it's down during this time.

Note: If 48 hours have passed and nothing changed (i.e. your website is still down), contact the hosting-server operators.

Maybe you can't access the website because of a spelling error.

Check if you entered the website's name correctly, and if you entered the right top-level domains (.com, .net, .org etc.).

If you have already verified that all the file permissions are correct and you still see the 403 Forbidden error, you will need to check your .htaccess file. You can have multiple .htaccess files in your account, so you may need to search or modify .htaccess files other than public_html/.htaccess.

For example, if you have an addon domain located at public_html/addon_domain, you'll need to check any .htaccess files within that folder as well. If one of the lines in the actual file says Options All -Indexes then simply remove -Indexes and save the file.

Note: This solution also helps if the "504 Gateway Timeout" error and "500 Internal Server Error" are displayed.

Reloading the website may fix it, especially if you see a 408 Request Timeout error (or 40X error of any type). Reload it by pressing CTRL + R or clicking the semi-circular arrow next to the URL.

There might be an issue with the server and/or the hosting provider of the website, or your IP address might have been blocked by them for some reason.

Contact them and inform them about the issue. They will tell you what's wrong and resolve it as soon as possible.

Maybe your computer is preventing you from opening the website. Most likely it's a result of a browser-related issue (a plug-in or an extension became unresponsive), or a software-related one.

Try closing the browser first. If that didn't work, restart the computer.

If you want to learn more details check out the don't know how to restart my device solutions.

Maybe there is an issue with your internet connection which is due to the ISP itself (a problem with the ISP's DNS settings or something else), which prevents you from loading any website (or only a certain website).

Call your internet service provider whose team will troubleshoot and resolve the problem as soon as possible.

If your website is hosted by IdeaHost and you experience issues you couldn't resolve by yourself, contact their support staff, who will help you resolve the issue and they are available 24/7 for you.

Contact them on: 844-271-6520, or via their live chat service

Maybe the website is down because it suffered a Denial-of-Service (DDOS) attack.

Symptoms of denial-of-service attacks include:

• Unusually slow network performance (opening files or accessing websites)
  
  
• Unavailability of a particular website
  
  
• Inability to access any website
  
  
• High increase in the number of spam emails (this type of DDOS is usually referred to as an e-mail bomb)

If you own the website that might have suffered a DDOS attack, read this article which explains how to defend yourself against future DDOS attacks.

Uptimerobot is a free-of-charge service that tracks the uptime, downtime, and performance of websites.

Uptimerobot may not help you to "wake up" your website again, but it can alert you quickly if it happens in the future (by checking on your website every 5 minutes).

Go to uptimerobot's website , sign up for free and start monitoring your website.

Websites can get infected with viruses just like computers, and start misbehaving. Ask your hosting provider/ server admin to perform a scan instead of you.

Alternatively, you can download all of your website files to your computer (e.g. via FTP-File Transfer Protocol) and scan them through your computer (make sure that you have a good antivirus problem installed e.g. Avira, Avast, and etc., otherwise you risk infecting your computer as well). The main files you need to pay attention to are:

• index.php

• .htaccess

• header.php

• footer.php

• functions.php

• the entire wp-content folder (which contains the plugins and themes)
  
  

Note: Not all types of websites allow you to download the website to your computer.

Maybe your website got hacked. If you detect a suspicious activity on your website or if your browser shows you this message This site may harm your computer when you try to access it, then your website is most likely hacked.

Check the website codes for suspicious lines / recent changes or hire a professional instead. Before you decide to hire a professional, double-check the website to make sure that this is a problem you can't solve.

Note: Read this article, which will inform you how to maintain and protect your website.

Your server might have run out of disk space. If your site gets a lot of traffic then the server logs can rapidly use up the available disk space even when your application’s storage requirements are low.

If possible, free up some disk space by deleting unnecessary media files (e.g. videos, pictures, etc.) hosted on your website. If not, you can always upgrade the hosting plan.

When you type an address into your web browser, your computer uses DNS (Domain Name System) to look up and translate that address into a computer-friendly IP address. In other words, the DNS has the role of a librarian, who you can ask for a book. Sometimes, the servers your computer uses to look up that information can go down, thus preventing you from loading the desired web site.
 
To learn how to change the DNS settings, check out the don't know how to change the DNS settings solutions

Pingdom is a service that tracks the uptime, downtime, and performance of websites. Pingdom monitors websites from multiple locations globally so that it can distinguish genuine downtime from routing and access problems.

Pingdom may not help you to "wake up" your website again, but it can alert you quickly if it happens in the future.

Go to Pingdom, select and subscribe to a plan and Pingdom will start monitoring your website.

The site might be down due to a programming error. You can check this by visiting the website and see what the status bar at the bottom of the browser says. If it says “Done” or “Loaded,” rather than “Waiting…” or “Connecting…,” the website is working properly, but there is a programming error or misconfiguration.

If you're a developer yourself, check the server´s error log for clues, otherwise talk to the developers of the site and ask them to fix it.

Also check this free-of-charge website, which will point you to issues in the code.

If your website goes down frequently after you have updated a component of it (a plug-in, add-on etc.), or if your host upgraded the OS or made a modification of any kind, then the update itself caused the problem.

Although hosting operators attempt to ensure Ruby, Python, MySQL, PHP, PostgreSQL, etc. remain backward compatible, some files (commands) might have been affected, which caused the website to go down.

Reverse those changes if you made them by yourself (i.e. find the faulty component and reverse the update or even uninstall it), or talk to the hosting operators.

Note: Fixing this issue might take you a lot of time and concentration. Don't modify anything unless you know it's function.

Temporary problems with your modem, router, switch, or other network device could be the reason, esp. if you see a 504 Gateway Timeout error message.

The easiest way to restart the above-mentioned devices is by unplugging them from the power outlet and plug them back in, in about 5 minutes.

If your website is visited by too many people at the same time and the server on which your website is hosted cannot handle them, your website will go down.

To fix this issue use backup servers, which will "help" your main server in case of emergency and keep your website up all the time.

Maybe the website you are trying to visit is restricted to certain countries other than yours or maybe there is something wrong with your ISP. The first thing you should do is to check whether the website is really down for everybody. Go to Downforeveryoneorjustme and enter the website's URL in the field (e.g. google.com) and press Enter.

If the website is up, you will be able to access it through a proxy server. Search for most popular and most secure proxy websites and try one of them.

Before anyone jumps to fixing things, you should use this tool that allows people to check and see if a website is down for everyone or just them and then provides additional solutions: https://cgscomputer.com/website-status-checker/

If you use a router and you cannot load any website, probably the router itself is the issue. Maybe the Internet connection crashed and the router failed to re-connect or maybe it was something else that caused the router to stop working properly.

Restart the router by unplugging it from the power outlet (the easiest way), or by pressing the Power ON/OFF button (if available). Wait for 30 seconds to ensure all the power is gone and then plug it back in (or turn the power button on) again. After that, wait until the router reconnects to the Internet again.

If others can access the desired website (or your website) but you, there is a possibility that the hosting server of the website is blocking your IP address, or there is something wrong with your ISP's (Internet Service Provider) settings.

Some website owners do this to prevent users from certain countries/location from accessing the website, or to restrict the number of visits (e.g. You get kicked out if you visit the website more than 10 times per day).

Try to access the website through a proxy website. Famous proxy websites include hide.me, hidemyass.com, proxysite.com. If you are not sure how to use the proxy website, they include video tutorial for that purpose. Please note that this is a short-term solution to your problem.

To fix it long-term, contact your ISP first and then the server admins / hosting provider of the page you're trying to access to check why they are blocking you.

If your website is slow or goes down frequently due to a large number of visitors (or something else), this might be a hosting-related issue, i.e the hosting plan doesn't meet your needs.

The best solutions include upgrading the already existing hosting plan (by selecting more expensive packagages than the already selected one) or changing the hosting provider.

Famous hosting providers include: Hostgator, Bluehost, Ideahost, iPage, Hostclear etc.

A faulty plugin might be the reason for the website being down.

To solve this problem, update all the plugins. If that doesn't work, deactivate the recently added ones to see if that helps.
Find the section labeled plugin(s) in the admin panel of your website and read the plugin's functions carefully before you decide to disable it.

Note: Usually you can reach the admin panel by entering your website's name followed by /admin.php or /wp-admin (Wordpress users) or another extension (e.g. www.xyz.com/admin.php)

If you have your own server and you host your website on it, and your website started misbehaving after the number of visitors on it increased, then it is probably a server-related issue.

The RAM memory is one of the most important components of a server (along with the CPU and the hard drives). If the website consumes more of the RAM memory (provided that you checked the available RAM in the server's control panel), consider:

• Locating the culprit (e.g. a faulty plug in, or a virus) that consumes more of the RAM memory
  
  
• Redesigning the website (by excluding unnecessary memory-consuming add-ons)
  
  
• Upgrading the RAM capacity (If you tried the previous solution and none of them worked)

Note: If you are not sure how to do this on your own, ask an experienced friend or an expert.

One of the most common causes of the 403 Forbidden error are incorrect file permissions settings. This error message is displayed to protect you against hackers, i.e. for security reasons.

To correct this error, check if any file's or folder's permission is set to 777 (which means that everybody can edit it). If you detect a file or a folder with those settings, change the value 777 to 750 or 755 (for folders) and to 644 (for files).

The error 406 Not Acceptable is usually caused by the mod_security settings of your website. Mod_security is a type of a firewall, which scans for violations of the already-set rules. If an action that violates one of these rules occurs, the server will throw a 406 error. By default mod_security is enabled on all accounts. However, some programs require mod_security to be disabled.

You can disable the mod_security via ModSec Manager , or if you don't have the Modsec manager at your disposal, read this article.

A corrupted .htaccess file is one of the factors responsible for the 500 Internal Server Error. It may have become corrupted after you have installed a plugin or made another change to your WordPress site.

To fix this error, you need to create a new .htaccess file. To create a new .htaccess file:

1.  Open the WordPress root directory in FileZilla (click here if you don't know how to install and configure it) or your preferred FTP client (a software which uses the FTP- File Transfer Protocol to transfer files to and from a remote computer)
   
   It is typically called public_html. If you see folders named wp-admin and wp-content, you’re in the right place. If you can’t find the .htaccess file, click Server  and select Force Showing Hidden Files.
   
   
2.  Once you find it, rename it into .htaccess.bak
   
   
3.  Log in and go into your website's admin area (e.g. in case it's a Wordpress site www.yoururl.com/wp-admin), and then go to Settings -> Permalink
   
   
4. Scroll down to the bottom of the page, and click Save Changes
   
   
5. Open your website, which should be working fine.

A low PHP Memory Limit is one of the factors responsible for the 500 Internal Server Error. To fix it:

1.  Open the WordPress root directory in FileZilla (click here if you don't know how to install and configure it) or your preferred FTP client (a software which uses the FTP- File Transfer Protocol to transfer files to and from a remote computer).
   
   
2. Locate the wp-config.php file, download it and open it in Notepad or other text editor (right-click on the file -> Open with -> Select a text editor)
   
   
3. Add the following code and save the file:

   define('WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '64M');

4. Re-upload it to wordpress (by selecting the upload option) and overwrite the original file
   
   
5. Try opening your website in a web browser

Note: If this didn't fix the error, remove the above-mentioned code from the wp-config.php file, save it, and re-upload it to the root directory.

The hosts file enables you to add URLs of webpages you want to block, which will automatically be blocked in every single browser installed in your computer. Also, some viruses can modify the hosts file in order to prevent you from downloading an antivirus software which can find and remove the virus.
 
All you have to do to fix this issue is to open and modify the hosts file:

My Computer -> Local Disk (C:) -> Windows -> System32 -> drivers -> etc

Open it with Notepad (right-click the hosts file -> Open with -> select Notepad). In the hosts file you will see other addresses which serve as an example and which you MUSTN'T delete. If you find a link associated with the website you want to open or with an antivirus software, delete it and save the changes.

The hosts file enables you to add URLs of webpages you want to block, which will automatically be blocked in every single browser installed in your computer. Also, some viruses can modify the hosts file in order to prevent you from downloading an antivirus software which can find and remove the virus.
 
All you have to do to fix this issue is to open and modify the hosts file. To modify the hosts file:

1.  Open the Terminal.app by going into Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal.
   
   
2. Type the following line: sudo nano /private/etc/hosts (type your username and password when asked)
   
   
3. If you notice a URL of a websites you visit, or websites of antivirus software, delete them and press and hold Control + O to save the changes and Control + X to exit
   
   
4. Flush the DNS cache by entering the following line (depending on your OS version):
   
   
   • dscacheutil -flushcache - Mac OS X Snow Leopard (v10.6 through v10.6.8)
     
     
   • sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder - Mac OS X Mavericks, Mountain Lion, and Lion (v10.9.5 and earlier)
     
     
   • sudo discoveryutil mdnsflushcache - Mac OS X Yosemite and later (v10.10 through v10.10.3)
     
     
   • sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder - Mac OS X Yosemite and later (v10.10.4 or later)

If your website is down, run a test to determine if there is an issue with the IP address or not.

To check if there is an issue with the IP address:

Go to network-tools.com, select ping, enter your website URL and check if it returns the correct IP address that belongs to the server where your website is hosted (refer to the documentation that your hosting company sent to you when you first signed up to it).


Also, you can do this test through CMD/Terminal:

Windows:

1. Type cmd in the start menu search box
   
   
2. Type the following using your domain and press Enter: ping www.yourdomain.com (e.g. ping www.youtube.com)
   
   

If the server is alive and reachable, then the result will be something like this:

Reply from IPADDRESSHERE (e.g. reply from 92.52.106.33:) bytes=32 time=12ms TTL=53

This line should repeat four times.

Mac OS:

1. Go to Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal
   
   
2. Type ping www.yourdomain.com (e.g. ping www.youtube.com)

If the server is alive and reachable, then the result will be something like this:

Reply from IPADDRESSHERE (e.g. reply from 92.52.106.33:) bytes=32 time=12ms TTL=53

The will repeat indefinitely, as long as you don't press and hold Control + C

Check if the IP address you got from the test matches with the one from your hosting documentation. If it does not match, this indicates that the domain name could have expired.
If you receive something like unknown host, then it’s definitely a domain name issue.

In a situation like this, use a website such as Who.is to verify the domain registration details. You will find out when it expired, who owns it at the moment and where it is registered. Then you can contact the domain registrar to reclaim the domain.

Maybe a virus is preventing your browser from working properly or is slowing down your Internet speed and it seems that the website (or all websites) is down.

To learn how to scan for and remove viruses, check out the Viruses / Spywares / Malware solutions.

There are two possible reasons for the 401 Unauthorized error. One of them is a misspelled URL, and the other reason is incorrect credentials (username and password).

Firstly, check if you have typed the URL correctly, and then check your login details.

Note: If both, the URL and the credentials are correct and you still see this error, report the issue to the webmaster.

Most websites use resources on other servers. This includes CDN-hosted files, database servers, or remotely-hosted APIs such as those for Google Maps, YouTube, Twitter, advertising services, etc.

If one of those is down, that can cause your website to go down as well. Before taking any other action, make sure that every other resource you use on your website is available.