Is the website down?

A page won’t load? Is the website down? queries it from our server — a completely different vantage point on the network than your own connection — and immediately settles the key question: is the outage global, or is the problem on your side?

What is this test for?

A website can be unreachable for dozens of reasons, and only some of them sit with the site itself: a server failure, overload, a botched deployment, an expired domain, a hacking attack. Just as often the culprit is closer to home — your browser cache, the DNS settings on your router, a corporate firewall, or your local internet provider.

A test from an independent point on the network separates those scenarios in seconds. If our server gets a valid response while you still see an error — look for the problem locally. If both ends see a failure, you know the site really is down, and all you can do is wait — or act, if the site is yours.

How to use the tool

1. Enter the website address — the bare domain is enough (e.g. sycope.com); you can skip the https:// prefix.
2. Click ‘Check’ — our server makes an HTTP request and shows the result within a few seconds.
3. Read the verdict — a green “The website responds” means a valid response; “The website returned an error” points to a problem on the site’s side.

How to read the results

• HTTP status code — the three-digit response status. Codes in the 2xx range mean success, 3xx a redirect, 4xx a request error (e.g. 404 — page not found, 403 — access denied), and 5xx a server error (e.g. 500 — application error, 502/504 — trouble between servers).
• Address and redirect — if the site forwards traffic to a different address (say, from HTTP to HTTPS, or from www to the bare domain), you’ll see the whole chain.
• HTTPS — whether the connection was established over the secure protocol; SSL certificate problems are a common cause of browser warnings.
• Server and content type — headers revealing the server software (e.g. nginx, LiteSpeed) and the type of content returned.

The site is down only for me — what should I check?

Start with the simplest things: hard-refresh the page bypassing the cache (Ctrl+Shift+R), try another browser or an incognito window, and make sure other sites work. Next comes DNS — your operating system and router cache lookups, so after domain changes it’s worth flushing the DNS cache or switching to public resolvers (e.g. 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8). VPNs and firewalls are frequent offenders too, especially on corporate networks where some sites are simply blocked.

If, on the other hand, it’s your own site returning an error, diagnostics start with the server logs and the error message: a 500 usually points to the application (in WordPress, often a plugin or theme), 502/504 to trouble between the web server and the backend or database, and a long server response time — to exhausted hosting resources.

Uptime monitoring — one step beyond the manual test

A manual test answers the question “is the site up right now”. For sites that earn you money, it’s worth going a step further: website monitoring polls the site automatically every few dozen seconds and fires an alert the moment an error appears — so you learn about an outage before your customers do, and the uptime statistics show how much of the promised availability your hosting actually delivers. In larger environments the same problem is solved more broadly: network monitoring platforms such as Sycope watch not a single address but all the traffic — from service response times to anomalies that point to an attack.

Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

How do I know if a site is down for everyone or just for me?

That’s exactly what this tool is for: it makes a request from our server, independent of your connection. If the site responds for us but not for you — the problem is local (cache, DNS, firewall, your internet provider).

What do HTTP codes 500, 502 and 504 mean?

They’re errors on the site’s side. A 500 indicates an application error, while 502 and 504 point to communication problems between servers — for instance, a backend or database that isn’t responding. As a visitor you can only wait; as the administrator, head for the server logs.

The site works, but I’m seeing an old version — why?

Most likely you’re looking at a cached copy — from your browser, your system’s DNS, or an intermediary CDN. Refresh bypassing the cache (Ctrl+Shift+R), and after DNS changes give the network time to propagate.

Does the tool check the SSL certificate too?

Indirectly — we show whether the HTTPS connection succeeded. If a site only responds over HTTP, or your browser warns about the certificate, that’s a sign the SSL certificate has expired or is misconfigured.

How often should I check my own site’s availability?

Manually — after every deployment and whenever users report problems. Systematically — continuously: monitoring with alerts detects downtime within minutes, and without it you’ll find out about a night-time outage only in the morning.

What does “redirect” mean in the results?

Instead of the content, the server returned the address where the content actually lives — perfectly normal when enforcing HTTPS, for example. Do keep an eye on chains of several redirects, though: they slow down page loads and are often a configuration mistake.