A lot of the time when clients come to me to design a website, especially those who are not so familiar with the internet and information technology equipment and software, they expect that once the website is up and running on a webhost, it will always be up and running, and they don't want it to ever come down, not even temporarily. Recently I had a couple incidents with one client's website crashing and I've also had incidents with other clients websites being taken down because some fee or the other was not paid to the respective host in a timely fashion.
The reality is websites do crash from time to time and there is nothing a webhost or website designer can do to prevent it from crashing 100% of the time (sometimes it can be avoided, but not all the time). However, there are times when it may not have crashed, but it is just unavailable to you the viewer.
Websites may become unavailable for many reasons:
The reality is websites do crash from time to time and there is nothing a webhost or website designer can do to prevent it from crashing 100% of the time (sometimes it can be avoided, but not all the time). However, there are times when it may not have crashed, but it is just unavailable to you the viewer.
Websites may become unavailable for many reasons:
- You the individual user have lost your internet connection, or your internet cache needs to be deleted, or your firewall (or the company's firewall) is blocking you from viewing the website or the internet, or that specific website got blocked from your specific computer or the network on which your computer is located;
- There are so many people looking at your website (or another website that is located on your webhost's server) that the server timed out.
- You (or someone representing you) may have neglected to pay the webhosting or domain hosting fee on time.
- The amount and size of the files on your webhost (files required for your website to run) may have maxed out / used up the amount of disk space your webhost has allocated for you.
- The website or the webserver (your host is using) may be down for maintenance.
- Your website may be down due to a programming error either on the webserver or on the website.
- It may be that your website got hacked or blacklisted by an internet monitoring service.
Solutions:
- The first thing you should do is determine, whether or not you are the only one experiencing this problem. To do this, check http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/google.com, type in the website in the space provided and click the text that says "or just me?". If it says it's just you, then check your internet connection, firewalls, internet cache, etc. or get your computer repairs technician to do that for you.
- Make sure you are familiar with your webhosting and domain hosting agreement and the features associated with your webhosting account. More specifically, be familiar with the cost of everything, how often you are required to pay, the amount of disk space and the amount of internet traffic your webhost allocated to you. Some webhosts will tell you that the disk space and / or the amount of traffic allocated is unlimited, please note this is not really the case, but, they usually say this, when the amount allocated is so high that it is unlikely you will ever need all of it, whilst others will be more specific. As for the fees, if they are not paid on time, your webhost and / or your domain host will suspend your account. In any of these cases (where the disk space or traffic is maxed out or webhosting or domain hosting fees are not paid), you should contact and consult your webhost to either pay off outstanding fees or to upgrade the account to get more traffic or disk space.
- Your website may also go down for maintenance purposes. This may mean anything from a bug being discovered and repaired in the webhost's software, to an upgrade to the webhosting hardware or software, or a major update or upgrade to the website itself. Webhosts and website designers usually try their best to avoid taking down the website while doing these things, but this is not always possible, because sometimes you have to switch things off and then turn them back on again. Talk to your website designer and your webhost about the problem, get both of them to investigate it. If you know your website designer is currently doing some work on the website (for example if you asked them to make some changes) talk to them and determine if they had to take it down for some reason. If, however, this is not the case, go straight to the webhost and enquire.
- Programming errors can cause websites to go down, but first you have to determine what type of programming error, before you can find a solution:
- there's something wrong with the code for the website. Unless there were any major recent changes to the website, there should not be anything wrong with the code, except in #3 below. If there was some major changes to the website recently concluded or currently going on, talk to your current website designer, if not, see #3 below.
- There's a bug on your webhost's software or operating system. If this is the case, you need to report this to your webhost and have them deal with it.
- Your website might be so old (it may have been up for a very long time) that modern internet protocols may no longer support it. To resolve this you would need to consult your website designer about redesigning it.
- On occasion websites do get hacked. Your webhost is typically responsible for your website's basic security, and they provide free tools for your website designer to secure your website properly, so you should first have a chat with your webhost about the problem. In addition, there are other security measures you can pay for to add more protection to your website. One example is a secure sockets layer (ssl) certificate and others are website anti virus and anti hacker solutions. Discuss purchasing additional protection with your website designer before buying.
- My website or domain name got blacklisted. This does not happen very often except when various internet monitoring agencies determine that your website, webhost or domain registrar is responsible (whether intentionally or not) for transmitting spam, phishing, internet viruses and other malicious activity. Usually when this happens, when you attempt to view the website, you will be presented with a page telling you your website has been blacklisted and a link to provide more information. Very often, if it is your website, this may either be the result of someone with an infected computer visiting your website, or it may mean that your website or webhost was hacked. Take a look at the link provided (on the default "this website has been blacklisted) with your website designer and depending on the causes & reasons, your website designer will be able to advise you how to proceed.
You may read more about these issues at:
http://webupon.com/web-talk/jeremys-q-and-a-why-do-websites-crash/ and http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100505075129AAfOald
Steps to take for website designers can be found here: http://coding.smashingmagazine.com/2010/12/13/what-to-do-when-your-website-goes-down/
How can I be on top of things?
Pay attention to the emails received from your webhost because if they plan any maintenance on your webserver, they typically will inform you about this via email (usually days) before they conduct the maintenance.
What about restoring the website after it has gone down?
Both your webhost and your website designer should be capable of restoring the website for you. They each may have terms and conditions under which they'll agree to restore the website, so discuss it with them.
What about restoring the website after it has gone down?
Both your webhost and your website designer should be capable of restoring the website for you. They each may have terms and conditions under which they'll agree to restore the website, so discuss it with them.
