Technology is not perfect. We are faced with that fact nearly
every single day of our lives. In the days of blackouts
and e-mail viruses, we have to live in a world of higher
alert. At any given moment something could happen that could
trigger a whole series of events that might make your website
unavailable. What's a person to do when they can not see
their site? Think of this column as a checks and balances
for when the worst happens, or doesn't happen but you think
it did.
If you come up with the dreaded 404 error page, the first
thing you should always do is check other sites online to
make sure it's not just your connection. Over sixty percent
of the calls I see come in on a daily basis about sites
being down are caused by the person's internet service provider,
and not the server itself.
Another cause of the problem that would be related to your
internet service provider would be the viewing of older
pages. You know, when you are absolutely sure that you just
updated your site, and your the only one who can not see
the updates. This is an effect of your internet service
provider serving you cached pages stored with them, instead
of a fresh version of the site. The second answer could
be even closer at home. You could have just been viewing
a cached version of the page on your own computer. Always
make sure you clear out your internet history, and make
sure your settings are changed to "look for a fresh
version on every visit."
If you have a high speed internet connection and you can
not view your site, the effect might be that your router
or modem is hanging. The solution to this problem is simply
restart your modem or router and try again. If you are still
using a dial-up connection then make sure you are getting
a good signal first. Sometimes dial-up connections can be
a pain because during busy times of the day they might sputter
some or crawl at a slow and un-steady pace.
From your computer to the jack in the router, modem or
wall are not the longest connections between you and your
site though. We are talking about a travel from point A
to point B and on till it loads for you on your own computer.
Routing could be the issue with your site not appearing
as well. It is also important to always run a trace route
to see where the actual site has to stop between yourself
and the server it is hosted on. The answer could be as simple
as one of the data centers or routing stations could be
experiencing some down time or problems.
As a last ditch effort; as far as your internet service
provider is concerned, call them up on the telephone and
tell them about your problem, and chances are that if you
had a problem, several other people in your area have reported
the same problem to them before. Most internet service providers
will be up-front and honest with you when they are experiencing
any form of technical difficulty.
Of course this list of causes and effects is only scratching
the surface of what could be the problem. Never be afraid
to ask questions though, because that is the only way you
will ever learn.
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