Is it me or the site?
A page won't load. Before you restart anything, two minutes of tests tell you where the problem is. Do them in this order; stop when one explains it.
1. Ask from outside
Put the address into the checker. It asks the site from a data center, on a different network from yours. If it comes back red, the site is down for everyone and nothing on your side will fix it. Check again in ten minutes, and look for the business on social media. You're done.
If it comes back green, the site is fine from outside, and the rest of this page is about finding what's in the way on your side.
2. Try another network
On your phone, turn Wi-Fi off and load the page over mobile data. Or the reverse. If it loads on one and not the other, the broken one is the problem: the Wi-Fi router, or the provider behind it. Restart the router (unplug, count to twenty, plug in) and give it two minutes. If other sites also fail on that network, call the provider.
3. Try another browser, or a private window
Open a private or incognito window and load the page. If it works there, the problem is something saved in your normal browser: a cookie, a login that went stale, or an extension (ad blockers and privacy tools sometimes block a whole site). Clear the cookies for that one site, or turn extensions off one at a time.
4. Look at the exact error
The browser's wording narrows it down.
| What the browser says | What it means |
|---|---|
| "This site can't be reached", "server IP address could not be found", NXDOMAIN | The name didn't resolve. Check the spelling. If the checker says the domain is fine, your device or provider is using stale DNS; see below. |
| "Your connection is not private", "certificate has expired" | The site's certificate is broken (the checker will show it red at step 3), or your device's clock is wrong. Check the date and time on the device; a wrong year makes every certificate look expired. |
| "took too long to respond", a spinner forever | Either the site is slow for everyone (checker says slow), or your connection is. Run a speed test; try the other network. |
| "Access denied", "403", "not available in your country" | The site is blocking you on purpose: your country, your office network, a VPN's address, or a block on automated traffic. Turn the VPN off, or try from a phone on mobile data. |
| Loads, but looks broken or half-empty | Part of the site (images, scripts) is blocked or slow. Often an extension, or a company firewall. Private window first. |
5. Stale DNS on your side
When a site moves to a new server, your device and your provider can hold the old address for a few hours. The checker (which asks fresh each time) says the site is fine; your browser goes to the old place. Flushing the cache on your device helps if the stale copy is there:
- Windows: open Command Prompt and run
ipconfig /flushdns. - Mac: open Terminal and run
sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder. - Phone: turn airplane mode on for ten seconds, then off.
If the stale copy is at your provider, switching the device's DNS to a public resolver (1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8) gets around it; the setting is under the network's details on every system. Or wait. It clears on its own, usually within a few hours.
6. The site is up, but the app isn't
A home page can answer while the login, the app or one region is broken. The live board only checks home pages, and it says so. If a big service is green on the board and broken for you, and the tests above found nothing on your side, it's probably a partial outage. Those are usually fixed within the hour; the service's own social accounts will say.
If you work at the business
Everything above applies, with one addition: an office network often has its own DNS and its own blocks, so "down from the shop" and "down for customers" are different questions. The checker answers the second one. If it's green, your customers are fine; tell whoever runs the office network.
Start with the check
Green means it's on your side; red names the step that failed for everyone.