How to Check if a Website Is Down for Everyone or Just You
A page won't load, and the first question is always the same: is the website actually down, or is the problem on my end? Answering that quickly saves a lot of wasted troubleshooting. This guide shows you how to confirm an outage in seconds, then walks through the local fixes for when it turns out the problem is yours.
Step 1: Check if the site is down for everyone
Run the URL through our Website Down Checker. It requests the site from an external server, so if it loads for us but not for you, the site is up and the issue is local. If it fails for us too, the outage is on the site's side and there's nothing to fix on your end but wait.
This one check saves you from restarting your router over a problem that's actually the website's server being offline.
Step 2: Rule out DNS problems
If a site recently moved hosts or changed its address, your network might still be pointing at the old server while the change propagates. A DNS Propagation Checker shows whether the domain resolves consistently around the world. Inconsistent results mean the change is still rolling out, and the fix is simply to wait — propagation can take up to 48 hours.
Step 3: Fix the common local causes
If the site is up for everyone else, work through the usual suspects on your end. Try the page in a private/incognito window to bypass a stale cache. Flush your DNS cache (ipconfig /flushdns on Windows, or restart your Mac's mDNSResponder). Disable a VPN or proxy, which can be blocked by the site or route you to a failing node. Switch DNS servers to a public resolver such as 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8. And try another network — for example your phone's mobile data — to isolate whether your router or ISP is the culprit.
Step 4: Interpret the error message
The browser error is a clue. "DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN" points to a DNS problem. "ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT" suggests the server or a firewall is silently dropping the connection. A 503 or 504 means the server is reachable but overloaded or down — that one is on the site, not you.