Using the Website Status Checker to Diagnose Downtime

Introduction

A website status checker helps you understand what happens when a browser, search engine or monitoring tool requests your URL. It can show whether the site responds, which HTTP status code is returned, whether redirects happen, and where the final URL ends.

When a website appears down, the problem may be DNS, SSL, redirects, CDN, hosting, firewall, application errors, server overload or regional connectivity. A status check helps narrow the problem before changing settings blindly.

Quick answer

Status checker

A website status checker sends a request to a URL and reports how the website responds.

• Whether the URL is reachable
• Initial HTTP status code
• Final status code after redirects
• Redirect chain
• HTTPS behavior
• Response time
• Server errors
• Timeout problems
• Incorrect redirects
• Availability issues

Is it really down?

A website can look down for different reasons.

• Down for everyone
• Down only from your network
• Down only in one country or region
• Homepage works but inner pages fail
• HTTP works but HTTPS fails
• www works but non-www fails
• CDN works but origin fails
• Logged-in area fails but public site works
• Site loads slowly and times out

First checks

Downtime signals

Redirect problems

Redirect issues can make a site look down even when the server is online.

• HTTP/HTTPS redirect loop
• www/non-www loop
• Old URL redirects to wrong page
• Too many redirect hops
• Redirect to expired domain
• Redirect to blocked URL
• CDN and origin redirect rules conflict
• WordPress or site URL mismatch

CDN and origin

If a CDN or proxy is active, there are two layers to check:

• Origin server is down
• Origin firewall blocks CDN IPs
• SSL between CDN and origin fails
• Origin hostname is wrong
• DNS points to wrong origin
• CDN cache hides a problem
• CDN returns 502, 503 or 504

DNS and SSL

A site may fail before the web application is even reached.

Why this matters

For business websites, even short downtime can affect leads, sales, support, SEO crawling and customer trust.

How to diagnose

Use Website Status Checker to test the exact URL and review the response.

1. Exact URL — test the affected page, not only the homepage.
2. Final status code — confirm whether the final response is 200, 404, 500, 502, 503, 504 or another code.
3. Redirect chain — check whether the URL redirects correctly or loops.
4. HTTPS behavior — confirm SSL works for the final hostname.
5. Response time — look for slow responses or timeouts.
6. DNS destination — confirm the domain points to the expected server or CDN.
7. CDN/proxy layer — check whether the error comes from CDN or origin.
8. Server logs — if the status is 5xx, review application and hosting logs.

A one-time Website Status Check shows what happens right now. Uptime monitoring checks repeatedly over time.

Common problems

How to fix downtime

1. Step 1: Confirm the exact failure

   Record the affected URL, status code, redirect path and response time.

2. Step 2: Check DNS

   Confirm the domain points to the correct hosting server or CDN.

3. Step 3: Check SSL

   Verify certificate validity, hostname coverage and HTTPS behavior.

4. Step 4: Check redirects

   Fix loops, long chains and conflicting www/non-www or HTTP/HTTPS rules.

5. Step 5: Check CDN or proxy

   Review origin settings, SSL mode, cache, firewall and upstream errors.

6. Step 6: Check application logs

   Investigate PHP, WordPress, framework, database or plugin errors.

7. Step 7: Check server resources

   Review CPU, RAM, disk, processes, database load and hosting limits.

8. Step 8: Re-test externally

   Run the checker again after each fix and test from another network if needed.

9. Step 9: Monitor after recovery

   Watch for recurring errors, timeouts or intermittent failures.

Example 1: Redirect loop

http://example.com
→ https://example.com
→ http://example.com
→ loop

Likely cause:
Conflicting HTTP/HTTPS rules between CDN and origin.

Fix:
Use one canonical HTTPS redirect rule.

Example 2: CDN 502

Public URL:
https://example.com → 502 Bad Gateway

Origin check:
Origin server not responding on port 443.

Likely cause:
Origin down, firewall block or SSL mismatch.

Fix:
Check hosting server, firewall and CDN origin SSL settings.

Example 3: DNS migration issue

Domain:
example.com

Expected IP:
192.0.2.10

Current DNS:
198.51.100.25

Likely cause:
DNS still points to old server.

Fix:
Update DNS or nameserver configuration.

Migration downtime

Many downtime incidents happen after moving hosting, changing DNS or enabling a CDN.

• DNS records point to new server
• Nameservers are correct
• SSL certificate installed on new host
• CDN origin points to new server
• HTTP to HTTPS redirect is correct
• www/non-www version is consistent
• Old server is not still receiving traffic
• Database connection is updated
• File paths and permissions are correct
• Cache is cleared

Frequently asked questions