Just a few hours ago, our site TechExplorer.in was experiencing some server-side issues and hence was down for a few minutes. That led me to make a quick post on what ‘you’ do to verify that a particular website is actually dead or not.

I will list down the 3 quick ways to check a website’s status.

» This one’s way simple. Go to DownForEveryoneOrJustMe.com (well, that makes sense ;) ). Enter the URL of the site in question and click the ‘or just me’ text-link. Results will be immediate.

» Second is the very well known ‘Ping’ method.

• Open ‘Command Prompt’ (Press + R > type ‘cmd.exe’ > press ‘Enter’).
• In the Command Prompt window type, ping <website’s URL> and press enter. For eg. ping google.com
• If you get a ‘Request Timeout’ error then the website’s having issues. Else you’d get a ping-back reply from the website’s server.

» Third is the most information rich ‘tracert’ (Trace root) method. It additionally tells you exactly ‘where’ the problem lies.

• Open ‘Command Prompt’.
• Type in tracert <website’s name> and press enter. For eg. tracert google.com
• You will get the list of intervening network servers starting with your own router/modem followed by your local ISP.
• If you see a * symbol instead of the time in milliseconds, it indicates a problem with the associated server. The first 2 entries are usually your home routers / modems. The next one is your Local ISP, followed by many intervening networks that exist between your ISP and the website’s hosting server.

The ‘tracert’ (Trace root) method is extremely useful for webmasters while for the casual users, there’s always DownForEveryoneOrJustMe.com.