Is Your Web Site Down?

How do you know if your web site is really available online?

You can try services like Alertra or SiteUptime to see if different computers in different locations can access your web site.

This way, even if someone complains that your site is down, you can check whether it is not available to all countries, or if the problem is localized.

(At the moment, Viloria.net can be accessed from the US, but not from the Philippines. Since that site hosts our videos and audios, people here in the Philippines won't be able to listen to our Pinoy podcast.)

There are cases where some large backbone providers refuse to route to other networks. That means some people who subscribe to the internet via Level3, for example, will not be able to view web sites connected to the net via Cogent.

So, is your web site up or down? As long as it's available to your target market, that should be considered uptime instead of downtime.

[ First posted on 10/21/2005 by Manuel Viloria ]