Down for Everyone or Just Me?

Before you blame the website — or your internet provider — spend two minutes finding out where the problem actually is. Here's how.

When a page won't load, there are really only two possibilities: the website itself is having trouble, or something between you and the website is. Knowing which one you're dealing with saves you from pointless troubleshooting. The fastest way to find out is to have an independent, outside source try to reach the site — if it loads for them but not for you, the issue is local.

Step 1: Check from the outside

Start with our website status checker. Enter the domain and we'll connect to it from our server — a completely different network and location from yours. The result tells you a lot:

• It's down for us too: the outage is real and on the website's side. There's nothing to fix on your end; you'll need to wait for the site to recover. See why websites go down.
• It's online for us: the site is up and reachable, so the problem is almost certainly between your device and the internet. Continue to the local checks below.

Step 2: Rule out the obvious

A surprising share of "outages" come down to small, local things. Run through these quickly:

• Reload properly. Do a hard refresh (Ctrl+F5, or Cmd+Shift+R on a Mac) to bypass your cache.
• Try a different browser or an incognito/private window. This rules out a broken extension or a bad cached file.
• Try another device on the same network. If it works on your phone but not your laptop, the problem is that specific device.
• Check the address. A typo, an old bookmark, or http vs https can all cause a "site won't load" that isn't an outage at all.

Step 3: Isolate your network

If it works for us but no device of yours can reach it, suspect your connection:

• Switch networks. Move from Wi-Fi to mobile data (or vice versa). If it loads on cellular, your home or office network is the culprit.
• Restart your router and modem. Unplug for 30 seconds, then power back on. This clears a remarkable number of connection gremlins.
• Disable VPNs and proxies. A VPN can route you through a region the site blocks, or through a server that's itself having trouble.
• Check other sites. If nothing loads, your internet is down, not the website.

Step 4: Flush DNS and try a public resolver

DNS is what turns example.com into a server address. A stale or broken DNS cache can block a single site while everything else works. Two fixes:

• Flush your DNS cache. On Windows, run ipconfig /flushdns. On macOS, run sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder.
• Switch to a public DNS resolver such as Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1 or Google's 8.8.8.8 in your network settings, then try again.

Step 5: Consider regional and provider issues

Occasionally a site is up for most of the world but unreachable from your region, your ISP, or your country — due to routing problems, geo-blocking, or local network policy. If our checker (which runs from a different location) reaches the site and none of the steps above help, a regional or ISP routing issue is a likely explanation. A VPN to a different region can confirm it: if the site loads through the VPN, the path from your normal location is the problem.

Quick reference

What you see	Most likely cause	What to do
Down for us and for you	Real outage on the site	Wait; re-check periodically
Up for us, down on all your devices	Your network, DNS, or ISP	Restart router, flush DNS, switch networks
Up for us, down on one device only	That device's browser/cache/settings	Hard refresh, try another browser, clear cache
Works only on a VPN	Regional or ISP routing/geo-block	Use a VPN or contact your ISP

Still stuck after all of this? The site may be in the middle of an intermittent outage, or doing maintenance. Give it some time and check again. For more background, see our guide on why websites go down and how to check if a website is down.