Website Status Checkers - Is the website Just Down For Me?

We've all wondered at one point or another when a webpage is not working, is the site really down, or is there a problem with my computer or internet connection. Not everyone realizes because normally the internet is so reliable being designed originally for the military, it is designed to route around trouble spots to keep working.

Despite this robustness, problems do arise and there are a number of great tools out there to help you figure out where the problem is.

DNS issues. When there is a DNS issue, it can make it difficult for your computer to contact the remote server by obtaining the IP address associated with it. The ip address is like a phone number for a computer, and DNS is like a phone book in that it helps your computer to contact the remote site. Since DNS is normally run by your Internet Service Provider, it is possible your ISP is having trouble while other users might not.

Routing trouble. Not nearly as common as DNS issues, it's possible to have a difficulty from your physical location to contact a remote server. This happens because your requests normally have a long way to go, going over many hops, which are locations that forward your request on until it reaches its final destination. Again with routing trouble, it's best to check with a website checking service to see if the issue is only on your end.

Since it's nice to be able to check in more than one location, here is a list of all the website checkers I have found:

justdownforme.com

downorisitjustme.com

isup.me

downforeveryoneorjustme.com

siteisdowncheck.com

websitedown.info

siteknocker.com


Just checks major sites automatically, but provides more details:
http://downrightnow.com/

Hope this helps someone!