Frequently Asked Questions

WebsiteDownTest sends an HTTP request to the target URL or IP address you provide. It verifies if the server responds successfully within a reasonable timeframe and records the response time and HTTP status code.

The internet is a complex network. A website might be accessible in the US but unreachable in Asia due to local ISP issues, routing problems, or CDN failures. By checking from 5 distinct global locations, we can definitively tell you if a site is completely down or just experiencing regional outages.

Yes! You can enter either a standard website URL (like https://google.com or simply google.com) or a raw IP address (like 8.8.8.8). Our system will automatically parse and test it.

If our tool shows 'UP' across all 5 locations but you still can't access it, the issue is likely on your end (your ISP, DNS cache, router, or browser). If we show 'DOWN', the server itself is experiencing issues.

You can check as often as you need to. However, to prevent abuse, we do implement standard rate limiting. If you trigger too many checks in a short period, you may be temporarily blocked.

Highly accurate. We run live, real-time tests the moment you click 'Check Now' using our independent server nodes. We don't rely on cached data for active checks.

Yes, WebsiteDownTest is 100% free to use for manual checking.

You can reach us anytime at contact@websitedowntest.com with questions, bug reports, or feature requests.

We use an HTTP HEAD request, which asks the server to send only the response headers without the body. This is faster and lighter than a full GET request while still accurately confirming whether the server is alive and responding.

A TIMEOUT means our server successfully sent a request but didn't receive any response within 10 seconds. This usually indicates the server is overloaded, firewalled, or completely unreachable from that location — and is treated the same as DOWN for the overall status.

Any HTTP response with a status code below 500 is considered UP. This includes 200 OK, 301/302 redirects, 401 Unauthorized, 403 Forbidden, and 404 Not Found — the server is responding, even if it returned an error page. Only 5xx server errors (500, 502, 503, etc.) are counted as DOWN.

Absolutely. You can enter any valid hostname including subdomains such as api.github.com, mail.google.com, or status.stripe.com. The check works exactly the same way as for a root domain.

A few common reasons: your server may block HEAD requests (try entering the full URL with https://), a firewall or CDN may be rate-limiting or geo-blocking our check locations, or your site requires cookies/JavaScript to respond — which our plain HTTP check does not send.

Yes, checked URLs and their results are stored in our database to power the "Recently Checked" list on the homepage. We do not store any personal information about you — only the target address, status, response time, and timestamp of each check.

Our five check nodes are located in New York (US East), London (EU West), Singapore (Asia Pacific), Sydney (Australia), and São Paulo (South America). Together they give a representative global coverage of major internet regions.

Physical distance is the main factor — light through fiber travels at roughly 200,000 km/s, so Sydney will always be slower than London for a server hosted in Europe. Additional factors include the number of network hops, CDN routing, and whether your server has a regional point of presence near that location.

The tool is designed for on-demand manual checks. For continuous 24/7 uptime monitoring with alerts, you would need a dedicated monitoring service. WebsiteDownTest is best used when you notice something feels wrong and want an instant independent second opinion from multiple global vantage points.

No. Each check sends a single lightweight HEAD request from each location — equivalent to a regular visitor loading your page. Five such requests will not appear in analytics as meaningful traffic, and they place no measurable load on any normal web server.