So your site is down. That sucks, man. Let’s just take a moment and breathe deeply. Big, calming belly breaths. Maybe do the Dance of Shiva. (I have no clue what that is, but the picture has a girl with a lot of arms. I think having lots of arms must be calming.)

Now, let’s work on this for a moment.

First, you need to figure out if your site is down for everyone or if it’s just you. Enter your site’s address into downforeveryoneorjustme.com, and you’ll get the answer lickety-split.

If it’s just you…

Have you been working on your site in the last 15 minutes?
Yeah? Lucky you. You have one of those sensitive hosting companies that bans you from your own site for refreshing it too many times. (I have one of these companies, too. The thrill!)

It’s actually a nice feature so that spam-bots can’t crash your site by continually refreshing it and/or leaving comments or submitting forms. It’s protective, really. But also annoying.

You can try asking your hosting people if they can add your computer’s IP address to a “do not block” list. Your IP address is simply a number that is assigned to your computer and your computer only. It’s like a web address for your computer (click that link up there to find yours). My people wouldn’t (or couldn’t) unblock mine. But I can’t see why it would be a huge deal.

OR you can wait 15 minutes to get back on your site. That seems to be the going timeframe for being blocked.

OR (if you don’t mind the annoying, sometimes disgusting ads), you can access your site through an internet proxy. These sites are designed to keep your IP address private while you’re browsing, so they’re useful for getting into a site that is blocking your IP address. The ads are questionable, but sometimes you’ve just gotta get to your site.

Oh. You haven’t been working on your site?

It’s probably:

  1. Your connection at home. Re-start your modem. Re-start your wireless router. Try getting to your site on another computer if you have one.
  2. Your internet service company. Call ‘em up and tell them what you told me. Your site is down, it’s down only for you, and your modem and wireless router are not the problem. Enjoy the (not) calming elevator music while you wait.

If it’s down for everyone…

Now you can start thinking bad thoughts about your hosting company. (!@#$!@#$!) But first, let’s take a minute to assess the situation.

First, try logging in to your hosting control panel. Sometimes your host will leave messages for you about your site’s status if they know about an issue.

Next, if you use WordPress, log in to your administration area. Go to your plug-ins section. Do you have 15 or more plug-ins activated? De-activate whichever ones you are not using. Your host is probably going to blame your plug-ins and/or the inefficiency of your database.

Finally, call your host and ask them what’s going on with your site. You are now armed with enough information so they can actually give good service. Usually, hosting providers aren’t the enemy. It’s just hard to communicate with them if you don’t know what the heck they’re talking about.

(And side note? You do NOT have unlimited bandwidth or unlimited server space. No matter how hosting companies advertise it, there are limits. And believe me, you’ll know when you’ve hit them.)