Many times I get comments saying that the hyperlink for a website that I mentioned in an article is down or inaccessible. I then tried to access the link and the website loads without problem. Sometimes it’s not the website that is down but it’s your Internet connection, computer configuration, or even a virus modifying your HOSTS file problem. Last time I used to freak out whenever I am unable to access my blog site thinking that it is definitely the server’s fault. I will then keep on sending emails and creating support tickets to make sure they quickly fix the problem. Later, I found out that my ISP was having connection problems to international sites. I was quite embarrassed with myself for behaving like that.

So now, whenever I am unable to load any website, I would first need to make sure whether it is the server side or my side problem. This is what I’ll do to make sure that it is not my Internet connection, computer configuration problem or a virus that has modified my HOSTS file.

Let’s say I turn on my computer and connect to the Internet. Then I launched Firefox and type raymond.cc at the URL. After waiting for a while, the site still doesn’t load and later Firefox gives me this message that says “Unable to connect. Firefox can’t establish a connection to the server at raymond.cc. The site could be temporarily unavailable or too busy. Try again in a few moments. If you are unable to load any pages, check your computer’s network connection. If your computer or network is protected by a firewall or proxy, make sure that Firefox is permitted to access the web.”

Firefox unable to connect

Instead of immediately bugging my friends to help me check whether can they access the website that I was trying, I can do it yourself via DNS Tools & Stuff. All I need to do is enter the domain name or IP address of the website, make sure that Check Port 80 and Ping Host is checked. Click Get Info button and DNSTools will try to check the website status.

DNS Tools to check your website status

There are many other similar websites such as NetMonitor and Down for everyone or just me that provides free service to determine if a site is actually up if you can’t reach it yourself but DNS Tools is my favorite because it’s not too simple nor too advanced.

[ Visit DNS Tools & Stuff Website ]

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