Site doesn't answer

When a page doesn't answer, nothing comes back from the server: no site, and no error page either. Visitors see their browser's own error instead. The problem in WP Moo shows the error we got, and How to fix this takes you to the cause that fits it.

How you can tell

The message in your browser usually names the cause:

"This site can't be reached" or ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT: the server doesn't answer.
"Server IP address could not be found" or DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN: the domain name has no address.
ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED: the connection is refused.
ERR_SSL_PROTOCOL_ERROR: the secure connection fails.
ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS: the redirects never reach a page.

Does the site open fine for you? WP Moo only marks a page Offline when a second location fails too, so the problem is real for us. A firewall may be dropping our requests without showing a block page. Allow our IP addresses, as explained in When our checker is blocked.

How to fix it

Once the page answers again, it's back to Online on its next check and the problem goes away by itself. Want to know right now? Press Run check on the page.

The server doesn't answer

The server or its network is probably down, or the server is so busy that it can't answer in time.

Look at your host's status page.
Ask your host whether the server is running, and tell them when the problem started.
Do several sites on the same server have this problem? Then it's the server, not the site. WP Moo groups them when you link sites to a server.

The domain name has no address

The domain name has no A or AAAA record, so browsers can't find the server.

Check the A and AAAA records at your DNS provider. Often that's your host, your registrar or Cloudflare.
Check that the domain is still registered. An expired domain loses its records too, see Domain.
Put back the records your host gives you. A new record can take a few hours to reach everyone.

The DNS servers don't answer

The name servers of the domain don't answer, so nobody can look up its records.

Check at your registrar that the name servers are the ones your DNS provider gave you. They often stay behind after a move to another provider.
Ask your DNS provider whether their name servers are down.

The connection is refused

The server is there, but nothing on it accepts the visit. The web server has usually stopped, or a firewall on the server turns visitors away. Ask your host to start the web server and to check the firewall.

The secure connection fails

The connection fails before the server sends the page, so this isn't the same as a certificate that expired. Usually there's no certificate set up for this address, or the server's TLS settings are wrong. Ask your host to check the SSL certificate and the TLS settings of the server. See also SSL & certificate.

The redirects never reach a page

See Redirect loop.

For your developer

The Error line in the forwarded email is the error of the request. A lookup that fails says "Could not resolve" when the name has no record and "Could not look up" when the DNS servers gave no answer. Our DNS lookup uses 1.1.1.1 with 9.9.9.9 as fallback, so a record that's only in a local resolver doesn't count. To see the same:

dig +short A www.example.com @1.1.1.1
dig +short NS example.com @1.1.1.1
curl -sv -o /dev/null -A 'WPMooBot/1.0 (+https://wp-moo.com/bot)' https://www.example.com/
openssl s_client -connect www.example.com:443 -servername www.example.com </dev/null

A request that stops on a timeout is the general case here. Page checks has the timeouts, and how a failed run is confirmed from the second location.

Something unclear on this page? Email [email protected]