Is the site down for everyone, or just me?

Before you start troubleshooting the site itself, find out whether it's down for everyone or just for you. If it's only down for you, the cause is your network, your browser cache or a firewall that has blocked your IP address.

Try from another network

1. Turn off Wi-Fi on your phone and open the site over mobile data.
2. Ask someone elsewhere to open the site, or check it with check-host.net, which requests the site from servers in several countries at once.
3. Open the site in a private window on your computer.

If the site works over mobile data but not at the office or at home, the problem is your network or your IP address. When the site is down everywhere, the site itself has a problem, and the error you get tells you where to start.

Check whether you're blocked

Security plugins and firewalls block IP addresses that have tried to log in with the wrong password too many times, or that send a lot of requests. This can affect the site owner too, for example when everyone in an office shares one IP address.

• If you get a page from Wordfence saying your access has been limited by the site owner, Wordfence has blocked you. If you're an administrator, you can enter your email address on the block page and click "Send Unlock Email". You'll get an email with a link that lifts the block.
• If the site doesn't load at all from one network but works from others, the firewall at your host may have blocked your IP address. Some hosting panels let you lift the block yourself. Otherwise your hosting provider has to do it. Find your IP address at whatsmyip.org and send it to your hosting provider.

Check DNS

If the site was recently moved to a new host, or someone changed DNS, your computer may still be using the old IP address. Others can then see the new site while you see the old one, or nothing.

Open a terminal or the command prompt and type:

nslookup yourdomain.com

Compare the IP address you get with the one in your hosting panel, and with the answer from Google Admin Toolbox Dig. If Google shows the new address while your computer shows the old one, flush the DNS cache on your computer:

If Google also shows the old address, the DNS change hasn't propagated yet. How long that takes depends on the record's TTL. If the site is behind Cloudflare, the lookup shows Cloudflare's addresses instead of your server's, so you can't compare them this way. If the lookup returns no address at all, the domain may have expired, or the DNS records may be wrong.

When it affects everyone

If the site is down for everyone, nothing is wrong with your network. Look at what the site shows:

• An error code such as 500, 502, 503 or 504 means the server responds, but can't deliver the page.
• "There has been a critical error on this website" means a plugin or theme has caused a fatal PHP error.
• A timeout or a refused connection can mean the server is down. Check your hosting provider's status page.

When you're stuck

If the site is only down for you and you can't find the cause, you need help from whoever controls the firewall: your hosting provider or whoever set up the security plugin. If it's down for everyone, start with the error the site shows. Without access to the hosting panel or FTP, your hosting provider or whoever runs the site has to troubleshoot it.