The first question: is it down for you, or everyone?
This is the most important distinction to make before doing anything else, because the two scenarios require completely different responses. If the site is down for everyone, there is nothing you can do except wait. If it is only down for you, there are several things you can try right now. Mixing these up wastes time — trying to fix your DNS when the site itself is offline is futile.
The fastest way to check: online tools
The quickest way to determine if a site is down for everyone is to use a service that checks from an external server location — somewhere that has no connection to your ISP, your network, or your browser cache. If the external check fails, the site is down for everyone. If it succeeds, the problem is on your side.
The most well-known tool is downforeveryoneorjustme.com — you type the URL, it probes from its servers, and tells you within a few seconds. isitdownrightnow.com and downdetector.com are alternatives that also show recent outage reports from other users. These are my first stop whenever I cannot reach a site.
What to do if it is down for everyone
If the external check confirms the site is down for everyone, your options are limited but there are still things you can do.
Check the site's status page. Most large services (GitHub, Stripe, AWS, Cloudflare, etc.) have a public status page, usually at status.sitename.com. These pages show real-time incident information and estimated resolution times. For smaller sites, there often is not one.
Look at social media. When a popular site goes down, users post about it immediately. A quick search on Twitter/X for the site name often surfaces real-time updates faster than any official status page.
Use Google's cached version. If you just need to read the content (not interact with the site), you can sometimes access a cached version. In Google search results, click the three dots next to a result and look for "Cached." This shows you Google's last saved snapshot of the page.
Wait it out. Most outages for major services last minutes to an hour. If it is a smaller site, it may take longer. There is genuinely nothing else you can do — the problem is on their infrastructure, not yours.
What to do if it is only down for you
If external checks show the site is up but you cannot reach it, work through these steps in order:
Check your basic internet connection. Try loading a completely different site — google.com or bbc.co.uk. If those also fail, your internet connection is the issue, not the specific site. Restart your router and modem (unplug both, wait 30 seconds, plug modem back in first, then router).
Try a different browser and clear your cache. A corrupted browser cache can prevent a site from loading while appearing to work. In Chrome, press Ctrl+Shift+Delete (Windows) or Cmd+Shift+Delete (Mac) to open the clear browsing data dialog — clear cached images and cookies for the past day. Then try a different browser entirely to rule out a browser-specific issue.
Flush your DNS cache. Your operating system caches DNS lookups, and a stale or corrupted entry can cause a specific site to fail while everything else works. On Windows, open Command Prompt as Administrator and run: ipconfig /flushdns. On Mac, run: sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder. Then try the site again.
Try a different DNS resolver. Your ISP's DNS resolver might have a stale or incorrect record for the domain. Switch to Google DNS (8.8.8.8 / 8.8.4.4) or Cloudflare DNS (1.1.1.1 / 1.0.0.1) in your network settings and try again. This only takes a minute and solves DNS-related access issues surprisingly often.
Check if your IP is blocked. Some websites block IP ranges associated with VPNs, data centres, or specific countries. Use my IP Lookup tool to check your current IP and see if you are accidentally routing through a VPN or proxy. If your exit IP belongs to a data centre ASN, try disabling your VPN — the site may have blocked that IP range entirely.
Check your hosts file. If someone else configured your computer, or if you use developer tools that modify the hosts file, an incorrect entry could be routing the domain to a wrong or non-existent IP. On Windows, the hosts file is at C:WindowsSystem32driversetchosts. On Mac/Linux, it is /etc/hosts.
If nothing works
If the site is confirmed up for everyone else and none of the above steps fixed it for you, the most likely explanation is that your IP address has been blocked by the site's firewall or CDN. This can happen if your IP was previously used for spam or scraping, or if it is part of a flagged range. Contact the site owner through another channel (email, social) and explain the situation — they can usually whitelist your IP manually.