# My site is completely unreachable

> A completely silent site is paradoxically easier to diagnose than a half-broken one: only a few links sit between a visitor’s browser and your files, and each leaves a different trace when it fails. Before calling anyone, these four checks tell you who to talk to.

- Source canonique : [https://allaux.fr/en/problemes/site-ne-repond-plus](https://allaux.fr/en/problemes/site-ne-repond-plus)
- Langue : EN
- Dernière mise à jour : 2026-09-30

## Direct answer

> Tell silent apart from failing: curl.exe -I https://your-domain.com either returns a status code, and the server is alive, or nothing at all, and the fault is network, DNS or server. Then look at the host status page and the account disk usage: a full quota takes a site offline with no message at all, exactly like an account suspended for non-payment.

## Read the message on screen, it is never generic

Browsers rarely say "the site is broken". They show a precise sentence, and that sentence names the link that failed. "DNS server not found" or "address not found": the domain name no longer resolves to a machine address, so the problem sits with the registrar or in the DNS zone, not in the site. "Connection refused" or "timed out": the name resolves fine, but the machine is not answering — server stopped, firewall, or suspended hosting.

Conversely, a 500 error, a 503 error or a blank page mean the server did answer. The network works, the hosting works: it is the programme that stopped. That is an entirely different conversation.

## Four checks before anything else

1. **Check it is not just you** — Test from a mobile connection, with no office wifi and no VPN. An office firewall or an IP address blocked by the server produce exactly the same screen as a global outage.
2. **Check the domain name** — An expired domain cuts the site off overnight, with no visible warning on the site itself. Log in to your registrar and look at the expiry date and status.
3. **Check the hosting account status** — Unpaid invoice, quota exceeded, suspension for abuse: the host sends an email, often to an address nobody reads any more. The control panel shows the real state.
4. **See whether the server answers at all** — If the admin area or a host status page answers while the public site does not, the failure is in the application: configuration, database, or a corrupted configuration file.

## Do not restore a backup as a first reflex

> Restoring overwrites the current state, and with it the traces that explain the failure, and loses every order taken since the backup. Copy the current state elsewhere first. A failure caused by DNS or by the hosting account will not be fixed by a restore anyway.

## What I look at next

When the server answers but the site does not appear, the rest happens in the logs. The web server error log holds the exact moment and the file involved; the CMS log holds the application message. In the vast majority of cases, the useful line is the first one to appear at the moment of the switch, not the most repeated one.

A full disk stops the server writing its temporary files: the site halts although nothing was changed.

A PHP version change decided by the host makes an old module incompatible, and the site falls over at the next restart.

An expired certificate does not stop the site, but the browser blocks access before displaying it, which feels identical.

## Carry on with the right page

- **Emergency work** — What I do in the first hours when a shop is down. ([/urgence](/urgence))
- **500 error on PrestaShop** — When the server answers but the site returns an error, on PrestaShop. ([/prestashop/erreur-500](/prestashop/erreur-500))
- **Critical error on WordPress** — The same symptom on WordPress and WooCommerce, with its own causes. ([/wordpress-woocommerce/erreur-critique](/wordpress-woocommerce/erreur-critique))
- **DNS explained** — Why a domain can stop leading to the right server. ([/glossaire/dns](/glossaire/dns))

## FAQ

### The site works for me but not for my customers. Is that possible?

Yes, and it is common after a server move: your machine still remembers the old address while everyone else already has the new one. Test from a mobile connection to settle it.

### My host says the server is up, so why do I see nothing?

A server can be running while the web service is stopped, or while your specific site is suspended. Ask explicitly about the web service and the account, not about the machine.

### Can a site go down with nobody touching anything?

Yes: an expired domain or certificate, a full disk, a PHP version change imposed by the host, a database quota reached. None of these require any action on your part.

### Should I suspect a hack when a site goes down suddenly?

Keep it as a hypothesis, not the first one. A compromised site is more often slow, or redirecting elsewhere, than entirely silent. If unknown files appear, the theory gains weight.

### What should I send you for a fast intervention?

The exact message shown by the browser, the time it started, access to the hosting panel and, if possible, SFTP access. With that, the diagnosis needs no back and forth.