Is your WordPress website down?

November 5, 2018

Is your website not displaying properly no matter what page you try and navigate to? The first thing you should do is visit your website from your cellphone.

Disconnect your phone from WiFi so you are using your mobile data network, and try load your website. If you’re website now works, it’s likely because your hosts firewall blocked your computer and the network because it detected some sort of suspicious activity. This means you and everyone that shares that network (like your colleagues in the same building as you) will not be able to access the site, but others (like your clients, or your cellphone that is using the mobile network) can still see the site in its perfect working condition.

An IP address is a unique number that is assigned to every device that’s connected to the same network. If one computer is detected as doing something malicious, the firewall will block the IP address. This then means everyone who is connected to the same network will no longer be able to access the website.

What counts as malicious activity? That depends on your website and how it was built. It also often depends on the hosting company you’re using for your website and what kind of settings they have installed. A very common occurrence could be too many failed attempts to log into your website (where all of your website files are stored).

How do we fix the website?

First, let’s identify what your IP address is. If you google ‘what’s my IP’ there will be a number of sites showing you what your IP address is.

Google will just display your network’s IP address at the top of the screen. If we’re hosting your WordPress website, grab that IP address and send it to us. We will unblock your IP address so you will regain access. It’s simple and shouldn’t take longer than 5 minutes!