Occasional loss of site...

[Bud]

Has anyone evercome across this problem before?

About 4 or 5 times a day my main site seems to vanish (won't load - IE error page). This seems to last for 1 to 10 mins, then comes back fine. During these down times I can't access anything, ie. site, cpanel etc.

I thought this was a 'bug' in my computer as the laptop nearby (same broadband but WiFi'ed) has no problem when I experience this. However, having just replaced my system I'm getting exactly the same problem.

My host says they can't find anything wrong.

This is now concerning me because from what I hear some of my visitors are having the same problem.

If anyone's got any ideas I'd be very grateful for advice...

Thanks

[tbp]

I`ve seen this happen on another site recently, but not to the same extent.

It was caused by a dodgy .htaccess file that turned off keep alive, meaning apache had to spawn a request for every single file on the page eg each image, css, javascript file etc. This quickly built up and overloaded the web server, so it shut itself down and restarted.

It sounds like a similar sort of problem, in that something is overloading the web server, causing it to restart. Can be difficult to track down, especially on shared hosting as it may not be your site causing it, it could be someone elses, and also you don't get access to the system logs you need to spot the problem.

Looking through the server logs should give the host an idea of why it's happening, may be they are too lazy to do it though!

One other thing it could be is DNS incorrectly set up, but that would usually cause downtime for longer periods so it's unlikely to be that.

Try using a host monitor service, there are plenty of free ones round the net if you search. They constantly watch you server (automatically) and will send an email when it goes down and when it's back up. That will confirm that it's not just your location, how often it happens, and how long for. It will also timestamp the problem, so will give a lot more information to your host to look into, making life easier for them may get them to fix it.

[Bud]

Thanks tbp.

Have taken up your suggestion of using a host monitor and have currently got it running.

Hopefully this will be help in tracking the problem down.

If nothing else it will enable me to present some 'evidence' and not seem like a paranoid weirdo!

[tbp]

Have taken up your suggestion of using a host monitor and have currently got it running.

Great, although it won't help you that much, if you can give the exact times the site went down it can be a great help to the server tech bods, as they can go straight to that section of their logs. The easier you make life for them, the more responsive they`ll be and you'll get it sorted faster.

[Bud]

Should anyone come across this problem this is the outcome:

There appeared to a network routing issue with the server subnet.

Hosting was moved to another server and problem cleared.

... not exactly sure what a server subnet is but suffice to say the move to another server did the job!

[Barry]

It sounds like techno babble for - 'sorry we had our network mis configured'

Still glad to hear its ok now.

Ta