Downtime is also called outage duration. When website fails to perform its primary function or it is unavailable, it is said to have downtime. There are certain reasons for downtime of a website or server. In this article, we will them.
Coding errors: Coding error are one of the common reasons for a website downtime. Sometimes the developer has to write millions of lines to work the functions on a single page. So there is high probability of errors. It will take long time to load the page when the code is big. And, the pages in websites dependent on the code will take time or will crash. Incompatibility with browsers will be the another cause while coding.
- Server overload: If the website is not optimized for high traffic, it will affect the server’s performance. When visitors for the website is high loading of pages become too slow and will effect on server hardware. RAM, CPU and other parts works at their peak. It lead to server shutdown.
- Hacked sites: Hackers hack websites in different ways. Often, they may add malicious code to the website. It will affect the website’s performance.
- Natural disasters: Natural disasters affect the server functionality, and sometimes they cause damage to to the entire data center. Weather either destroys the data center or interrupt the server through lose of power or damage communication systems.
- DNS problems: Every system or server connected to the Internet has a unique ID number. The names of the websites are the alias for those numbers. The names are given for human convenience to understand and remember quickly. If the number is changed, finding the address of the site is difficult.
- Too many ads: Websites with too many advertisements take much time to load. And, as the number of visitors increases, it becomes a bigger burden on the server.
- Weak design: Websites that are simple, have professional look attract more visitors. Otherwise, the site fails to serve its purpose.
- Down for maintenance: When the operators are busy in setting up test code on server, the server is temporarily unavailable. In these cases, websites show a message – ‘under construction’ or ‘under maintenance’.
These issues affect website downtime from the owner’s side and the database. Sometimes websites get blocked by governments, political or internet service providers for different reasons. These are not under the control of the website owners.