In terms of the overall functionality and performance of your website, one of the most important factors you must consider is website server downtime. In the most basic definitions, server downtime is defined as a server that’s incapable of satisfying requests because communication between browsers and the server is disrupted. There are many reasons why this downtime may occur, such as issues with your hosting provider or critical errors within your database. In order to gain a better understanding of how server downtime may occur, the following are the most common causes of these detrimental issues.

DDOS Attacks (Distributed Denial of Service Attacks)

One of the most common ailments that face large enterprises are malicious attacks sent out by Web users known as Distributed Denial of Service Attacks, or DDOS. While this may not be the cause of your server being inaccessible, if you feature an eCommerce site or if you’re connected to a larger organization, this may be the root cause of your issues. Because of how traffic is monitored within larger enterprises, a rush of false traffic is difficult to detect and deter. Because of the number of server requests sent during this form of attack, it makes it almost impossible for real users to gain enough bandwidth to access and render your website.

Domain Name Server Complications

Domain Name Server, or DNS, complications are the root cause of many websites that experience regular downtime. Each website features a unique IP address; however, these unique addresses are not visible to Web users. The reason for this is because of the way modern browsers and Internet protocols are set up. Sometimes, when a new domain name is the established, there can be confusion regarding the connection between a browser and a DNS. Generally, this error self-corrects within a matter of a few days; however, there are other times when this error cannot self-correct. If you’ve established a new website and you’ve noticed an inordinary amount of downtime, then it may be caused by confusion pertaining to your DNS requests.

Firewall Issues

Another common cause for a website to experience downtime involves your firewall. When activated, firewalls can prevent malicious content from affecting your network, but it may also prevent your website from rendering as it should. While this is an effective level of security, it can actually barricade users from accessing your website. The only way to fix this issue is to ensure your firewall is properly configured based upon the infrastructure and layout of your website. The speed and performance of your server also makes a difference in the overall web performance you’re going to get too (read more about that).

Shared Hosting Plans

Often times, many confuse shared hosting plans with Cloud Shared Hosting. It’s important to realize that these two infrastructure configurations are completely different from each other. Shared hosting plans are defined as a single hosting server that shares a specific amount of space with various other websites. Therefore, sites hosted in this type of network don’t have their own private server. One of the biggest issues with this type of hosting option is if any of the sites that are being hosted experiences a huge uptick in traffic, it can make all the other sites sluggish. In the most severe cases, this situation can make an entire website completely offline (which may be one reason to take the time to monitor your site). Another significant danger of shared hosting plans is if one site is attacked by malicious code that makes it to the server-level. If this were to occur, not only would the original site be negatively affected, but so are all the other sites – including your own. This is a big issue with DDOS Attacks.