A site will not load and you need to know: is it down for everyone, or is it your connection? Jumping to conclusions wastes time — check properly first.

The fastest check is an uptime tool: enter the URL and it pings the site from an external server. If it loads there, the problem is on your end — try another network or device before anything else.

Next, check the site's status page or social accounts. Major services post outage updates within minutes, and the comments will tell you if others are affected too.

If it is just you, the usual suspects are DNS (try 8.8.8.8), a stale cache (hard refresh), or a VPN acting up. If it is everyone, there is nothing to do but wait — and maybe check back with an uptime monitor running.