All users of web have already encountered this type of situation. When accessing a desired page or site, it is down, inaccessible. This has always been very common on sites that have a high volume of hits. Like ticketing sites, for example.
Gradually this type of situation changed, after all it is never good to leave a site offline. Ticket sales websites began to improve their hosting and implement programming paradigms that use queuing logic. Instead of trying to access the site and go straight to the homepage, the user will stay on another site, waiting for the volume of access to decrease so that he can interact with the virtual ticket store.
Another type of site that is usually off the air, due to the huge volume of hits, are virtual store sites during black friday periods. Consumers end up congesting the site and eventually this can cause a total drop, causing that store’s sales to decrease a lot until the site is stable again and works normally for consumers.
It is interesting to analyze this case, and its main cause, the factor of the site’s downfall. It is not uncommon for this to happen, however it is possible, in most cases, to avoid this type of situation. In this article we will analyze the main causes of website crashes and how to avoid most of them with simple alternatives.
Site down – What are the main causes?
1.Problems in the source code
One of the main causes for websites to be down on days of today are problems in the source code of your web page. If you use a CMS such as WordPress, this can easily be avoided. However, some sites require more customization, and need to be built from scratch. Here comes a programmer.
To build a website it is necessary to choose the language, the framework used and finally the web page design. In this construction, the programmer can make mistakes and make mistakes in some lines of code. This is very common using dynamic programming languages such as Javascript.
If there are errors in the code, your website pages may not behave as expected, and sometimes they may not load . Users will get the impression that the page doesn’t work, causing them to migrate from service.
two. Domain renewal
The domain is the identity of your web page, it is the url of your website. When choosing a domain, it is necessary to register it. This registration is valid for a period of time, these periods being annual or monthly. If you forget to renew your domain, the company responsible for maintaining the registry will take it down and your website will not be accessible. If you forget to renew and a long period of time passes, your domain can be purchased and used by other companies.
3. Problems with Hosting
What is it hosting?
Web hosting is the service contracted to maintain the your website in the air. Hosting offers servers, these are like computers that are on 24 hours a day, every day of the year. The server is responsible for receiving and interpreting requests from users’ computers. After that it sends a response, which is usually a set of data corresponding to the site stored on it.
By choosing hosting, the ideal is to analyze the type of service provided, if there is support and hosting in other countries, such as the USA for example. In addition, it is important to analyze the type of hardware used by the service. After all, it can have a big impact on your site’s performance.
Still have doubts about this subject? See our article on: What is web hosting?
4. What problems can the wrong choice of Hosting cause?
One of the main problems caused by the wrong choice of a hosting is the slowness of sites. Some services use shared servers, this type of server is a machine that stores not only one website, but several. As users access the sites stored on that server, the demand for data increases over time and the slowness is evident for all sites stored on that server.
To avoid this type of situation, hire services that offer dedicated servers. These servers will only serve to handle your web page, reducing several headaches over time. Also, prioritize servers with SSD storage. This type of storage technology is extremely faster and more efficient than HD, simply because it is an all-electronic type of memory. The HD is a mechanical storage component.
Another factor to analyze in hosting services is the rate of uptime and downtime.
5. What is the uptime rate and why is it important?
The uptime rate is a calculation made from the data of the hosting service. This data contemplates how long the server was active during a time interval. The downtime rate, as the name implies, represents the amount of time the server was down. Therefore, both rates are dependent on each other to perform certain calculations. Let’s exemplify how the value of this fee is important and how it impacts your website.
Comparisons
Let’s compare two hosting services. A Hosting A and Hosting B. Hosting A provides a service with dedicated servers, which have hybrid storage, that is, both HD and SSD on the same machine. Hosting B offers shared servers, with HD storage only.
Hosting A’s uptime rate is of 99% per year. Hosting B’s Uptime rate is 96% per year. The difference, at first, does not seem stark. It’s only a 3% difference and the cost of Hosting B is much lower than the cost of Hosting A, that’s where the cheap becomes expensive.
Firstly, websites stored on B’s servers are much slower than websites hosted on A’s servers In addition, the fact that the server uses HD and is shared makes the chances that this server crashes, or goes down due to the number of accesses, is very high. This will all impact the uptime rate, let’s do some calculations to verify that this small percentage shown above is not that small.
A year has 365 days, so let’s multiply the number of days in a year by the percentage of the downtime rate of each hosting presented. If A’s uptime rate is 99%, then its downtime is 1%. Hosting B would have a downtime of 4%.
Accommodation A
Days down = downtime rate days of the year .
Hosting A = 1% 365
Hosting A = 0.01 365 = 3.65 days down .
Off hours (Accommodation A) = 3.65 24 = 87 hours off the air.
Hosting B
Days off = downtime rate days of the year.
Hosting B = 4% 365 )
Hosting B = 0.04 365 = 14.6 days off the air.
Hours off off air (Hosting B) = 14.6 24 = 350 hours off air.
The result of these calculations serves as a criterion for comparison and verification. Although the difference between the uptime values of the two hosts is minimal, the real impact of this value is much greater than expected.
Uptime is closely related to your company’s business strategies. Online and ticketing stores need to have the best type of hosting possible to keep their business alive and keeping their profits.
Conclusion
To prevent your site from being down, always pay attention to the service hired to host your site. Most of the causes are always related to the chosen infrastructure. Choosing the best service always means avoiding headaches and making your website conquer more and more customers! you have a structure of dedicated servers with the latest technology, ready to receive your business website, and we still have a qualified team to assist you whenever you need it! Learn more about our services, talk to one of our specialists.
