How to Use Downdetector to Report and Understand the Scale of an Outage

We’ve all been there — refreshing a page, closing and re-opening a program, checking our internet connection hoping the online service we’re using isn’t down. Before checking Twitter for a “#down” to see if it’s just you, know that you can turn to Downdetector^® for a reliable and up-to-date assessment of web and online service outages. Downdetector tracks outages based on consumer feedback and can save you precious time when trying to verify a site’s status.

If you’ve ever typed “Is [service] down?” into a search engine, you may be familiar with Downdetector’s status page. This article will walk you through the features of a Downdetector status page so you can quickly and easily find what you need during an outage.

Headline info: Is the site or service down and how broken is it?

At the top of the status page, you’ll find the logo of the service and its status. There are three colors Downdetector uses to classify the status of an online service or site: blue for “No problems,” yellow for “Some problems” and red for “Problems.” Some companies’ status pages will even have a message from the service itself acknowledging that there is a problem and ensuring their customers that they are working on resolving the issue.

If you are currently experiencing problems with an online service, we encourage you to click or tap on the “I have problems with [service]” at the top of the page under the status. A window will pop up and ask you to specify what is not working. In most cases, there will be pre-selected options for you to choose from (website, logging in, etc). You also have the option of typing out the problem if it is not listed.

Under the first section, there is a graph that shows the number of outage reports in the last 24 hours for that service. If you hover over the graph, you can see how many reports were submitted at a specific time. You’ll also see if there was a peak in outage reports in the last 24 hours.

The geography of an outage

The status page also includes a link to a live outage map. When you click on the “Live Outage Map” button, you will be redirected to a map that shows where in the world problems with that service have been reported. The map will be specific to the service and will only show the areas where the service is available. This feature is useful if you’d like to find out if the outage is just where you live or if the service is down across the globe.

Find out what exactly is going wrong

Next is the “Most reported problems” section. This section helps you understand if other users are having the same problem or if there are multiple issues with the service during the outage. It’s based on consumer feedback from the window at the top of the page that asked you what problem you were experiencing.

Is it down often?

To find out when was the last time an outage was reported, navigate to the “Resolved issues” section. The three latest outages will be listed by date. Clicking each date will take you to the status overview of the service of that day. Click “Check past issues” to see a list of reported outages from the last year.

Rate their service

Next to the status of the service at the top of the page on the right sidebar, you can rate the service from 1 to 5 stars. This is also where you can find links to the online service’s official social media, status page and their website, if available.

It’s not just you! Find a community on Downdetector

Downdetector offers a space toward the bottom of each status page where you can interact with other users reporting outages. This Disqus comment forum is a good place to research the finer details of an outage or share your frustrations with others who are also struggling with the service. If you are using an ad-blocker, you might have to turn it off to see the comments and participate in the discussion.

For the Twitterati

We feature two important sections for those of you used to getting your information from Twitter. On the right hand side of the page, you can see the service’s official Twitter stream, if available, in case they have tweeted an ETA of when the service will be back up. And at the bottom of the status page, you’ll see a feed of tweets from users that tag the service reporting an outage.

Track outages globally

Downdetector tracks outages of online services and sites from over 45 countries. Depending on your location, Downdetector’s homepage will feature sites and online services that are available in your country. For example, Vodafone if you’re in Germany and Telmex if you’re in Mexico.

On a status page, you may change your preferred country or check the status of a service in a different country by navigating to the “Check the status of [service] in other countries” on the right side bar and click on the flag of the country you’re looking for. Once you click on one of the flags, the language of the site will change according to the country you selected.

If your browser is having problems and you can’t navigate to Downdetector.com, you can always check our Twitter account or our Facebook page for reported outages.

Outages can be disruptive and frustrating. Downdetector offers reliable data based on user reports and gives users an opportunity to connect with others experiencing the same problem to share information. Bookmark Downdetector to stay on top of outages as they’re happening.

We are always adding more services to Downdetector so you know when outages happen. Is there a site or service you’d like us to track? Send us an email at info@downdetector.com.