What happens when a website goes “Server down” state?
“Server down, please check back later” is something that we get to see at our favorite websites (mostly small scale companies or blogs), but at rare times, the same thing happens to giants like Facebook and Whatsapp as well. On July 3rd, 2019, Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram, Medium, Twitter, etc was down due to multiple issues.
Of course, they are different companies and they do have different servers at different locations, but it still happened to be a server downstate for these giants at the same time as a miracle. Why does this happen? or what exactly happens when a website goes down.
1. Too much traffic
According to websites and server language, “traffic” simply means the number of people visiting a website. The website is being stored in a server which is nothing but a computer. When the resources and files of a website are stored in one computer and if it’s accessed by over thousands of users, it’s pretty self-explanatory that the computer will stop working. That’s when the files become inaccessible and the system gets shut down which displays “Server down, please check later”.
2. Database connectivity
It’s not that hard as it sounds. The working of database connectivity is pretty basic. All your information including your name, address, date of birth and even relationship status is being saved inside a table (not a physical one) to access whenever required. But sometimes due to a number of reasons, the connection between the website and the database gets disconnected resulting in server downstate.
3. Hackers & Attackers
There are a number of hacking methods including DDOS attack which is one of the famous. Hackers use techniques like automated robot attacks, penetration, etc to break the website. It could be a database attack or another security attack which then becomes a breach. A breach is when your data is being stolen and misused by hackers depending on their “Ethics”.
It’s not easy to predict the actual reason behind the “Server down” state from a users perspective, but most of the giants bow down due to two reasons. Mostly it’s “too much traffic” followed by “Hack attack”. So next time, when you see a server down, take a deep breath and believe that your data is safe.
