Question on Server redirects during downtime

[[R-MOD]Saobh]

Hi guys, I've tried finding proper information on the net but to no avail as of now. So looking forward to all you knowledgeable geeks input

I own a small website and have been with my current provider for some time now and am in general pleased with their record. But for the last week my site has known at least 3 downtimes (that I know of) and as I'm gearing in to the peek of my activity, even a couples hours of '404 error' pages hurts.
Server downtimes is a reality so I'm not dreaming about having a 100% reliance.

So I'm wondering if there is any way to have a plan B on a domain name even tho the host server is offline. In short is there a way to redirect my visitors to a secondary site while the main one is down.

Thanks for any info.

[[R-DEV]AfterDune]

There are different things you can do, but depends on domainnames and stuff.

For example, if you go to no-ip.com (or .org, don't know), I think they offer a (free) service to have a page hosted somewhere else, in case your site is down. BUT, you have to use their domainname, otherwise it won't work of course...

Another thing is that you have another server somewhere else. The other server has a heartbeat with your server. As soon as one goes down, the other one should take over.

A bit more difficult .

The thing is, you have one server on one internet connection. Something somewhere has to check if your server is up or not (as in, it's accessible, 'cause your connection can be down as well). So if you can't arrange something with your ISP, you have to find your own (other) server, which I think will be harder to get working (with taking over, DNS (maybe?), etc.).

(there may be other solutions as well, but can't think of one atm)

[[R-MOD]Saobh]

Originally Posted by [R-CON]AfterDune

There are different things you can do, but depends on domainnames and stuff.

For example, if you go to no-ip.com (or .org, don't know), I think they offer a (free) service to have a page hosted somewhere else, in case your site is down. BUT, you have to use their domainname, otherwise it won't work of course...

Another thing is that you have another server somewhere else. The other server has a heartbeat with your server. As soon as one goes down, the other one should take over.

A bit more difficult .

The thing is, you have one server on one internet connection. Something somewhere has to check if your server is up or not (as in, it's accessible, 'cause your connection can be down as well). So if you can't arrange something with your ISP, you have to find your own (other) server, which I think will be harder to get working (with taking over, DNS (maybe?), etc.).

(there may be other solutions as well, but can't think of one atm)

Yeah thats seems to be the big difficulty, it doesn't seem to be designed to do that easily.
Well thanks anyways

[[R-DEV]AfterDune]

What's your setup? You have a domainname pointing to your IP address, I assume?

[[R-MOD]Saobh]

Originally Posted by [R-CON]AfterDune

What's your setup? You have a domainname pointing to your IP address, I assume?

Yes its the basic setup where the domain name is linked to the 2 IPs of the name servers of the host company.

I suppose that the big sites just include multiple more servers in order to be sure things go ok.

But hows can a lower end user do that without paying a huge hefty bill, but I suppose a lot of people are running after that dream