Site or Host IP Address Unavailable

Every Internet user has run into this error at some point. It means that the browser cannot connect to the remote site, specifically to the IP address of the server where the site is located.

In this article, we go through the main reasons why you might get this error and show you how to run a simple diagnosis.

Local problem on the user's side

This category covers quite a few factors. The main ones are:

an incorrectly configured firewall or antivirus;
incorrect DNS server settings;
viruses or other malware on the computer.

If you are an advanced user, this problem will not be hard to solve. But even if your knowledge is not enough, you can always find a solution with Google.

Problem on the user's ISP side

It is quite possible that the connection breaks somewhere on the route from you to the IP address you need. This may happen because one of the servers on the way to the site is unavailable.

Only the technical team of your ISP can solve this kind of problem, and you need to give them the results of your own diagnosis. How to run it is described below.

Problem on the site side: the IP address is really unavailable

Say you own a site and cannot open it: the browser reports that the "remote host is unavailable" (the error text differs from browser to browser). If you have run a diagnosis and the results point to a problem on the hosting side, contact your hosting provider right away.

Be sure to attach your test results to the email or ticket. This will significantly shorten the time needed to solve the problem.

Diagnosing the problem

The first step of the diagnosis is to ping the site. The ping results show which IP address your browser is trying to reach the remote site at. The ping utility is cross-platform, so whatever operating system you use, type in the console:

ping remote-host.net

Example:

As the example shows, the remote host hosting.energy responds to ping, the system gets the correct IP address, and the ping time is good. So there are no problems accessing hosting.energy.

If the ping to the problem host succeeds, the cause is on the local PC. If the ping results are poor, move on to the next step of the diagnosis - tracing the route to the site.

How to run a trace?

A trace is run with the Traceroute utility, which ships with most modern operating systems. In Microsoft Windows this program is called tracert, and in GNU/Linux, Cisco IOS and Mac OS - traceroute.

If you use Windows, type at the command prompt:

tracert remote-host.net

Example:

Here the trace results are successful: all points on the way to hosting.energy are reachable. If the results are poor, copy them and attach them to a ticket or email to your hosting provider's technical support.

How to copy results from the Windows command prompt?

Right-click inside the open console window and choose "Mark" in the context menu.
Hold down the left mouse button, select the lines you need and right-click. The selected text is now in the clipboard.
Paste the results into the email or ticket with the usual Ctrl+V.

That's really all there is to it. Now you know enough to understand and, most importantly, diagnose one of the most common errors on the Internet.

We wish you success and stable work for your sites, and we, for our part, will make sure of it :)