Technical Difficulties

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Baltimore Web Design

Professional Website Design and SEO Company

If you are receiving this link because you reported a technical issue with your website please know that we are working hard to resolve this issue and properly fix whatever caused the issue.

Once an issue is reported we will work to resolve the issue. Once the issue has been resolved we will monitor the website closely for a period of time, the period of time will vary depending on the issue. We will notify you once the issue has been resolved.

We can’t prevent technical difficulties from ever happening, they are going to happen. But we can work hard to reduce the number of technical issues that can arise as well as work quickly to resolve any issues.

Technical issues are not uncommon, websites that have experienced extended downtimes because of technical issues include Facebook, PayPal, Twitter, Instagram, Skype, Amazon, Github, Zoom, Salesforce, and many others.

Something Went Wrong

Our Process for Technical Issues

Finding The Issue

Once we open a ticket because of a technical issue we have a series of steps we go through for troubleshooting. If we find the issue on the first or second step we don’t stop there, we continue to diagnose the problem in case there were multiple issues causing the problem.

Domain Name

In some cases, the issue could be the domain and not the actual website. If this is the case we will need to access the domain and make an adjustment to the domain records. After this is done we will need to wait for the changes to propagate. This propagation time can take up to 24 to 48 hours depending on the domain registrar (who the domain account is with). This propagation time typically takes up to a few hours before it is completed, possibly longer depending on the registrar.

Website

We run through a series of tests on the website to determine if the issue is there. Software conflicts are typical issues we find with websites, this is usually a fairly simple fix.

Hosting

It is also possible the issue could be with the hosting environment. We have a series of tests we conduct to determine that the hosting is as it should be.

Client Communication

During this process, we communicate with the client keeping them informed. We typically wait until the issue has been fully resolved to avoid any confusion of giving updates during the process. Most problems don’t take long to resolve.

Closing Ticket

Because there are a lot of areas to cover and ensure they are operating as they should be we don’t close the ticket until the issue(s) have been fully resolved and we have allowed for an appropriate period of monitoring. Simply put, we don’t rush to close the ticket for the sake of closing the ticket.

FYI – Server Issues

If the issue is a server related issue we have to rely on our server provider Godaddy to resolve the issue unless it is a simple server issue that we can access. If they have to resolve the issue we do check in with them for progress if it is taking longer than expected. The worst case scenario is we have to migrate the website to a temporary environment or new environment until the issue is resolved. We just have to be careful doing that too soon, if we do that too soon we could end up taking longer than it would be for them to resolve the issue. Most of the time they are able to get the issue resolved in a timely manner.

SSL Certificate Issues

Sometimes an SSL Certificate (the padlock in the URL) will not auto renew as it should. People often make the mistake of thinking the website is “down” but it is not actually down. The reason people think this is because Google gives a warning “Your connection is not private”. “Hackers may be trying to steal your information.” This warning is followed by a button for the visitor to advance. But most people won’t advance because of the ominous warning. Not all websites have an SSL, many don’t. An SSL secures the information going through the forms on the website, a website like an e-commerce website must use an SSL.

If your SSL has to auto renewed we can go in and manually renew it. We have website monitoring tools that alert us if the website goes down, but if an SSL does not auto renew we will not get a warning because the website is not down. Unfortunately, we have not found a good SSL monitoring tool as of now, but this may be a feature we add in the future if we find a tool that works properly.