The Beginners Guide To Dealing With Website Downtime

26 September 2019

According to recent research, the average website is down for about three hours per month as a result of downtime to web hosting servers. The 99.9% uptime guarantee and refund policies offered by most to hosting provider, won’t matter if you have lost traffic as a result of downtime. On average businesses can lose $10.6 million a year as a result of website downtime.

What Are The Major Causes Of Website Downtime?

Website downtime occur for reasons,some of them include:

Website code issues: poor programming can cause heavy loads on servers which leads to database error then eventually, makes the site unresponsive

Hacker attacks: a website can be brought down by attack from hackers in various ways – the server can be overloaded with DOS attacks, or malicious code is injected to steal security credentials – either way, the website owners are often forced to shut down the site in order to resolve the problem.

Data Centre issues: downtime can be caused by the hosting company itself. In this instance, uptime monitoring tools come in handy because they allow you to track the reliability of your web hosting company.

Increased traffic: increased traffic is probably one of the leading causes of website downtime. The only way to keep your site up and running even when there is a traffic surge is to engage the services of a reliable web hosting provider – a fully functional optimized website would be useless if your web host is unreliable.

How To Protect Your Website From Downtime

It’s been established, website downtime can negatively impact an online business bottom line, therefore it is important to have protective measures in place to safeguard your business. Some of these methods include:

DNS management: is a service that automatically reroutes traffic from the affected server to a secondary server.

Backup recovery: setting up a secondary hosting account with a different hosting provider on a different server is a great backup option, that makes it easy for you to get your website online if your primary server experiences downtime

CDN: this network will basically store and deliver all cached content from your website and will protect it, in the occurrence of any short time downtime.

The combination of DNS management, a content delivery network (CDN) and a backup host- backup listing will go a long way in protecting your website from experiencing short or long-term downtime.

How To Avoid Prolonged Downtime With A Great Website Recovery Plan

Website downtime is unavoidable -site updates, extreme weather or equipment upgrade can cause website downtime. A website recovery plan and backup are are important to keep unplanned downtime from adversely affecting your business. Before setting up a website backup and recovery plan, you would need to put up – website monitoring systems in place to track website uptime. These monitoring tools provide vital information regarding website performance and availability.

With these tools, you can create a different test (checks on your website), to accurately narrow down the root cause of the problem and take adequate steps to correct it. These checks have to be set up outside of the basic HTTPS check the include-checking against known databases of virus and malware sources, record changes to DNS records and so on.

Set up a downtime page

The best time to set up a downtime page is when you still have access to your website. It comes in handy when there unplanned downtime or planned downtime. This page informs your visitor that you are on top of the situation. Putting up a ‘service unavailable’ or a ‘website undergoing maintenance’ message on a page is a great way to keep credibility and show that you have control of the situation.

How To Handle Website Downtime

1. Confirm site downtime: before taking any major step, you need to verify that your website is really down – that is, make sure it isn’t a problem with your Internet connection or browser. To be extra certain, use a different computer to test out your website.

2. Find the cause: you should try to ascertain what caused the downtime -hardware issues, a programming error, expired domain or a DNS problem?

3. Get in touch with IT support: get in touch with the support of your web host and get assistance for the issue. if you choose a great web host, you should have ready support available.

4. Inform your website users about the downtime: it is imperative that your website visitors are not left in the dark. Put out messages on your social media account to keep your customers informed about what is going on and that your business is taking steps to address the problem. If it is a planned all downtime, it is good practice to send out a warning message detailing the date and time of site maintenance.

5. Check-in with IT: communicate regularly with IT and offer any information they may need regarding the web server or your website. You should also get an estimate of how long it would take for the problem to be solved.

6. Remain calm: this is tough to do but it is important to remember that website downtime can affect anyone and it is not the end of the world. Keeping calm is a great way to stay on top of the situation and resolve it quickly.

In Conclusion

A website is an integral part of a business’s online success. Because of the great number of website downtime, it is imperative that downtime is dealt with swiftly to avoid long-term repercussions -loss of clients loyalty, the revenue.

Thankfully, major search engine websites like Google have put measures in place to help website owners mitigate SEO ranking damage by providing a way out.

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How to Improve the Lifespan of Your Machinery

If you’ve ever operated a piece of heavy machinery, you’ll know that these are heavy-duty pieces of equipment that are incredibly vulnerable to long-term wear and tear. Poor or irregular maintenance can exacerbate such vulnerability, causing your machines to break down more frequently and potentially cease to work before they’ve even completed their lifespan. In this post, we’ll explore this issue further while asking what steps you can take to optimize the lifespan of your machinery. 1. Bespoke Automation and Soft Starters: One of the biggest challenges facing manufacturers is that standard machinery often fails to meet the unique requirements and tasks posed by projects. This can increase your investment by forcing you to buy more machines, making maintenance more costly in the process. However, this issue can be countered through the use of a bespoke automation solution, which is tailored to suit your individual work requirements and perform a wider range of functions using a single machine. This minimizes both your initial and long-term costs while optimizing production across the board. Soft starters can also help to optimize the cost of maintaining your equipment while minimizing energy consumption and ensuring that each piece of machinery performs for its full expected lifespan. You can also use a soft starter on/off switch to control the current flow to electric motors, negating the risk of power surges and further reducing energy consumption on a daily basis. 2. Regular Maintenance: One of the most proven ways, manufacturing businesses can overcome unnecessary expenditures is through regular maintenance. By using the best machine tools, factories can optimize the life and worth of any machine. This not only improves the lifespan but also ensures lesser breakdowns and stalls to the production process. Regular and scheduled maintenance is also crucial if you’re optimise the lifespan of your machinery, from the frequent checking of fluid levels to ensuring that machines are thoroughly cleaned on a recurring basis. If you have great parts and machinery in your factory-like precision rollers, you will require less amount of maintenance. Ensuring that parts like rollers are well-oiled and cleaned will help prevent breakdowns and ensure the longevity of your machine parts. Over the long run, this can help prevent extra costs from accumulating. You’ll also need to regularly check for tired or worn-out parts, as they can begin to undermine performance over time and impact negatively on the function of the machine. Interestingly, you can also utilize preventive and predictive maintenance (PdM) to pre-empt machine failures and vulnerabilities before they actually occur, largely through the use of sensors that track performance and similar metrics over time. This should be used alongside scheduled maintenance, in order to ensure that you don’t overlook any potential vulnerability within your network of machines 3. The Correct Training for Employees: If you’re going to correctly follow a maintenance schedule, you’ll first need to train and educate your staff on the importance of this within a commercial or industrial environment. So, it’s absolutely imperative that you impart this knowledge on staff members as part of a detailed and comprehensive training program, which also educates them on how to use machinery property. This can also make a huge difference, both in terms of minimizing the operational stress placed on machines and following the basic protocols that can help employees to identify faults and issues ahead of time. Remember, manufacturing environments tend to boast relatively high levels of staff turnover, so a comprehensive training program also ensures that there are no significant gaps in knowledge during transitional periods. Read Also: How to Learn Artificial Intelligence And Machine Learning Factory Automation and Why It Has Been a Cause for Major Job Security Concerns

A Close Look at Mechanical Engine Controls

You might have heard about various mechanical engine controls, but you do not really comprehend much about their functionalities or even their key differences. That should not worry about you, though! This post is purposely done to give you powerful insights on single-function controls, dual function controls, and much more like the marine throttle controls. Therefore, you just want to keep reading because you will get all the valuable information right here about marine control systems. Here comes your first type of control, which is the single-function control. Here are some Mechanical Engine Controls: Single-function controls These are types of controls that are designed in a way that one lever performs a single task. It will either throttle or even shift. You may find some with single levers for both the shift and the throttle. In addition, there are those that have double levers, one for throttle and the other one obviously for the shift. For instance, some twin-engine applications utilize two double-levered controls. One control operates the throttle using the two levers while the other two levers deal with shift mechanisms. Dual-function controls: These are the best mechanical engine control systems. Over time, they have proven to make boat handling easy. Due to their ease of use, they have become popular and widely used in many coastal parts of the world. This does not come as a surprise as a lever operates the throttle and shift singly, and this happens in a non-distinctive manner. The shifting is typically very quick, and it is often applied at a low rpm. This adhered so that the engine's shift mechanism is protected properly. Comprehending mechanical advantage: Many boat operators know that it needs fewer efforts when utilizing a lever to develop motion at the other end of the control system. If you were to push the throttle mechanism directly, then you would most likely require more effort. Thus, it is always very crucial to comprehend the mechanical advantage of the controls and the amount of force required, especially when selecting your controls. Always keep that on your mind whenever you are making specifications for mechanical engine controls. In most cases, you might be required to place an online order. In such a situation, you can make quick decisions when given the specific features of the mechanical controls on sale. Keep this info on your mind so that you can make quick and right selections in the future. Do not say that you are not a mechanic, so you do not need any mechanical control advice. Bottom line: It is always recommended to every boat owner, ship operator and anyone who deals in sea vessels and other many systems that require such controls to comprehend the various mechanical controls. This knowledge may prove invaluable when you want to specify the kind of control you intend to order. Therefore, you have explored how the single-function controls and the dual-function controls really operate. Whenever you are making any purchase or advising your friend on the type of control to go for, then you will be giving them the right piece of advice. Read Also: 3 New Age Engineering & Construction Technology What To Look For When Buying A Second-Hand Heavy Industrial Equipment

Why Sensors are Essential in Machine Automation

In machine design, the role of a sensor is paramount in converting any physical property into an analogue signal which facilitates automation. Machine automation is responsible for the industrial revolution that bolstered economies around the world. Different physical properties require the interpretation of a sensor such as distance, position, temperature, and liquid flow. This article aims to describe each sub-category of sensors according to the property converted. Reason For Using The Machine Automation Sensors There are different reasons for using the machine automation sensors that you need to take care off while you want to improve your learning process. Position sensing: Detecting the position of an object is possible using different types of sensors specifically measuring linear or angular motion. Encoders, potentiometers, and linear transducers are some of the preferred methods of sensing linear displacement. These devices are compatible with different types of machine assembly. Linear sensors used in rugged industrial applications commonly use a non-contact inductive technology to reduce the effect of friction and wear and tear. Distance sensing: Distance sensors can measure the rough distance and often function as a “within range” detecting device. Some distance sensors are programmable such that you can identify the distance of a target object even at an approximate location. Photoelectric sensors which use light in sensing distance can also work as a distance transmitter. A photoelectric transmitter can detect a distance range of between less than 5 mm to more than 10 m. The resolution is better at short range, but even if the resolution quality decreases at a more extended measurement range, it is still good enough for most machine automation applications. Speed sensing: Hall-effect, photoelectric, and inductive sensors are commonly used to sense speed and location. The preferred output is usually a train of digital pulses. A speed switch is typically used for machine automation in monitoring the speed of rotating shafts and identifying whether it is turning too fast or too slow; hence creating problems with the process. As a control mechanism, a sensor signals when the machine is running too fast so that it can automatically shut off. Fluid flow sensing: A fluid flow indicator is a sensor used explicitly in measuring the flow rate of liquid or gas. A typical flow sensor consists of a paddle wheel or a float. Some practical applications of a fluid flow sensor include water monitoring in wastewater processing plants and flow indication in HVAC systems. In most applications using a flow sensor, the sensor can provide either a digital or analogue output. Although there are several ways to measure liquid flow, one that works to detect differential pressure produces the most precise measurements and fastest response time. Temperature sensing: Sensors used in monitoring temperature come in a wide range of configurations suited for different applications. Sensing changes in temperature in machine automation is essential. It helps determine when a machine overheats, and to maintain the optimal setting for the device to work correctly. Examples of uses for temperature sensors include boilers, large motors, and compressors. Aside from the temperature sensor, switches are also included in the configuration to aid with temperature control and monitoring. Read Also: How Portable Metrology Tools Are Making Manufacturers More Flexible Image: Unsplash.com

The Beginners Guide To Dealing With Website Downtime

What Are The Major Causes Of Website Downtime?

How To Protect Your Website From Downtime