How can I tell if a website is down for everyone or just me?

Check it from a different network, such as your phone on mobile data, and use an outside checker like the one on our homepage. If it loads elsewhere, the site is up and the problem is your device, network, DNS or a filter.

Why does my VPN connect but nothing loads?

Usually DNS or routing: the VPN sends all traffic through the company network and then cannot resolve or reach the internet, or your home network uses the same address range as the office. The VPN guide walks through the tests.

Is 'Your connection is not private' at work dangerous?

It can be a genuinely bad certificate, or your company's security appliance inspecting traffic with a certificate your device does not trust. Do not click through on sites you do not trust; send IT a screenshot of the certificate details.

Does a Cloudflare error page mean Cloudflare is down?

Rarely. Errors 521 and 522 mean Cloudflare could not reach the website's own server. If the error page shows Cloudflare working and the host erroring, the site owner needs to look at their origin server.

Home / Problems / Network & VPN

Problem guide · 8 fix-it guides · Last reviewed 6 Oct 2026 · By Harry

Network, VPN and 'is it just me?' problems

Wi-Fi connected but no internet, VPN up but nothing loads, Chrome timeouts or certificate warnings? Find out whether it is the site, your network or you.

"The internet is down" is the ticket that most often is not. In an MSP queue the usual causes were a laptop clinging to a dead Wi-Fi connection, DNS pointing somewhere stale, a VPN that took over all traffic and then lost its way, or a proxy or SSL-inspection box rewriting certificates. Each one makes websites look broken while the websites are fine.

Before blaming a vendor, change one variable at a time: another device, another network, another browser. If a site loads on your phone over mobile data but not on the office Wi-Fi, the site is up and the path is broken. If it fails everywhere for everyone, then it is an outage. The checker on our homepage tests a URL from outside your network to help with exactly that split.

Which guide fits your symptom?

Is it down, or just me?

No internet or connection drops

Browser errors

For website owners

Cloudflare Error 521 / 522 / 5xx: what site owners should checkYour own site shows a Cloudflare 521, 522 or other 5xx error page.

Also worth a look

These guides live under another problem type but often turn up with this symptom.

Related status pages

Live vendor status, checked every five minutes. If the vendor has posted an incident, the guides above become a waiting game rather than a fix.

FAQ

How can I tell if a website is down for everyone or just me?: Check it from a different network, such as your phone on mobile data, and use an outside checker like the one on our homepage. If it loads elsewhere, the site is up and the problem is your device, network, DNS or a filter.
Why does my VPN connect but nothing loads?: Usually DNS or routing: the VPN sends all traffic through the company network and then cannot resolve or reach the internet, or your home network uses the same address range as the office. The VPN guide walks through the tests.
Is 'Your connection is not private' at work dangerous?: It can be a genuinely bad certificate, or your company's security appliance inspecting traffic with a certificate your device does not trust. Do not click through on sites you do not trust; send IT a screenshot of the certificate details.
Does a Cloudflare error page mean Cloudflare is down?: Rarely. Errors 521 and 522 mean Cloudflare could not reach the website's own server. If the error page shows Cloudflare working and the host erroring, the site owner needs to look at their origin server.