Website Status Checker
Website Status Checker Tool – How It Works & The Technology Behind It
Website Status Checker – the easiest way to test if a website is online or offline.
In today’s fast-moving digital world, every second a website is down could mean lost customers, decreased trust, and dropped search rankings. Whether you’re a website owner, developer, digital marketer, or everyday internet user, there are times you need to quickly know: “Is this website online or not?”
That’s where the Website Status Checker Tool on NexToolBox.com comes in. This simple yet powerful online utility allows users to instantly test the status of any website, providing information on availability, response time, server headers, and more.
In this article, we’ll explain in detail:
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What the Website Status Checker does
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How it works behind the scenes
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The technologies used
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Common use cases
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How this tool helps with SEO, troubleshooting, and uptime monitoring
What is a Website Status Checker?
A Website Status Checker is a web-based tool that determines whether a given website is reachable over the internet or not. It helps verify if a site is:
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Fully online and responding
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Offline due to server issues
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Blocked or not reachable due to DNS errors, firewall, or expired domains
It also provides additional insights such as:
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HTTP status codes (e.g., 200 OK, 404 Not Found, 503 Service Unavailable)
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Response time (how fast the server responds to requests)
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Page title and content type, verifying correct HTML response
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Error messages or reasons for downtime
How Does This Tool Work?
The Website Status Checker Tool works in four core steps:
1. Input Normalization
Users may enter website addresses in various formats like:
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example.com
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www.example.com
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http://example.com
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https://example.com
The tool uses a JavaScript function to normalize the input:
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Automatically adds
https://
if missing -
Validates the URL format using the
URL()
object -
Ensures it can be safely used in a browser fetch request
2. Proxy-Based HTTP Fetch
Due to CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing) restrictions, browsers cannot directly fetch arbitrary third-party websites. To overcome this, the tool uses a public proxy API:
https://api.codetabs.com/v1/proxy?quest=TARGET_URL
This API acts as a middleman, allowing the browser to fetch data from other domains indirectly, without violating browser security policies.
This step retrieves:
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The raw HTML of the target website
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Header data such as response code and content type
3. Parsing the Response
Once the response is received:
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The tool calculates the response time using
performance.now()
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Parses the HTML using the browser’s built-in
DOMParser
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Extracts the <title> tag to display the site name
4. Output Display
The result is formatted and displayed in a user-friendly output panel showing:
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Status (Online/Offline)
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HTTP Code (e.g., 200 OK)
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Response Time (in ms)
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Page Title
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Tried URL
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Error (if failed)
This real-time feedback gives users confidence about the site’s current status without opening another browser tab.
Use Cases of Website Status Checker
This tool is used by various professionals and end-users, including:
Website Owners
To quickly check if their website is down or experiencing delays.
Web Developers
To debug DNS issues, SSL errors, or server configuration problems.
Digital Marketers
To verify if landing pages are reachable before launching ad campaigns.
IT Support Teams
To monitor uptime or troubleshoot issues reported by users.
General Internet Users
To know if a site is down for everyone or just them.
Technologies Behind the Tool
Let’s break down the technologies that make this tool seamless and powerful:
Feature | Technology Used |
---|---|
Frontend | HTML, CSS, JavaScript |
Input Handling | JS URL() object, Regex |
Network Calls | fetch() API |
Response Parsing | DOMParser, Performance API |
Proxy Server | api.codetabs.com |
Error Handling | Try-Catch, HTTP Status Inspection |
Why Use a Proxy API?
Since browsers don’t allow direct cross-origin requests, the Codetabs Proxy API safely allows GET requests to third-party websites without triggering CORS violations. This is essential for a frontend-only tool like this.
Common HTTP Status Codes You Might See
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200 OK: Website is online and accessible
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301/302 Redirect: Website redirects to another page
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403 Forbidden: Site is blocking access
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404 Not Found: Page doesn’t exist
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503 Service Unavailable: Server is down or overloaded
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0 or failed to fetch: Likely due to CORS or firewall blocks
Advantages of This Tool
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Completely free and no login required
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Works on mobile, tablet, and desktop
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Instant response with visually clear status
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Great for both technical and non-technical users
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Fully browser-based (no server load on your end)
Final Thoughts
The Website Status Checker Tool is more than just a simple up/down tester — it’s a full-featured tool that can instantly tell users if a site is functioning, responding, and what might be going wrong. It’s fast, smart, and highly reliable thanks to modern JavaScript and proxy-based architecture.