I knew something was seriously amiss with one of my blogs when only a paltry 17 messages showed up during the morning email check.
So, I checked my sites and sure enough, the sites hosted on one of my servers were showing a 504 Gateway Timeout error.
A 504 error usually means that a server upstream from yours that is acting as a gateway to handle the HTTP request is either down or too slow to fulfill the request.
Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do to solve a 504 gateway timeout problem. It has to be dealt with by the techies at the ISP that hosts the errant web server.
The following is a list of my recommended responses to such a problem.
- Know that ‘stuff' happens and remain calm. The outage may last only a minute or two, so there's no need to get stressed out. Do your best to avoid visions of bankruptcy court and bag ladies.
- Assess the HTTP error. Here's a good list of HTTP status codes, with explanations.
- Shut down applicable PPC (pay-per-click campaigns. Every click that goes to a site that isn't online is a waste of money. Refrain from wondering how long your site has been down or thinking about how much money you've just flushed down the drain.
- Contact your webmaster or ISP immediately and explain the problem CONCISELY. There's no need to tell them that you were in the middle of enjoying a delicious breakfast of ham and eggs when ESP told you that things with your site were awry.
If your hosting service or webmaster does not allow phone support and takes more than 10 minutes to respond to an URGENT request, it is high time you used a better hosting service. I recommend BlueHost and Hostgator.
- Twiddle your thumbs while you think of what to do next.
- Post to social networking sites. Release whatever angst you feel by posting about your situation to your Twitter and Facebook accounts. Someone may respond with such concern that you feel better for a short while. If not, send out a bunch of friend requests to find better friends.
- Write a few blog entries (using a text editor) to post when your site is again available. If you're short on ideas or too stressed about the situation to think clearly, see the next list item.
- Buy a PLR package.
- Take a break away from your office. If the outage becomes prolonged, use the time to do something really different like refill your shampoo dispenser. Better yet, go outside, get some exercise and see what your town looks like in daylight hours.
- When you return and/or the problem is rectified, check your stats. You might find that you've made enough money with free search engine traffic to want to modify that PPC campaign before you turn it back on.
The most important thing to remember – DO NOT stress!
You can still get good work done and/or have fun. Enjoy the break while it lasts.
Comments, questions or suggestions? Please leave a comment below!
Cheers,
Lorry Anderson says
Man, love it!
Ruchi Singh says
Amazing post! thanks for sharing informative
Gia says
ahh I need to keep calm! My wordpress.org site seems to be working, but my Jetpack Site Stats have been displaying a 504 error since yesterday! :'( I know I’m getting more views than it’s showing – I’m just wondering if it’ll rectify itself or if it damages my page stats? Is there anything I should do?
Incendia Web Works says
Definitely need a host that doesn’t do that. We would love your business. 😉 <– Sorry, had too. Hosts these days are a joke. Everything is an upsell to get you to where things are running smooth, instead of providing you a quality service from the start without outrageous renewal fees.
liv says
very funny post! i was a bit frustrated when error 504 kept appearing on the screen while i have a deadline tomorrow, but am absolutely taking a break now
Vella Di says
Also check that your domain name not expired…. 🙂
Melody says
Glad to see this post… I’m hosted by Bluehost and I’m getting a 504 Gateway timeout error, and when I called for help they told me it’s been two DAYS so far that this has been going on!! Trying to stay calm but I have clients needing to access my website if they have emergencies while traveling and can’t call me. I’m not sure what to do now. Any additional suggestions would be most welcome! Thanks.
Rosalind Gardner says
Hi Melody,
You need to encourage your clients to add your contact details to their own lists, so if your website fails unexpectedly, they can still contact you.
Cheers,
Ros
Future Tech says
Found this page after my stats page for my site started showing a 504 Gateway timeout error. That may explain the sudden drop in traffic in recent days. But if that is the case then Bluehost are taking a long time to fix the problem. I dint think anything was amiss as the pages were still showing up until the error message. Its quite frustrating, but thanks for the advice on just chilling and waiting for things to go back to normal. I particularly like the tip on carrying on with your work on a text editor and then uploading everything when the site is working again.
Overall Bluehost are normally quite good, but occasionally this happens and i start to panic. will try to relax and enjoy my dinner now!
Techy says
“Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do to solve a 504 gateway timeout problem. It has to be dealt with by the techies at the ISP that hosts the errant web server.”
Oh really? So, it cannot be possible that your Apache backend is trying to get external data, e.g. with curl or file_get_contents, having too big timeout in your site configuration?
It’s like you wrote a script or got a plugin which makes use of kinda external API… say, dev.bank.com to get current forex rates, and then boom! The bank’ server is soft down! Having timeout >30 in your site config your nginx obviously doesn’t get an answer from apache which is still waiting for dev.bank.com.
Whoa, what then? What are the ISP techies up to? Are they going to mess with your code and disable your currency plugins? I mean it no! they won’t 😉
Christy says
Currently writing you a message to keep calm during a 504!
Joshua says
Great post shared it on facebook. The picture was perfect lol
Jasmine says
I have just bounced into this 504 Gateway timeout error! I think another thing we can do is knock our heads on the wall, as it’s so frustrating to get this error!
Hendry Lee says
I agree, getting a network problem like this can be extremely stressing. But with most hosting who offer network uptime higher than server uptime, I should say this rarely happens compared to server downtime.
Sound advices, Rosalind.
But for hard working net marketers, I’d suggest that they fire a support email asking for explanation about the problem or watch the hosting and network status if they’re made available to the public…
… and then catch some sleep they are so in need 🙂
If problem persists, consider migrating to another hosting company.