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How can I simulate a 'down' website?


I am writing some failover code so that if my desktop app cannot connect to its website, it can instead try a backup website.

However, I cannot seem to figure out how to simulate a test if a website is 'down' or not. If I try an obvoiusly incorrect url such as "http://www.mybadsite.badTLD" , my ISP provider sends me to a default catch page.

Whereas when a site is truly down and you cannot connect to it, you get the browser message saying it cannot connect. This is what I need to emulate.

Thanks


Solution

  • Edit your hosts file to redefine the host you're trying to connect to. You can do 127.0.0.2 (Or anything unreachable).

    You can also do a test with 0.0.0.0 - that returns a different error (Invalid IP). There may be some benefit to testing for that too.

    Your ISP is redirecting for a DNS lookup failure, but anything resolved by your hosts file short-circuits that.