1. Tidying the address
You can paste almost anything: a bare domain, a full link copied from an app, or an address with stray quotes around it. Farping strips the extras and adds https:// if you left it off. If nothing is listening for secure connections, we try plain http:// once.
Before anything is sent, the address is screened. Farping will not request private or local networks, cloud metadata addresses, unusual ports, .onion names, or links with a username and password inside them. The same screening is applied again to every redirect.
2. One request from our server
Our server sends a single, ordinary GET request, the same kind a browser sends when you open a page. It identifies itself honestly as FarpingCheck, reads only the response headers and then hangs up without downloading the page.
If the site redirects (for example from example.com to www.example.com, or from http to https), we follow up to six hops and show each one. We give each step up to eight seconds and the whole check fifteen seconds.
When the site is deployed on Cloudflare, the request leaves from the Cloudflare data centre closest to you, and the result tells you which one. Farping does not claim to test from many countries at once.
3. A quick test from your browser
After our answer arrives, your browser makes its own lightweight request to the same address. Browser security rules mean we cannot see the response itself, only whether your network got one. That is enough to tell “down for everyone” apart from “just you”.
This test is a rough signal. Ad blockers, privacy extensions, corporate filters and the site’s own security settings can stop it even when the site is fine, and browsers do not allow it for plain http:// sites from a secure page.
4. The verdict
- Up means the final response had a success or redirect status (2xx or 3xx).
- Problem means something answered, but with an error code (4xx or 5xx), a redirect loop, or a certificate that does not check out.
- Unreachable means there was no answer: the name did not resolve, the connection was refused or dropped, or it timed out.
Every verdict comes with the raw facts underneath it so you can make up your own mind.
What Farping is not
Farping is an on-demand check. It does not watch sites around the clock, send alerts, scan ports, or put load on anyone’s servers. Each visitor can run a limited number of checks per minute, and a site that was just checked gets the recent result for a short while instead of a new request.
If you need continuous monitoring for your own site, use a dedicated uptime service. If you need to stress-test a server, use a tool built for that on infrastructure you own.
Common reasons a site is up for us but not for you
- Your Wi-Fi, mobile data or router is having a moment.
- Your DNS provider has an old or missing record for the site.
- A VPN, firewall, school or office filter is blocking it.
- The site is blocked in your country, or only serves certain regions.
- A browser extension or a broken cookie is interfering.