My Site Shows as Down But It's Working

Why LemWatch might report downtime when your site is actually accessible.

My Site Shows as Down But It's Working

This is called a "false positive" — LemWatch detected downtime but your site is actually accessible. Here's why it happens and what to do.

Common Causes

1. Firewall/WAF Blocking

Your firewall or Web Application Firewall (Cloudflare, Sucuri, etc.) might be blocking LemWatch's monitoring requests. Fix: Allowlist LemWatch's IP ranges in your firewall settings. Contact support for the current IP list.

2. Geo-Restrictions

Your site may be restricted by country or region, and LemWatch checks from locations outside your allowed regions. Fix: Ensure your geo-restrictions allow access from LemWatch's monitoring locations.

3. Rate Limiting

Your server might rate-limit automated requests, causing LemWatch's checks to receive 429 (Too Many Requests) responses. Fix: Allowlist LemWatch's User-Agent or IP addresses in your rate limiter.

4. CAPTCHA/Bot Protection

Some bot protection services (hCaptcha, reCAPTCHA) intercept automated requests. Fix: Create an exception rule for LemWatch's User-Agent.

5. DNS Propagation

If you recently changed DNS records, the old records might still be cached. Fix: Wait 24–48 hours for DNS propagation to complete.

Reducing False Positives

• Set the consecutive failure threshold to 2 or 3 in Settings → Notifications
• This requires multiple failed checks before triggering an alert
• LemWatch already re-checks before alerting, but increasing the threshold adds extra protection