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What does this error mean?
The timeout for the request has been exceeded.
How is this error generated?
Your request was put on hold because the number of requests on this site exceeded the limit. The waiting time was then exceeded. The limit depends on the formula and the HTTP protocol used.
If you get this error often, or even all the time:
- This means that your site is already receiving a maximum number of visitors and may be a victim of its own success.
- It could also be the result of a small DDOS attack on your website to saturate it. If this is the case, it usually doesn't last long (maximum a few hours, and really maximum 24-48 hours).
What can you do to resolve it?
1/ Your site is very successful and has legitimate traffic.
The solution is to choose a web hosting package that's right for your project. If you have shared hosting on a medium package or higher, then we advise you to go for a VPS server solution. Contact us for personalised advice.
Checking that it's legitimate traffic is simple. Configure a tool like Google Analytics on your site and look at visitor behaviour. Or you can ask our support team for help.
2/ Your site may be the victim of an attack.
If you suspect an attack, the quickest and easiest solution is to install the cloudflare CDN on your website and put it in "under attack" mode. In just a few minutes, you'll be able to see whether your site is accessible again.
The under attack mode has a very powerful protocol for checking that only human presence can access your website and therefore eliminates bots and other attacks.
If the under attack mode has shown that this was an attack, then we advise you to wait a little.
- If it was just a one-off event and it's not coming back, then there's no point in doing anything.
- On the other hand, if it comes back often and becomes a problem for your site, the best solution is to move to a VPS server with our "Fastest Cache" module, which will give your site advanced caching and advanced web DDOS protection too.
How can we help?