You must be surfing and navigating through the internet and suddenly when you open a website, it does not open and shows a message of 504 error. We all know how frustrating it is to know when you get this error message. Therefore, the showing up of error messages on the screen can not only be quite irksome for the clients or the website visitors but also for the company’s website too as it builds up the negative image of the company and can lead to losing the trust of the company’s brand and losing the trust of the website.
The 504 error is one of the most common HTTP errors that both the website owners and website visitors encounter on the internet. The major problem that happens when you encounter the 504 gateway timeout is that it does not mention the reason for the 504 error so that you can fix it to prevent it from happening again. Now with the help of this article let us learn about the reasons and more details in depth so that you can diagnose the problem and fix it.
Also, read 10 Proven Steps To Improve Your WIFI Signal.
What Is A 504 Gateway Timeout?
Now let us know the reason behind the 504 error and why it shows up on your screen. Each time you visit any website in any browser, the website sends a request to the webserver to grant the website visitor access to the website and follows the request and responds accordingly. Coming to the part of the server response, there can be many as server response does not mean one single response instead it includes many HTTP status codes that determine the kind of error that the website has incurred. This in no way means that any status code that you see is some or other kind of error.
For example, we have got 200 OK status codes which means that everything is fine and the webserver has granted permission to access the website. Under the 5xx class of HTTP status codes, there is an indication of something wrong with the server and the server manifests about it. Many status codes come under the 5xx class of error and 504 error is just one of them. Many unofficial codes fall under the category of unofficial errors like 506, 507, 509, 520, etc.
In case of the 504 error showing up on your computer screen, it means that the web server that is acting as a gateway or the proxy for the website did not receive a timely response or even if received it delayed in receiving it from the upstream server so that it can access the user’s request to give access to the website. Explaining that in layman’s terms, 504 error occurs normally when the two servers, mainly: main server and the upstream server are involved in processing a request and the first server i.e. the main server times out in receiving the response from the second server i.e. the upstream server.
The 504 error does not manifest itself on the website; it occurs in one single way but the users or the website visitors can see the same 504 error in many different forms and it is very similar to the 502 bad gateway error. The website designers usually design the 504 error in such a way that is displayed on your screen in many different ways.
Here are some ways on how it can be shown to you on your computer screen:
- Gateway Timeout Error
- HTTP 504
- Gateway Timeout (504)
- 504 Gateway Timeout
- 504 Error
- HTTP Error 504 – Gateway Timeout
How To fix The 504 Error?
Now, despite how common and prevalent this issue of 504 error is, you must never forget that many different ways can help you combat this continuous error popping up on your screen.
- Try refreshing and reloading the website page
This helps a great deal in fixing the bad gateway error on your computer. As we must have known until now the 504 error is not a permanent solution but a temporary solution. A common reason behind this error is that the website must be full of traffic at the moment and to refresh the site press the F5 key or click on the round arrow icon on the left side of the address bar.
- Check whether the site is down for other people too
Another very common method to ensure that the problem is with the website and not from your side is to check whether the site is down for other people too. You can check this by visiting isitdownrightnow.com or simply just send the link of the website to other people and it is the same with them, then the website is down.
- Restart your device and check your internet connection
Another reason for the 504 error can be your internet connection or some temporary issue with your computer. Perform this step only when you have tried the above two steps and are sure that the problem is from your side.
Also read 5 Best Web Browsers You Can Install On Your Raspberry Pi
If you are still unsuccessful due to the error 504, then you can contact the website to get the information you have been finding or just try again later and come back to the website after some time as there might be the possibility of the website being under repair.
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