I tried to open the CA Lottery website but it has some big problems right now
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Players wanting to know more about their California SuperLotto Plus lottery tickets or numbers will have to wait a while.
The site is down, and no-one knows when it will be back up again.
The 503 Service Unavailable error it displayed means a website's server is not available right now.
Most of the time this happens because the server is too busy, or it is having maintenance performed.
So we double-checked with a service that tells us whether a website is down or not: DownForEveryoneOrJustMe.com.
They gave this explanation:
1) We check the calottery.com server to see if it is responding and we do this from a region closest to you. This test we perform simulates what an actual web browser (e.g. Safari, Chrome, Firefox) would do when trying to visit the website.
2) We determine if the calottery.com server is returning an error message that indicates some sort of problem. These types of errors generally mean that a visitor -- you -- would also have trouble using or visiting the service.
3) We return the results of our test from our servers and let you know if calottery.com is up or down.
So why does a lottery site crash? Overloading usually.
For example, the Mega Millions lottery site went down in July due to a surge in traffic from keen players after the jackpot reached $830 million.
It was still down an hour after the drawing. Many state lottery sites experienced load-balancing access as well.
Hostirian.com has this explanation for a website crash.
Code Error. One common reason for a website crash is that there is a code error on the website. This means that someone accidentally broke the code.
Maintenance. Web codes can break if someone, by mistake, messes something up while doing maintenance or updating the website. Unfortunately, a single coding error can mess up an entire website.
Virus attack. The website crash could be due to a virus attack. Virus attacks, also known as Malware, are more common than you would think. On average, 30,000 new websites are hacked every day.
Tons of Traffic. Too much traffic can be bad if your hosting plan is not equipped to handle a large number of people on your site. Sometimes, massive spikes in traffic can cause downtime.
Domain/ Hosting Issues. Even the best equipment can have problems sometimes, but it is not very often. In some cases, overheated equipment, bad weather, and other errors can cause websites to crash.
So what should you do in the meantime? Have a coffee and just come back later.
Often the problem gets fixed in a reasonable time, and when you open the site it will be working again.
