How in the Tech

Accessing a website even if the server is down

By Adam Myers ⋅ February 12, 2010 ⋅ Tags: Firefox, Networking

How many times have you been clicking around on the Internet and come to a page that won’t load? While the webpage could just be gone completely, often times it’s merely a temporary problem – the server may be overwhelmed or otherwise offline. This type of situation can occur often given the popularity of social networking and social media. If a particular website generates some buzz it doesn’t take long for the link to spread throughout Twitter or Facebook. Some servers just don’t cope well with the sudden influx of visitors and it buckles under the strain.

A little geek secret in a time like this involves copying and pasting the entire web address into Google and then use Google Cache from the returned search results. Generally, this is enough to provide you with the information you desired. Still, it’s a multi-step process and since every click matters – a Firefox extension is available to help automate everything.

Gcache+ is a Firefox add-on that can load the Google Cache’d version of the current website with a single click; obviously handy should the site otherwise be unreachable. Installation is straightforward like any Firefox add-on and there really isn’t any post-install configuration necessary.

The Gcache+ process is initiated in one of three ways.

1. By adding a button to your toolbar.



2. By right-clicking on the currently loaded webpage.



3. By right-clicking on the intended destination link.

Download Gcache+ from the Mozilla Firefox Add-ons server.