What is DowntimeDetector?
DowntimeDetector checks website availability for Down for Everyone or Just Me, helping users determine whether a site is offline globally or unreachable only from their connection. You can set up Agent Analytics to see when DowntimeDetector visits your website.
Overview
| Operated By | UpDownSideways |
| Source | Official Website |
| Expected To Follow Robots.txt | No |
| Insights Last Updated | September 24, 2026 |
Do you operate this agent? Contact us to suggest an update.
Category
Expected Behavior
DowntimeDetector's traffic often follows fixed intervals like a cron job. Activity may consist of short recurring checks or occasional intensive bursts, but it usually remains limited to a specific set of pages or endpoints.
How To Block DowntimeDetector With Robots.txt
Add this rule to your robots.txt file to request that DowntimeDetector not access your website, or use Automatic Robots.txt to request the same of all developer helpers at once. You can customize which pages are blocked by swapping out / for a different path.
User-agent: DowntimeDetector # https://knownagents.com/agents/downtimedetector
Disallow: /Insights for DowntimeDetector
As of September 24, 2026, this data reflects agent visits measured across thousands of websites using Agent Analytics, combined with daily scans of the top 1000 websites and their robots.txt files.
Robots.txt Blocked Percentage
Country of Origin
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I Block DowntimeDetector?
Only if no one on your team relies on it. DowntimeDetector may support uptime monitoring, performance tests, or audits. Blocking it without checking first can silently disrupt those workflows. Almost none of the top websites we track currently have robots.txt rules for DowntimeDetector.
Does DowntimeDetector Follow Robots.txt Rules?
No. DowntimeDetector is not expected to follow robots.txt rules, so a disallow rule only communicates your preference. Enforce the block with firewall or server rules, then use Agent Analytics to verify that its requests stop.
Does DowntimeDetector Access Private Content?
Only when configured with access. A team may grant DowntimeDetector credentials to monitor staging sites or private health endpoints. Without those credentials, it sees only public pages.
How Can I Tell if DowntimeDetector Is Visiting My Website?
Agent Analytics tracks DowntimeDetector visits in real time. You can also check your server logs for requests whose user-agent string contains "DowntimeDetector". Look for repeated checks of the same pages or endpoints at regular intervals. Because DowntimeDetector does not publish a verification method, any client can claim its identity and a log match is only a clue.
Why Is DowntimeDetector Visiting My Website?
Someone, most likely on your own team, configured DowntimeDetector to check your site. Uptime monitors, performance testers, and audit tools visit only the sites or endpoints they are told to watch.