How AreYouDown works

AreYouDown tells you, in seconds, whether a service is down for everyone or just you, and explains what's going on in plain language.

Where our information comes from

• Official status pages published by providers, read every couple of minutes.
• Network outage boards that list suburb-level fibre outages for networks like Vumatel, Openserve and Octotel.
• Eskom's load-shedding status, checked every few minutes.
• Our own checks that each service's website is responding.
• Posts from providers' official X accounts while there's a problem.
• Reports from people like you. We compare reports with what's normal for that time, so a real spike stands out.

When there's a problem, an AI writes a short summary using only those sources: what's happening, what the provider has said it's doing, and what you can do. If a provider hasn't said anything, the summary says so rather than guessing.

What our statuses mean

• No problems detected: nothing unusual from any source.
• Possible problems: some signs of trouble, such as more reports than usual, local outages or a slow website.
• Outage: the provider confirms a major problem, or lots of people report it at once.

We're independent and not affiliated with any of the companies listed. Always follow official advice from your provider.

Privacy

Reports are anonymous. We keep a scrambled code made from your connection so one person can't report many times; we can't turn it back into your IP address, and reports are deleted after 30 days. If you sign up for email alerts we store only your email and your chosen services, and every email has a one-tap unsubscribe. You can delete your email and alerts any time from My alerts. We don't sell personal information. This follows South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA). Questions: hello@areyoudown.co.za.