Wait or switch during an outage
Two of the three options here are fine. The third is where most real damage in this subject happens.
Build a new circuit, then try another address
- What you gain
- Resolves most of what gets reported as an outage, in under a minute, at no cost.
- What you give up
- Nothing. There is no downside to this and it is the first thing to do every time.
- Suits
- Everyone, before forming any opinion about what is happening.
Wait it out
- What you gain
- Most incidents are over within a couple of hours, and waiting costs only patience.
- What you give up
- Uncertainty, and the discomfort of not knowing whether the thing you are waiting for is coming back.
- Suits
- Everyone, once switching has not helped.
Go looking for a working address
- What you gain
- Feels like progress.
- What you give up
- Anything that surfaces during an outage was placed there for people in exactly your situation. This is the single most reliable way to be caught.
- Suits
- Nobody, ever, under any level of frustration.
The check almost nobody runs
Open any unrelated onion service. If that also fails, the problem is the network and nothing address specific will help. If it works, the problem is narrower. That one question separates a market problem from a network problem in about fifteen seconds and it is skipped almost universally.
| What you see | What it is |
|---|---|
| One address down, others fine | That address. Switch and carry on. Most common by a wide margin. |
| All addresses down, other onions fine | Something shared. Genuine, usually short. Wait. |
| All down, other onions also failing | Network conditions. Nothing address specific helps. |
| Fast then progressively slower | You are hitting a limiter. Stop reloading, which makes it worse. |
| Hangs with no error | A dead circuit. Build a new one rather than waiting. |
Why the window is worked deliberately
During normal operation a claimed new address is easy to dismiss, because you can compare it against the ones that work. That disappears the moment the real addresses stop answering. The outage removes the comparison, raises the demand, and produces people who want a solution immediately.
There is a reliable window, roughly half an hour to a few hours in, where external certainty peaks. Somebody asserts the market is gone, replacement addresses circulate, and confidence is highest exactly when the actual problem is usually closest to resolved.
What tips it
Duration. Hours mean nothing and an address unreachable for an afternoon is having an ordinary bad day. Days mean something, and an address unreachable for a week while the others work has probably been retired, which is a reason to delete it rather than a reason to worry. All nine unreachable for days is the only shape that justifies real concern, and almost nobody waits long enough to distinguish it.