An RSS or Atom feed is a file that site owners publish and let anyone download and read. However, sometimes a site is not reachable for different reasons. In this guide we’ll present some common error scenarios and what you as a user can do.
Temporary network glitches
The internet is a massive network of tubes and digital pipes. At the end of these tubes are servers. Servers are basically computers, but without screens. Through the magic of modern day technology they stay on all the time – day and night. However, they go down sometimes. They crash or take a nap and the tubes leak or break. A lot can go wrong. When this happens, it usually comes back online pretty fast. Most often it takes up to an hour. If the error is temporary, it usually works to try again later.
How to test: Try validating that it’s not your own network that is acting up. Is it down for everyone or just me? is a great service for this. Paste the URL you wish to test and it will check if it can be reached from their end.
Authentication errors
The web is not always an open place. Some content is reserved for a select group of people meeting a certain criteria. For example, some pages require you to log in to read certain information and some information is only intended to the logged in user.
Feeder can sometimes access feeds even when they are behind a login or other authentication mechanism. It has to do with a hybrid approach taken to feed downloading where your computer can act as a middleman for collecting the information.
How to test: Try to remember if you logged in to the service and if the feed contains information only related to you. Some sites circumvent this problem by having a unique link for each feed.
If you run into this error we recommend that you contact us at support@feeder.co, since all cases are different.
Old links
The web is like a crowded, large city. Shops open and close, people move in and out, buildings are built and torn down. If you’re unlucky you might find a pamphlet for a café or club that seems interesting. When you go to visit you find that it’s been closed for years. This can also happen with feed links. You might read a list of the best feeds to follow for your book hobby in foreign stock investing, but find that some feeds don’t work. It might be because the site shut down or moved to a new domain.
How to test: The simplest way to test this is just copy and paste the link into your browser window. If you see an error that “The site can’t be reached”/”DNS record not found” etc this is most likely the case.
Feel free to contact us at support@feeder.co if you have any questions.