‘Links’ is a Linux text based browser that you can use from the local terminal or over SSH, it can save you a lot of time and is a great quick check to see if a website is online, first you need to install it.
Run either of the following depending on your linux distribution; the first one is for something like CentOS/Redhat, the second is for Debian/Ubuntu.
yum install links
apt-get install links
You might need to prepend ‘sudo’ to the command if your not root.
Next just type Links followed by the website you want to test, don’t forget the http:// before the URL and then just use Ctrl+C to exit links when your done.
links http://pingbin.com
Links is a great way to test your website, if your website looks to be down from the server it’s normally a good idea just to check the firewall rules first (iptables -Lvn), also try Google from the links browser as that’s probably not down as well, unless you are Goolge 😉