This Plugin allows you to make your blog temporarily unavailable to your users (with custom message). It is still accessible by the administrators.
It does one thing and does it well. It belongs to the class of zero-configuration plugins. In other words even your grandmother can use it.
Download and follow the instructions in the next section for installation.
Now your site is unavailable to all of your users, till the time you decide to deactivate the plugin.
To reiterate the site will remain unavailable to all your users while this plugin is activated.
The Feeds and Trackback requests will be sent HTTP Code 503 indicating that the Server is Unavailable and they will be asked to retry after an hour (configurable).
Administrators can access the administrative section even while this plugin is activated.
You do not need to read this section. The plugin will work fine without any changes at all. However if you are compulsive and feel the urge to tinker then read on.
To change the default message ( This blog is currently undergoing scheduled maintenance. Please try after 60 minutes. Sorry for the inconvenience. ) use the plugin editor to edit the plugin. Change the line where $message is specified to a message of your choice.
You can change the Retry-After hint given to Feed and Trackback requests by changing $retry_after. The value is in minutes. The default is 60 minutes. It also tells the users of the site when to retry again.
This is very useful when you do a scheduled maintenance and you want your users to come back after a fixed time.
Remember this is a hint. It has no bearing with when you make your site actually available ( by deactivating the plugin ).
Deactivate the plugin from the Plugin screen to make the site available again to the world.
You can also delete the unavailable.php file from wp-content/plugins directory for permanent removal.
This plugin is free. However a linkback will be deeply appreciated. Think of it as a LinkWare.