isup.py

import urllib

def isup(domain):
    httpcode = {
        200 : 'site is up',
        301 : "Moved Permanently",
        400 : "Bad Request",
        403 : "Forbidden",
        403 : "404 Not Found",
        408 : "Request Timeout",
        410 : "resource requested is no longer available",
        444 : "No Response (Nginx)",
        500 : "Internal Server Error",
        502 : "Bad Gateway",
        503 : "Service Unavailable",
        504 : "Gateway Timeout",
        509 : "Bandwidth Limit Exceeded"
    }

    if not domain.startswith("http://"):
        domain = "http://"+ domain

    try:
        req = urllib.urlopen(domain).getcode()
        print httpcode[req]
    except IOError, ex:
        asu = str(ex)
        print asu

isup('gamesjar.com')