Help! I'm being blocked by Cloudflare while accessing some websites

Forums › One New Zealand (including Vodafone, WxC, Farmside) › Help! I'm being blocked by Cloudflare while accessing some websites

martinv

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#294065 3-Mar-2022 11:13

Hi guys,

An increasing number of websites seem to be being blocked by Cloudflare from my home IP address which is a static IP address on the Vodafone cable network. I moved IP address ranges a few months back (they upgraded my connection from an old cable modem to a new one as well as making some changes in the background). I have only experienced this problem on the new IP address. I have had a reasonable look to make sure I'm not the source of large volumes of bogus traffic, but I'm wondering what else I can do to get off this blocked list. I tried going to Clodflare but ended up stuck in a loop. My favourite 3D printing website is now out of reach (see image, below). I contacted All3DP via E-Mail but they said there was nothing they could do to help. Same thing happened with parts of the the Reserve Bank website; support there also said there was nothing they could do. Both suggested I try using a mobile device (sigh). I can access the websites OK using an off shore VPN, but that is inconvenient/stupid. Yesterday even repco.co.nz was unavailable to me however today it seems to be working again. I'm not contacting Vodafone because previous encounters with their tech suggest I would be wasting my time. I couldn't find anyone else on Geekzone with the same problem. Any ideas for getting "unblocked"? I suspect it's a range of IPs that are being blocked and not just my IP address, but it's super frustrating.

quickymart

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#2878251 3-Mar-2022 11:55

Have you spoken to Vodafone to ask about getting a new static? I vaguely remember when I worked at TCL it was doable.

Linux

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#2878262 3-Mar-2022 12:06

Have you emailed the site owner as suggested in the screen shot?

freitasm

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#2878264 3-Mar-2022 12:08

There are a few possibilities. The website owner has implemented a block based on any number of factors - risk level (automatically determined), IP address or IP range, ASN, country, user agent string, etc.

On Cloudflare most of those will be set by the website owner. They have the tools to search their WAF based on IP address or trace id and determine why a connection was blocked.

Of course they could just say "Nothing we can do" because it takes time to make sure you are a good visitor and they trust the automated process.

By the way, they aren't blocking NZ as a whole because I can access the site on a 2degrees connection.

Vodafone does not have any visibility on why a connection is blocked so it's pretty much useless contacting the ISP. It's all on the website owner's side.

freitasm

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#2878266 3-Mar-2022 12:09

@Linux:

Have you emailed the site owner as suggested in the screen shot?

As per OP "I contacted All3DP via E-Mail but they said there was nothing they could do to help. "

richms

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#2878280 3-Mar-2022 12:21

Friend had one of their customers complaining that this was happening. Turns out they had their PC loaded to the max with settings and software that was blocking cookies and scripts and stuff because "pRiVaCy" and that makes it look like a bot to the anti DDoS protection.

Richard rich.ms

freitasm

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#2878282 3-Mar-2022 12:23

Correct. If you play the privacy card (delete cookies, blocks ads, block scripts), expect consequences. But this is only one signal.

quickymart

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#2878287 3-Mar-2022 12:30

I suggested a change of static IP as he said it was not only this site but some others as well.

AliExpress

Shop now on AliExpress (affiliate link).

freitasm

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#2878288 3-Mar-2022 12:33

Check that you don't have any suspicious services on your network as well. If the IP has been compromised it will be blocked and changing IP will only last until it's deemed as compromised again.

martinv

19 posts

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#2881374 8-Mar-2022 20:25

I replied to this the other day, but then when I went to look at the forum again later the post was not there, so...??? In summary, I thought I'd look at the security settings and so disabled Facebook container and Privacy Badger in Firefox. This let me get to the home page of All3DP.com, but not to the first article. I then tried a vanilla install of both Chrome and Chromium. Both of these let me access the same website and the first article I tried as well. My take on this is that my browser and its configuration are contributing to the "social credit" score of my IP address; changing browser is enough to block me sometimes. At least now I have a way, using Chrome, to access some of these websites. I'm also looking at cleaning up the radiation from my network a bit. I did find a GLiNet router running older, vulnerable openwrt that was producing needless traffic (a bit odd), and have upgraded that. I'll keep at it. Thanks to those who replied. It's a shame the support people I had to deal with as point of contacts at the two websites I contacted weren't technical, but I guess that's how things are these days.