This is a test.

We are under heavy Bot attack. Working on it.

On 8/28/2026 at 5:26 PM, xper said:

We are under heavy Bot attack

After what has probably been a quite costly forum upgrade (new SSD, new RAM, recent, more secure, IC forum software, Cloudflare filters, etc.), why are bots still such an issue with the MSFN board? Mere minutes ago I couldn't access it (from Greece) and was getting constant 502s, like the OP 😞 ...

This isn't a complaint per se 😜, but as I don't manage a server myself, I wouldn't know the relevant details; are those bots selectively targeting MSFN or has the web in 2026 really become such a "terrible place" for every server owner?

Thanks for any insight 🙂 ...

are those bots selectively targeting MSFN or has the web in 2026 really become such a "terrible place" for every server owner?

Yes. Bad bots trying brute force /login, /search, /discovery. More bots than humans. Now also AI crawlers and scrapers.

Do we have "Bot Members" ???

ie, bot accounts that have the ability to LOG IN and then browse content they would not otherwise be able to browse?

Actually I have a question. If I were refreshing maybe two or three times in an hour, say every three hours or so, would I be seen as a "bot", because it comes from the same IP? I just worry that I could exacerbate the problem. I'm sure not, but who knows sometimes.

Well, this has really become a veritable nightmare for me ; for the past 4 hours, MSFN board has stayed totally inaccessible for me when using my Greek ISP's (Nova) IP addresses 😞 ; any attempt to load the site, in whatever browser, results in:

This is clearly a CF issue, as the Greek CF node (in Athens, though I'm much further away myself 😜 ) can't connect 👎 to the MSFN server; or the service/ISP hosting the MSFN server has somehow blacklisted my ISP's pools of IPs (usually 46.12.xxx.xxx and, more rarely, 79.103.xxx.xxx) ...

However, and this is interesting and highly peculiar at the same time, I can connect to the MSFN board when using a Firefox (public) proxy extension via one of its UK/US nodes, which is how I'm able to write this post (via a UK IP); how is it that a shared proxy IP address (that probably many others connect through currently) is allowed MSFN access but NOT my home Greek IP, that used to work flawlessly during the more than 10 yrs I've been an active and contributing MSFN member?

I perfectly understand CF is a necessary evil, but it has become a web policeman with endless, arbitrary, restrictive powers no-one can really control...

@xper , needless to say I'm quite miffed by now, take this as a form of a complaint on my part; please, can you sort things out with CF and/or whitelist the IP pools my ISP uses?

To add insult to injury, CF has decided merely a few days ago to blacklist perfectly working browsers (e.g. r3dfox-esr-v115.13.0), fully compatible with this new version 5 of the forum software, in that signing-in to the forum has become totally IMPOSSIBLE, as the browser, without even getting a chance to be served a challenge, gets outright 403'd; but this is material for another report...

Edited Sunday at 04:08 PM2 days by VistaLover
properly ping

to the MSFN server; or the service/ISP hosting the MSFN server has somehow blacklisted my ISP's pools of IPs (usually 46.12.xxx.xxx and, more rarely, 79.103.xxx.xxx) ...

I checked the server-level blocked IPs, and there isn't a single IP of you IP range there. I added a rule on Cloudflare for both of your IP ranges. Could you please test it now and let me know how it goes? Though I doubt the issue is caused by Cloudflare.

23 minutes ago, xper said:

I added a rule on Cloudflare for both of your IP ranges. Could you please test it now and let me know how it goes?

First of all, thanks for your immediate attention to the reported issue 👍 ; yesterday night, when I posted this, I could easily access the board, which was (compared to previous days) relatively responsive; however, all day today (Sunday), I'm constantly blocked 😢 ; despite your latest interventions, the situation is still SNAFU (below screencap taken mere minutes ago, in a private browser window with cache pre-cleared) :

I've also partially revealed my current Greek IP, though at the moment I'm posting from a US IP (38.128.66.xxx) ; the same situation when trying to access the board on another home laptop, on the same LAN...

36 minutes ago, xper said:

I doubt the issue is caused by Cloudflare.

So, what it could be then?

Edited Sunday at 06:07 PM2 days by VistaLover

Your IP now is from Greece.

Chalandri, Attica, GREECE

UPDATE: I just restarted ISP's router to be dynamically assigned a new Greek IP address, which was successful and new IP now is 49.12.3x.xxx; with this new one, I report that I can successfully access the board; so it may be that your intervention took a while to propagate/apply, or some other unknown thing was blocking my previous Greek IP; will see how it goes from now on and report back...

Thanks again 😁 !

Edited Sunday at 06:03 PM2 days by VistaLover
formatting

Addendum: While my issue is now "fixed"/worked-around, I can't control when my ISP changes my IP back to a 49.12.11x.xxx one, which was, up to minutes ago, BLOCKED; so, the true nature of my initial issue remains hitherto a mystery ...

Edited Sunday at 06:05 PM2 days by VistaLover

15 hours ago, VistaLover said:

and new IP now is 49.12.3x.xxx; with this new one, I report that I can successfully access the board; (redacted); will see how it goes from now on and report back

Well, that didn't last long 😞 ; I still have the same Greek IP address as noted above (49.12.3x.xxx), but since early morning today, I am again unable to access the MSFN board with that IP; the error is again a 502 Bad Gateway, but this time it isn't reported by a CloudFlare page but by what it seems as the board's server itself; new private window, browser cache cleared (FWIW, the browser is r3dfox-v153.0.3, but it's the same for all browsers in my LAN):

I am at a real loss; using an Austrian IP via proxy/VPN to post this now...

JFYI, over the last 45min, I tried almost all of my VPN's (UrbanVPN) nodes to write down which ones do allow me to connect (to MSFN.org) and which ones return the 502 connection error; I started testing first European nodes, closer to my real location (northern Greece), and then continued with the others; the results, if anyone cares, are given below (200 means successful access); as most, if not all, are probably datacentre IPs, I'd take these results with a pinch of salt:

Greece 502
Bulgaria 502
Cyprus 502
Estonia 502
Finland 502
France 502
Germany 502
Croatia 502
Iceland 502
Ireland 502
Italy 502
latvia 502
Luxembourg 502
Malta 502
Poland 502
Portugal 502
Georgia 502
Slovenia 502
Spain 502
Sweden 502
Switzerland 502
The Netherlands 502
Ukraine 502

Turkey 200
Austria 200
Belgium 200
Czechia 200
Denmark 200
Hungary 200
Norway 200
Romania 200
Russia 200
Slovakia 200
UK 200

US 502
Canada 502
Morocco 502
Thailand 502

Australia 200
New Zealand 200

Egypt 200
Israel 200

Taiwan 200
China 200
Hong Kong 200
Japan 200
Korea 200
Singapore 200
Indonesia 200
Vietnam 200

So, am I to always connect to the board now via one of the few "200" nodes from the list above?

This is NOT a rant/complaint/etc., I'm just calmly describing the predicament I find myself in currently; xper's money, time and enormous efforts to keep the forum running are highly appreciated by me (and I suspect by all MSFN members), it's just that the new setup appears to have had adverse effects for me...

I'm afraid there is nothing more I can do on my end. Cloudflare is turned off. Your IPs are not blocked on the server, so it must be something on your side.

The only thing that comes to mind is that ModSecurity is enabled on the server. That shouldn't be the reason, unless there is something suspicious in your browser. I will turn it off now, so please try again and let me know.

I can't confirm this. My German ISP is completely blocked by the MSFN server. When using VPN with a US IP (New York), I have no problems accessing MSFN. But my real German IP ranges are blocked (502 Bad Gateway). Just tested. Therefore, this cannot be a bot or a user problem but rather a misconfiguration of the MSFN server. Well, I’m afraid the connection problem seems to be a MSFN server-side issue.

Edited Monday at 10:58 AM2 days by AstroSkipper