Forum Help Unable to access forums on tablet

[Princess Viola]

Hi, this is a problem I've just started getting and I'm at my wits end trying to figure out what's going on and how to fix it.

Every time I go to the forums on my tablet (Amazon Fire HD 10 2021, running Fire OS 7.3.2.7 based on Android 9), I just get permanently stuck on the 'Checking if the site connection is secure' notice and it never goes past it, it'll either pop up with that 'verify if you are human' thing and then just reload itself and want me to verify again in an endless loop or it just won't load at all and ask me to check my Internet connection and reload the page.

I use Chrome and I've tried nearly everything I can think of: cleared cookies and site data, disabled my adblocker, tried a different internet connection (tried my 5 Ghz Wifi, 2.4 Ghz, and a hotspot with my phone's mobile data, I even completely erased my Wi-Fi settings and readded them), checked if there's any updates to Chrome (there are none), and restarted my tablet multiple times. None of these have fixed the issue.

I tested out the default Amazon Silk browser and the same issue happens there as well. I also installed Firefox to test it and it works fine there, but I don't want to have to load up Firefox just to access the forums on my tablet.

This issue has literally just started happening, as I was able to access and browse the forums just fine even earlier today.

 

[DawningWinds]

Currently the forums in general have been having issues; it's most likely your issues with the tablet are an extension of that. I don't super understand the details unfortunately, but I know our tech folks have a general idea of what's currently causing this and are/will be working on it when they have time... which is not exactly plentiful at the moment for people, with it being holidays and all.

 

[StormyStinger]

According to Archaic, this is a result to combat a resent DDOS attack.

Bulbagarden has been under a low-level DDoS attack since Christmas Eve. The Cloudflare connection check is a bit of a nuclear option, but it was the most effective option we had in the current circumstances.

 

[Archaic]

Firefox working fine honestly doesn’t surprise me. Since bots masquerading as fake users tend to have user-agent strings claiming they’re using a Chrome or Chrome-like browser, I imagine a user-agent string from a current Firefox browser is treated by Cloudflare as statistically less likely to be a bot.

Using Firefox as your browser would be a general recommendation I’d make to any internet user in any case. Much more secure, especially after you add additional privacy extensions to it.

As a side-note… deleting your cookies and site data probably didn’t help you when it came to those bot checks, since it could potentially have been taken as an attempt to obfuscate your identity.

 

[Bolt Strike]

I saw the "Checking if the site connection is secure" page again a minute ago after refreshing the main page of the forums (and yes Archaic, I tried Firefox, I'm experiencing this on Chrome, Edge AND Firefox). I was able to reach the site obviously (the site connection page just costs me a few seconds) so not a big issue, but bringing it up just in case.

 

[mastermind lissi]

Yea, it’s popping up on safari too

 

[Archaic]

We've been under an intermittent DDoS since Christmas Eve, which this Cloudflare system thankfully stops dead. So if you see the Cloudflare stuff, know that it's not something wrong with you, it's just us having to deal with them again.

 

[Greninjaman]

@Archaic
Would it be a good idea to just leave the cloudflare system on all the time?

 

[lisianthus]

@Archaic
Would it be a good idea to just leave the cloudflare system on all the time?

This isn't something we foresee as an always thing — keeping it on always would limit access of users with legacy browsers as well as being a time-based issue for most, so unless if absolutely necessary I don't think we're going to want it always on. It's been intermittent, so on again off again, so for the time being it'll be used as necessary, and only then I believe. Archaic may have more to say in that regard?