

Ask HN: Anyone else having trouble access this site? - krstck

I checked the usual sources and was surprised to find that no one was talking about having any trouble getting onto HN. Then I noticed something strange: this problem only occurs from my work IP. Great, I somehow got my IP banned. I followed the instructions to unban, and then I can load maybe one page before it stops working again. It&#x27;s highly unlikely anyone else is accessing HN besides me from this IP address, so I&#x27;m not sure why it&#x27;s behaving this way.<p>The error is &quot;Web server is returning an unknown error&quot;. Is this happening to anyone else? Any suggestions?
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lutusp
> Any suggestions?

Just one:

$ wget [https://news.ycombinator.com](https://news.ycombinator.com)

Examine the result in a text editor, and pay attention to any errors that wget
might print.

~~~
krstck
And just tried it again, and now I get 520 origin error.

~~~
lutusp
Unfortunately, a 520 isn't a official HTTP error:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_HTTP_status_codes](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_HTTP_status_codes)

Quote: "520 Origin Error (Cloudflare) ... This status code is not specified in
any RFCs, but is used by Cloudflare's reverse proxies to signal an "unknown
connection issue between CloudFlare and the origin web server" to a client in
front of the proxy."

Basically, the error (if it's a real error indication and not bogus) suggests
an inability by the server to establish a connection with your system.
Remember that HTTPS (HN's operating mode) signifies extra requirements for a
legitimate connection (and a different port: 443 instead of 80), so there
might be firewall issues at your workplace that aren't an issue at home.

~~~
krstck
Interesting, thanks for the info. It seems to let me in for a little while
then suddenly stop working, and it definitely doesn't let me log in. I would
be totally unsurprised if it was a firewall issue here. Well, that's better
news than HN intentionally kicking me out!

