Unwanted popup now when I visit MFO

hank

Started today. Frequently, but not always, clicking my MFO link takes me first to another site. It redirects to MFO in 5 seconds. A full page comes up briefly on Ipad (IOS 8) that says: "Checking your connection before accessing Mutual Fund Observor.com. This process is automatic. Your server will redirect to your requested content shortly. ... DOsS protection by CloudFlare"

Anybody know what that is? I cleared the cache without results. Haven't had a chance to phone Apple tech yet.

(I was able to take a screen shot of that message before it disappeared)

Mark

Knock on wood and all like that - I currently am not having that problem on either my iPad with OS 8 or my Mac laptop with Yosemite. However I only attempted to reload the page that was already present on the iPad.

Old_Joe

Perhaps Chip can help on this. I believe that when I access MFO from here in SF it always is via CloudFlare, which in my case seems to have an internet presence of some sort in San Jose, to the south of us. I'm guessing that "DOsS protection" may indicate some defense against a "denial of service" type attack, which as I understand it, results when a large number of "compromised" computers are given simultaneous instructions to request connection to a specific site, thus creating a traffic situation which results in seriously compromising that site's ability to respond to the incoming service requests.

You may remember that MFO and other sites were apparently victims of such attacks some months ago. Perhaps CloudFlare is automatically checking the site traffic status to detect and possibly deter such attacks.

BTW, lately I notice that pulling up MFO frequently seems to require two attempts- the first attempt seems to "hang" indefinitely; the second works quite quickly. (When I was first learning electronics fifty years ago we attributed things like this to "gremlins". Perhaps they've evolved along with the technology,)

JohnChisum

@hank, clear your browser cache.

Old_Joe

John- he already did: "I cleared the cache without results.".

JohnChisum

I'm just having my first sip of coffee. I need to get a cup onboard before I post.

If running Safari, make sure the No Pop Up preference is on. Also check for Cloud Flare cookies and delete them.

I am assuming this happens on other browsers as well?

chip

We do use the CloudFlare service, which is supposed to help our site run more smoothly and also to protect us from DDOS-type attacks. The pop-up you mention @hank is something I haven't seen before. Would you mind sending me your screenshot - [email protected]? I'll do a little research and report back.

hank

@chip
Thanks. I sent you a copy. Issue has cleared up for now.

chip

@hank
Thanks. I researched the message and found some information from CloudFlare.

https://support.cloudflare.com/hc/en-us/articles/200170176-Why-am-I-getting-a-Checking-your-Browser-before-accessing-message-before-entering-a-site-on-CloudFlare-
and
https://support.cloudflare.com/hc/en-us/articles/200170226-I-didn-t-turn-on-I-m-Under-Attack-mode-why-are-some-visitors-seeing-a-Checking-your-Browser-before-accessing-message-

The short version is that CloudFlare is trying to protect our site from attack. Unfortunately, there are some false-positives, where CloudFlare mistakes a visitor for a threat. If it's happening regularly, they advise us to whitelist your IP address with CloudFlare, and that will fix it. So, let me know if it starts happening again.

Old_Joe

Whitelist! That's quite an honor. No one's ever suggested that I might qualify. Plenty of blacklists, though... and even some other types of lists, too.

Crash

OJ.

hank

Thank you Chip. I looked at CloudFlare too. Umm ... it's unlikely anyone would want to "take over" my poky cellular connection here and use it for a denial of services attack.

Suspect just an isolated case of over-vigilance on their part.

Thanks again. hank