Reoccurring 403 errors - temporarily fixed by clearing cache

#1

Hi all

For the last couple of weeks we have been getting a popup 403 message window, then when you click OK on that a blank popup window appears which you have to click on OK to clear when accessing all new posts / products on our site https://beautifulbizarre.net It does not appear to actually block any content and you don’t get the normal full-screen “access forbidden” you get with 403 errors, but it isn’t a good look for our site. The (very temporary) fix for us is to use the Comet Cache clear cache option - but the error comes back after a few hours - and we have to clear the cache again…

The error occurs on all mobile & PC browsers. We use Cloudflare CDN and I have been onto their support but they say it is not their issue, any 403 errors from their CDN have a Cloudflare notification message.

403err popup1.jpg943×374 42.3 KB

Any ideas on this one folks?

#2

Second popup, since I was only allowed to attach one image to my first post :slight_smile:

403err popup2.jpg804×375 35.2 KB

#3

More info! This from Chrome console:

image.png824×21 1.28 KB

#4

I left this a couple of days to see if others would reply first to suggest a proper fix. But now you have posted the piece of info about admin-ajax.php, my suspicion is that there isn’t one – just a workaround.

That’s because my own experience is that, despite what they say, this is caused by Cloudflare, and no amount of tinkering with their settings or talking to their support reps will help at all. I had several months of experiencing something similar, even with Comet Cache not enabled on that particular site. Cloudflare just wrecked any javascript that interacted with admin-ajax.php.

When I moved to a more traditional CDN, those problems disappeared immediately, and I could activate Comet Cache again.

#5

Thanks Tim, willing to give that a go! Do you have a CDN you would recommend?

#6

Also any advice - and things to watch out for - when changing CDN’s would be much appreciated :slight_smile:

#7

Not really. My host offers a choice of two for free, and Cloudflare was a new offering, so they suggested I tried it. Needless to say, I just went back to the old tried and trusted offering, which I don’t think is available other than through a host.

If I had to find an alternative, I’d definitely try KeyCDN. I have adopted many of the tips they have posted about making sites fast and secure, and it’s clear that they know what they are doing.

#8

Thanks Tim, I will give them a go :smiley: