# 522 errors



## trionicb (Apr 4, 2020)

Hello folks,

Getting 522 error on random images. But only on some images. See attached for example. No matter how much I refresh I keep getting this error. Started seeing last night. I've cleared cache and cookies and I've  relogged in, no effect.

Cheers


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## Ank57 (Apr 4, 2020)

i'm seeing only ~39000 users online, the usual for FA so it might be stuff on your end?


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## trionicb (Apr 4, 2020)

When you see an error between cloudflare and the host it's usually either a hosting issue or a backend provider issue. What I find interest is that it will happen consistently with certain files. The screenshot I've attached shows one post in particular, I've tried reloading it several times and it failed with the same error. However other posts load in a blink of an eye. I've tried with IE and Chrome, same problem. It started after the latest DDOS attack on Apr 2...


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## scaurus (Apr 4, 2020)

> =" I've tried reloading it several times and it failed with the same error. However other posts load in a blink of an eye. I've tried with IE and Chrome, same problem. It started after the latest DDOS attack on Apr 2...



This describes my experience exactly. 522 errors started for me yesterday, April 3.


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## RoudyRaccoon (Apr 5, 2020)

Having the same issue, getting 522 errors on specific items, it's connectivity issue for sure on the host side.


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## manzilla (Apr 5, 2020)

Same exact issue here as well. Using a VPN solves the problem. Seems to be a Canada-specific issue.
Also, if you need a free VPN, I'd recommend the Opera browser.


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## ElCid (Apr 5, 2020)

Or maybe staff could work on actually addressing and fixing the problem that's been going on for nearly 42 hours now and only began 24 hours AFTER recovery from the latest attack instead of leaving it and forcing us to download and use a different browser and a VPN in order to use one particular site.


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## manzilla (Apr 5, 2020)

Maybe "solves the problem" was worded badly. It circumvents the issue for the time being while we wait for FA's staff to figure out what's causing these 522 errors.


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## ElCid (Apr 5, 2020)

Not much of a solution for someone who can't and doesn't even want to download and use those things just for a single site. I just really hope staff actually takes notice soon and does something about it, cause from what I've seen, they aren't even aware it's happening.


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## trionicb (Apr 5, 2020)

I've opened a ticket and pinged them on Twitter, it's Sunday and they're all volunteers so at some point you gotta cut them some slack.


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## ElCid (Apr 5, 2020)

You're right, and I know, it's just been a bit stressful for me personally on top of all the stress the whole pandemic situation has built up, especially with this irrational worry biting at me that the affected pics and thumbnails could get corrupted or the problem might not be fixable...


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## Toby_Morpheus (Apr 5, 2020)

Can someone verify that VPNs work by opening known 522 pages multiple times in a browser with no VPN and a browser with one?


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## Linebreaker13 (Apr 6, 2020)

Toby_Morpheus said:


> Can someone verify that VPNs work by opening known 522 pages multiple times in a browser with no VPN and a browser with one?



Can confirm. None of my browsers work, and asked a friend a few cities over, his didn't work either.

Hopped on a random VPN for a US server, checked my profile and individual pages, they all loaded. (Some thumbnails won't load but the actual page will, some thumbnails will load but their images won't in full view, but will in minimal view. All works under VPN.)


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## Toby_Morpheus (Apr 6, 2020)

Linebreaker13 said:


> Can confirm. None of my browsers work, and asked a friend a few cities over, his didn't work either.
> 
> Hopped on a random VPN for a US server, checked my profile and individual pages, they all loaded. (Some thumbnails won't load but the actual page will, some thumbnails will load but their images won't in full view, but will in minimal view. All works under VPN.)


That's weird.
I don't mess with VPNs much.
Anyone know why this would work?


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## quoting_mungo (Apr 6, 2020)

If it’s regional, as you guys seem to have determined, it’s probably an issue on Cloudflare’s end or somewhere between your local Cloudflare server and FA. No idea how or why such a specific issue restricted to only particular submissions would have cropped up, but, yeah. It appears highly unlikely that the issue is on FA’s end. If I’m right about that, the most they’d be able to do is tell Cloudflare.

Y’all having the issue  could probably help with any troubleshooting by determining whether you’re all having issues with the same submissions. That’s just conjecture on my part, though.


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## kiroku (Apr 6, 2020)

This is interesting. From your picture it looks like it's having trouble connecting to their CDN domain. I was able to access that CDN link (nsfw lol) from the US and multiple CA IPs. I also tried out FurAffinity VPN'd into Canada.

This could be a deeper issue within the site. I'll try to play around with it and think about it some more. If you have any other details that might be helpful.

_Edit: You can always try to tracerout the URL you're having issues to see where exactly the issue occurs on its way from your browser to the image on the server._


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## Toby_Morpheus (Apr 6, 2020)

Does anyone know the hardware specs of FA?
I imagine it's bigger than a single stack in someone's basement.

DDOS could have broken something and caused some information to load incorrectly.
Wish I knew more about networking at a time like this.
I'm still stumped on how a VPN mitigates some of these issues.


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## ElCid (Apr 6, 2020)

That really isn't helping my anxiety about pics and thumbnails getting corrupted, thanks...

And yeah, up to half of the thumbnails on any given page won't load now, there are new pics I can't even look at because they won't load in preview or full size, this is getting ridiculous and I SERIOUSLY hope this gets addressed and fixed very soon, we`re coming up on three days of this now...


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## Toby_Morpheus (Apr 6, 2020)

ElCid said:


> That really isn't helping my anxiety about pics and thumbnails getting corrupted, thanks...
> 
> And yeah, up to half of the thumbnails on any given page won't load now, there are new pics I can't even look at because they won't load in preview or full size, this is getting ridiculous and I SERIOUSLY hope this gets addressed and fixed very soon, we`re coming up on three days of this now...


I used to admin a private gaming server and stuff like this occasionally happened. User accounts getting messed up due to this or that. Didn't have the best security because it was small like its userbase but sometimes people just wanna mess with you.

If something like this happened to me, worst case scenario is a rollback assuming that the backups aren't corrupted.
That assumes that anything is corrupted at all. Could be that the different stacks are having a tough time communicating and just need to be rebooted.

Has FA proper been completely shut down since this started?


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## ElCid (Apr 6, 2020)

Probably not, seeing as they have yet to even address that the issue exists.


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## Toby_Morpheus (Apr 6, 2020)

ElCid said:


> Probably not, seeing as they have yet to even address that the issue exists.


Ah, this was just reported here Saturday. That's probably why.
Might get a response today.

Here's hoping.


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## ElCid (Apr 6, 2020)

I think maybe more people need to send in reports about it, just in case they don't see the first one or don't think it's as big of an issue as it is.


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## Toby_Morpheus (Apr 6, 2020)

You send a support ticket through the main page?

Also, I just logged in for the first time in forever. I'm not seeing any problems.
Not running any VPNs. Current version Firefox browser.


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## yak (Apr 6, 2020)

Could you please tell me more about your internet connections.
What kind of internet are you using? Cellular, public WiFi, residential, etc?
Is your internet connection shared with other people who might also be FA users?
Are you using a VPN or a proxy to access the site?

Due to the wave of recent DDoS attacks some strict(er) limitations have been put in place to prevent the attacks from having too much of an impact, but they might indeed be too strict and require adjustments.
Some adjustments have just been made which might help the issue. Could you please reply whether you're seeing an improvement in image loading stability, whether you are still experiencing issues with that, and to what degree did the situation improve since the last time (if any)?


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## ElCid (Apr 6, 2020)

Well, in my case, residential wifi, no shared FA connection, no VPN or proxy, and absolutely nothing has changed, everything that wasn't showing up still isn't.


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## ElCid (Apr 6, 2020)

Worth noting: I've had several American friends now tell me they're experiencing the same issue, so clearly it's not just a regional thing.


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## trionicb (Apr 6, 2020)

To Yak: In my case the issues happens with my residential connection (ISP is Rogers) and wireless (4G, also Rogers). My connection is not shared, but the residential is done via a router. I'm currently not using a proxy or VPN. As of posting I still have the issue. I'll PM you screenshots with a traceroute


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## yak (Apr 6, 2020)

Thank you for replies.
The prime suspect in this appears to be corrupted cache entries on Cloudflare's side. If you could test this out, I would appreciate it.
Take the direct image URL to d.facdn.net, that doesn't load with a 522 error,  and add a random query string at the end of it like "?fdgkjhsdfgkjhwhateverrandomstring".  If the theory is correct, the image should load for you.


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## Ank57 (Apr 6, 2020)

i'm experiencing some lag (~5 to ~10 second delay)
nothing that serious so far, and i'm thinking that it may have something to do with my computer or internet


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## ElCid (Apr 6, 2020)

yak said:


> Thank you for replies.
> The prime suspect in this appears to be corrupted cache entries on Cloudflare's side. If you could test this out, I would appreciate it.
> Take the direct image URL to d.facdn.net, that doesn't load with a 522 error,  and add a random query string at the end of it like "?fdgkjhsdfgkjhwhateverrandomstring".  If the theory is correct, the image should load for you.


Yeah, it works, but is an actual fix to this problem being worked on so we don't have to waste our time doing that over and over, and so we can see all the thumbnails that are still missing, which there isn't a workaround for that we can use?


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## marmelmm (Apr 6, 2020)

I'm just getting a plain ol' 522 Will Not Connecct, and have for the past 2 hours or so.  I think the WuFlu has transmitted aminals -> hyOOmins -> FurAffinity, but that's just me.  ;-) 

-MMM-


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## gliengul (Apr 6, 2020)

Tried www.furaffinity.net: Xander the Kobold by XanderPendrake
loads the page but not the art. This makes me think file system permissions issues more than corrupted cache.


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## Toby_Morpheus (Apr 6, 2020)

gliengul said:


> Tried www.furaffinity.net: Xander the Kobold by XanderPendrake
> loads the page but not the art. This makes me think file system permissions issues more than corrupted cache.


This page works perfectly fine on my end.


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## djagir (Apr 6, 2020)

I'm getting a similar thing right now. People are commenting on the pictures that I'm not able to see, so obviously, it's happening to some and not others. There is also at least one where the thumbnail from my submissions page is not loading for me, but the full picture is.


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## ElCid (Apr 6, 2020)

Yeah, that honestly makes this even worse, some images seem to load for some who are experiencing this, but not others.


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## Toby_Morpheus (Apr 6, 2020)

Yeah It's an oddity to me.
It'd be far easier if everyone had the same problem so we could pinpoint exactly where the issue is coming from.
It's not like I had the image cached either since I rarely use FA proper in the first place.

If I knew how the servers were made up, I would have a few theories on why this is, but I don't think any admin would give those to me for good reason.


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## ElCid (Apr 6, 2020)

This clearly isn't an issue originating with any of our devices--brand new images I've never seen or clicked on aren't working or don't have working thumbnails.


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## trionicb (Apr 6, 2020)

I'm troubleshooting the issue with Yak via chat. Gave IPs and trace routes. Hopefully it will help.


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## Toby_Morpheus (Apr 6, 2020)

ElCid said:


> This clearly isn't an issue originating with any of our devices--brand new images I've never seen or clicked on aren't working or don't have working thumbnails.


What would cause the exact same uncached pages to work for some and not others?
I can't find a single page on FA that's busted for me yet.


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## Ank57 (Apr 6, 2020)

Toby_Morpheus said:


> What would cause the exact same uncached pages to work for some and not others?
> I can't find a single page on FA that's busted for me yet.


maybe it's affecting people's IPs?


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## Toby_Morpheus (Apr 6, 2020)

Ank57 said:


> maybe it's affecting people's IPs?


I really wish I knew more about networking. All my experience is mostly user-side applications.
I have no idea why some users would be locked out whereas others are given free reign.
It seems to be that way if everyone who used a VPN changed their location to a different country.

But still. What are the mechanics behind it? I'm really curious.


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## ElCid (Apr 6, 2020)

trionicb said:


> I'm troubleshooting the issue with Yak via chat. Gave IPs and trace routes. Hopefully it will help.


Gave IPs? Whose IPs?


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## Ank57 (Apr 6, 2020)

Toby_Morpheus said:


> I really wish I knew more about networking. All my experience is mostly user-side applications.
> I have no idea why some users would be locked out whereas others are given free reign.
> It seems to be that way if everyone who used a VPN changed their location to a different country.
> 
> But still. What are the mechanics behind it? I'm really curious.


maybe Canada region-blocked certain parts of it?
i'm not quite sure if it's even possible to block certain parts of a website and not the whole thing


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## Toby_Morpheus (Apr 6, 2020)

Ank57 said:


> maybe Canada region-blocked certain parts of it?
> i'm not quite sure if it's even possible to block certain parts of a website and not the whole thing


I can see how it's possible, but it'd also take a whole lot of work. It'd be more effective to just block the whole thing and leave it at that.
Such a project to block just a part of the website and from what I've seen, even SFW art, would be pretty insane.
I could see maybe someone writing a bot to filter out stuff tagged as NSFW as soon as it's been posted but... that's just way too much work.


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## ElCid (Apr 6, 2020)

Ank57 said:


> maybe Canada region-blocked certain parts of it?
> i'm not quite sure if it's even possible to block certain parts of a website and not the whole thing


I already said it's not just Canadians experiencing it, and if that were the case, A LOT more people would be talking about this.


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## 2ndVenus (Apr 6, 2020)

This one doesnt load for me: www.furaffinity.net: Daycare Derby [3/3] by Bikupan
(warning nsfw submission)
UnitedKingdom


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## ElCid (Apr 6, 2020)

Now even some people's AVATARS aren't showing. This is getting absolutely ridiculous!


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## trionicb (Apr 6, 2020)

My IP address, and a trace route



ElCid said:


> Gave IPs? Whose IPs?


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## ElCid (Apr 6, 2020)

trionicb said:


> My IP address, and a trace route


Any idea if they're working on a fix for this? Like, an actual one that'll fix everything going wrong?


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## Ank57 (Apr 6, 2020)

FA Forums just showed me a 522 a few minutes ago


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## gliengul (Apr 6, 2020)

Misread Yak's earlier post: putting a random query string on the direct image link does actually load the image.
Canada, Residential, Cable, Shared with a user who is unlikely to use FA. Rebooted the modem once since this issue started just to make sure it wasn't buffer shenanigans. No VPN, No Proxy.

Prone to loading large numbers of tabs on FA (especially from the watch list), was under the impression that Firefox pipelined these requests in a way to avoid killing servers.


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## kiroku (Apr 6, 2020)

Toby_Morpheus said:


> I really wish I knew more about networking. All my experience is mostly user-side applications.
> I have no idea why some users would be locked out whereas others are given free reign.
> It seems to be that way if everyone who used a VPN changed their location to a different country.
> 
> But still. What are the mechanics behind it? I'm really curious.



So this issue is the CDN or "Content/Cloud delivery network." A CDN is basically redundant servers across different regions/parts of the world that host all the content that you see on the main site (in this case mostly images). CDN is used to make a website load fast for the user no matter where they are in the world. So if I'm in Asia and I load an image, I may be pulling the image from an server located physically closer to me in Asia whereas if you live in Oregon you might be loading that same image from a server in California.

And this error we see now makes perfect sense. The loading issue is server specific so that's why some users can see images just fine while others cannot. Depending on the CDN server it's pulling from, some seem to be having caching issues.


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## Toby_Morpheus (Apr 6, 2020)

kiroku said:


> So this issue is the CDN or "Content/Cloud delivery network." A CDN is basically redundant servers across different regions/parts of the world that host all the content that you see on the main site (in this case mostly images). CDN is used to make a website load fast for the user no matter where they are in the world. So if I'm in Asia and I load an image, I may be pulling the image from an server located physically closer to me in Asia whereas if you live in Oregon you might be loading that same image from a server in California.
> 
> And this error we see now makes perfect sense. The loading issue is server specific so that's why some users can see images just fine while others cannot. Depending on the CDN server it's pulling from, some seem to be having caching issues.


Okay. I thought it might have been something like that, but I've never dealt with that kind of networking before.
Any server I've ever run has been from a single location, generally on the other side of my big ol computer table.

Thanks for an answer. I'll keep it filed away.


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## ElCid (Apr 6, 2020)

Hope I'm not jinxing myself here, but it seems to have finally fixed itself on my end for now.


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## trionicb (Apr 6, 2020)

Yes, Yak is looking into it.


ElCid said:


> Any idea if they're working on a fix for this? Like, an actual one that'll fix everything going wrong?


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## ElCid (Apr 6, 2020)

trionicb said:


> Yes, Yak is looking into it.


Whatever's been done, it seems to have worked so far.


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## trionicb (Apr 7, 2020)

Yeap, same here. Things appear back to normal. Thanks Yak and company!


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## yak (Apr 7, 2020)

Thank you all for the feedback. The issue has been with Cloudflare CDN, which they confirmed has now been fixed.


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