School IP is blocked on InfinityFree-hosted websites returning 403 error — works fine on other netwo

Hosting Support
21

That sounds like an error displaying your page, NOT that its been blocked.

are there any other errors in the dev console that might hint at what the issue is?)

4 Likes
22

It only happens on one specific IP address (the school’s public IP).
On every other network or device, the website works perfectly fine without any errors.

Also, there are no visible errors in the dev console (Network tab shows 200 OK, but the page remains blank only on that IP).
So it’s not a coding or site error – it’s isolated specifically to that IP.

I believe it is related to a previous incident (high traffic/spam from the school’s IP) causing a silent restriction or filtering, either by hosting or Cloudflare.

23

One thing I will say for 100% certain, if you were IP blocked by any hosting provider, you wouldn’t get a “200 OK” message. that would defiantly go to some kind of 403 message.

I know, can you try accessing my site https://valthorin.pp.ua/ and see if that loads for you?

Because that is also hosted with Infinity Free, if that page loads, then we can say for 100% certain that there is no block by Infinity Free.

4 Likes
24

Hello again,

I have now tested with the school IP and gathered the network request details:

  • When accessing https://valthorin.pp.ua/, the first request is a POST that results in a 302 redirect.
  • The second request is a GET which returns a 200 OK status.

However, the actual page displayed is completely blank, exactly like what happens with my domain https://testi-bgt.com/ from the same school network.

Important points:

  • Status codes 200 and 302 show that the server and hosting are responding properly.
  • No 403 Forbidden, no Access Denied — just a blank page rendered.
  • DevTools (Network tab) shows no blocked or failed requests.
  • This suggests that the issue is not a server-side block, not a Cloudflare block, and not an InfinityFree hosting block.
  • It happens only with the school’s specific IP/network. On VPNs or home networks, everything loads fine.

Possible causes now:

  • Some school firewall/proxy/IPS system is filtering or modifying web traffic after the connection is established, causing the page body to be stripped or blocked.
  • Possible deep packet inspection (DPI) or security rules interfering.
  • Local DNS tampering or page rewriting after successful HTTPS handshake.
25

Just looking at my cloudflare dashboard, it looks like Cloudflare blocked the connection.

did you see the chalange box?

image
image374×117 2.2 KB

Normally I wouldn’t reccomend this, but try:

or change your cloudflare set up to bypass cloudflare temporarily.

2 Likes
26

I saw the challenge box, but it was when opening your link (valthorin.pp.ua), not my own site (testi-bgt.com).
On my own site, testi-bgt.com, there is no challenge box — it just loads a blank page on the school IP.

Since Cloudflare protection is important for our site (due to previous issues), I would prefer not to disable it or switch back to InfinityFree nameservers unless there is no other solution.
Is there any other way to solve it while keeping Cloudflare active?

27

I’m only suggesting disabling cloudflare temporarily to try and eliminate that as the cause of the problem. I appreciate how important it is, I use it on my site because of having had multiple DDOS attacks against my own sites.

I’ve just tried adding a custom allow rule, using your schools IP address (185.188.217.37) to my cloudflare. I’m also bypassing cache temporarily to see if that helps.

Can you try my page again to see if that lets you access it?

2 Likes
28

Thank you for trying that!
I just tested your page again (valthorin.pp.ua) from the school IP, but unfortunately it still shows a blank page.
No challenge box, no error message — just completely blank, same as before.

Also, about disabling Cloudflare temporarily:
I totally understand your point and your experience with DDoS attacks.
But since we’ve already had similar issues earlier, I would really prefer to keep Cloudflare active if possible.
If nothing else works, I will consider it later as a last option.

29

Unfortunately, I’ve now run out of ideas.

Hopefully someone else here will have some more ideas as to what could be causing the problem

3 Likes
30

Instead of switching nameservers, look in the sidebar of Cloudflare for the “Disable Cloudflare” link button.

This looks really weird to me, is there anything in the elements tab that could be a rendering error? Anything in the console tab? Try an incognito tab to get around any extensions / adblocks on the computer. My guess is still local firewall, but that is a very weird way to block websites.

6 Likes
31

Today I also tested the old domain (etesting.ct.ws), which is not connected to Cloudflare, and I noticed that it also loads correctly now.

Since both domains (the one protected by Cloudflare and the one directly on InfinityFree) are now working fine from the school IP,
I believe the issue was not caused by Cloudflare, but was probably a temporary block, network issue or cache problem related to the hosting provider (InfinityFree) or the school’s network.

Everything seems stable now.
Thanks again to everyone for the support and suggestions!

2 Likes
32

I’m glad to hear its all working for you now :slight_smile:

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