Search error?

Hobbes

ACCESS: Top Secret
Senior Member
Joined
9 May 2008
Messages
1,282
Reaction score
1,163
When I try to search the forum, I get this error message:

Error 403 We're sorry, but we could not fulfill your request for /forum/index.php?action=search2 on this server.
You do not have permission to access this server. Before trying again, close your browser, run anti-virus and anti-spyware software and remove any viruses and spyware from your computer.
Your technical support key is: c1ad-9d3d-b40c-8ddc
You can use this key to fix this problem yourself. If you are unable to fix the problem yourself, please contact the WEBMA5TER and be sure to provide the technical support key shown above.
A couple of days ago the search went well, so this is new. Anyone else having the same problem?
 
Could be a web browser related glitch. What one are you using today?

EDIT: Careful, could be a middleware attack of some sort, you might want to run a full anti-virus scan to be on the safe side.
 
I'm using Firefox. AV scan is running right now, I'll check later today on a different system.
 
I have experienced similar trouble in the past. This usually resulted from going back in the navigation and revisiting pages that had since been updated. And once the message appeared it stubbornly resisted any attempt to refresh said pages. I found that emptying the cache solved the problem every time. If removing the cached pages isn't enough, you might want to try removing the cookies too.
 
The forum has a plugin which blocks malicious software and users with infected PCs (http://bad-behavior.ioerror.us/) from accessing the board. This uses a variety of techniques to detect suspicious behavour which may indicate a bot which is trying to spam the forum.


As of right now, it has blocked 21685 access attempts in the last 7 days. So its a pretty vital component of keeping the forum secure. Unfortunately, a few of those 21685 blocks were you.


If you get an error like this, you should run an AV scan to be safe and clear out your temporary internet cache like Stephane said and it should be fine. In some instances, it might be a benign issue like a cached file problem or a "false positive" where the pattern of actions you took looked "spammy" and triggered a block.


Its never happened to me on Chrome so possibly its an IE issue? What browser do you use?
 
The virus scan came up negative, so I tried the search again today and it worked without problem. Yesterday, I was connected via a proxy server (internet filter/firewall at work), maybe that was a factor?
 

Similar threads

Back
Top Bottom