# Intermittent connection errors **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [March 18, 2019, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intermittent-connection-errors/831337 "2019-03-18T22:39:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AHarris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bcef8e/32.png) [@AHarris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHarris)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2019, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intermittent-connection-errors/831337/1 "2019-03-18T22:39:51Z")
I’m getting intermittent connection error when I navigate the boards (both from my favourites and when clicking on links to threads or forums). If I go back and repeat the action, it usually works. The specific error is: 502 - Bad Gateway ---
**Author:** ![steatopygia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steatopygia/32/3132_2.png) [@steatopygia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steatopygia)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2019, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intermittent-connection-errors/831337/2 "2019-03-18T23:18:16Z")
FWIW, I’m not having any problems. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2019, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intermittent-connection-errors/831337/3 "2019-03-18T23:28:47Z")
I’ve noticed the same thing. think it’s New Zealand’s fault. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2019, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intermittent-connection-errors/831337/4 "2019-03-18T23:56:40Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > I’ve noticed the same thing. think it’s New Zealand’s fault. Huh? Please explain. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2019, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intermittent-connection-errors/831337/5 "2019-03-19T05:34:10Z")
> [@snfaulkner](#): > > Huh? Please explain. It was a joke, based on New Zealand’s recent attempts at censorship. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2019, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intermittent-connection-errors/831337/6 "2019-03-19T05:47:57Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > It was a joke, based on New Zealand’s recent attempts at censorship. …there isn’t anything particularly fucking funny about what has happened here over the last few days and as a New Zealander I’d like to get it on the record that your joke is both oblivious, offensive, and off-topic. If you’d like to discuss this more I’d be happy to chat to you in the pit. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2019, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intermittent-connection-errors/831337/7 "2019-03-19T06:26:53Z")
**Moderator Note** > [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > It was a joke, based on New Zealand’s recent attempts at censorship. Given the emotionally sensitive and tragic nature of what has been going on over there, this is inappropriate and offensive in ATMB. It’s way out of line in a post about connection issues. Don’t do this again in this forum. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2019, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intermittent-connection-errors/831337/8 "2019-03-19T06:48:35Z")
A 502 Bad Gateway error is kind of a generic error code that means something got borked when talking to the server. It’s a server side problem, not a user problem. What it usually means around here is that the server got temporarily swamped and couldn’t handle the load. I don’t have access to the server side of things, but I know that they have recently been doing stuff related to DDoS protection. DDoS is “Distributed Denial of Service”. If you aren’t familiar with the term, a denial of service attack is when someone maliciously attempts to knock a host or web site offline by simply swamping it with so many network messages that the server gets too busy dealing with those to answer normal messages in a reasonable time. A “distributed” attack comes from multiple sites, often infected computers. Sometimes DDoS protection systems get a little too aggressive in their protection, which can cause sporadic 502 errors. I suspect that our hosting site’s recent DDoS changes may have made their DDoS protection system a little too over-protective. I personally haven’t seen the problem in regular posts, but I have had sporadic 502 errors when doing particular moderator-related things. Let us know if you keep getting errors. If it continues to be an issue, I can ask our admin to have a chat with the server folks. ---
**Author:** ![AHarris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bcef8e/32.png) [@AHarris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHarris)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2019, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intermittent-connection-errors/831337/9 "2019-03-19T13:22:17Z")
FWIW, the technical issue appears to be resolved.