Ask HN: Next steps when you're blacklisted by Akamai? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Next steps when you're blacklisted by Akamai?

11 pointsjraines6 comments

I don't know if anyone here has experienced this, but I'm currently blocked from numerous sites around the web because I'm apparently on some Akamai naughty list.

My web activity is pretty vanilla except for, I guess, cryptocurrency exchanges, and running a crypto wallet (SpectreCoin) that networks over Tor. (However, I first experienced the Akamai ban before using the latter).

Does anyone know how one lands on these lists other than the obvious answers (e.g. malware, which I'm pretty sure isn't the case for me)? Or does anyone know of a recourse other than getting a new IP address?

I think it stinks to have this centralized gatekeeper on the web who can essentially turn off your access to large parts of the web with no notice, explanation, or apparent recourse. I understand why it exists but these CDNs seem like a more ominous chokepoint on the "open" web than some others that get more attention.

ex-Akamai staff here!

You almost certainly have malware on your network somewhere. Going through Akamai's support channels isn't going to help; we're contractually bound in ways that prevent us being helpful to end users.

The good news is that the blacklists automatically age out once the behavior stops. Check to make sure you don't have any open wireless access points, run another scan for viruses and malware on all your computers. If you don't find anything, it could have been a malicious ad that was making your browser fire off a bunch of requests; if that's so, it'll fix itself pretty quickly.

Try asking your ISP for another IP address. If you run your own router and get your IP via DHCP you can try spoofing your MAC to something different which should give you a new address.

Why is Akamai blocking me? https://community.akamai.com/community/cloud-security/blog/2...

Found by searching "akamai remove from block list". Second hit.

Yes, I too can Google. But "contacting the site owner" for a decent percentage of the major sites on the internet isn't exactly a good recourse.

And btw I have tried that with one site that was actually critical to me, quickenloans.com, and it gets lost in an IT support black hole where they mostly don't know what I'm talking about.

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply you couldn't use Google. Since you didn't mention what steps you had taken, I was pointing out what the official documentation said.

OK - sorry I misinterpreted the tone of your comment

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