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Comment by mdoms | Hacker News Reader

Ok I know it's off topic but I have got to ask, what is up with archive.md links? I have never in my life successfully loaded an archive.md URL. I either get straight up DNS errors or very occasionally I see a spinner that never finishes loading. Yet they must work for others because they're constantly being posted here.

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Maybe you're using cloudflare dns? https://community.cloudflare.com/t/archive-is-error-1001/182...

I am, on all of my devices. Interesting.

A great example of why you as a techie should be using your own recursive resolver.

Can someone explain in English what is going on here?

I thought I understand DNS but I guess I don't.

For Cloudflare DNS servers the archive.md DNS server tells them the URL is not configured. It's configured to change according to which DNS server queries it by location/IP. It's not something Cloudflare can fix unilaterally. (or something like that)

edit: elsewhere linked is an explanation: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19828702

Are you using Cloudflare DNS? The archive.is owners intentionally block it. It's occasionally blocked at the ISP level too.

I wish we have archive.md automatic for each post...

They usually help with sites that go down under a heavy traffic load, or that have a paywall.

Cloudflare DNS blocks

Huh. Any idea why?

You can read about their reasoning here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19828702

Posted by https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=eastdakota, whose profile reads:

> A little bit geek, wonk, and nerd. Repeat entrepreneur, recovering lawyer and former ski instructor. CEO & co-founder of CloudFlare. [ my public key: https://keybase.io/eastdakota; my proof: https://keybase.io/eastdakota/sigs/_uDY0ZsLTEWaNu5daRtuwzZtJ... ]

Why would it do that FFS ?

It doesn't/its complicated.

Cloudflare doesn't block them, Archive.is intentionally refuses to resolve DNS queries from 1.1.1.1 due to lack of geo information. See explanation here: https://jarv.is/notes/cloudflare-dns-archive-is-blocked/

The website blocks Cloudflare DNS, not the other way around.

That's untrue, you can see Cloudflare's explanation here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19828702

Short version: The Archive.is authoritative DNS servers do not give correct addresses to Cloudflare when Cloudflare asks for them

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