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Online Access Issues and Troubleshooting

Cloudflare errors

If you reach an error page like the one below, it indicates a problem with Cloudflare, a cybersecurity software used by many websites and online publishers. 

Screenshot of an error message from the Cloudflare cybersecurity service. It lists the web address and says "Website is not accessible via this address." At the bottom, it says "Performance & security by Cloudflare."

Cloudflare is a third-party service. The Thompson Library does not use it, but many of our databases and other online resources do, and sometimes this causes access problems, usually for people who are not on campus.

If you encounter this error message (or any other error message) from a library resource, please let us know right away so we can contact the publisher to get the problem fixed. In the meantime, you can usually access the resource from on campus, or from off campus using LabAnywhere. 

As always, please contact us any time you have a question or anything we can help with.

Why do Cloudflare errors occur?

Most of our online resources are restricted to UM-Flint affiliates (students, faculty, and staff), as well as to guests who are physically on campus. They rely on recognizing our Internet Protocol (IP) Address range, which is unique to this campus, to tell if somebody is actually on campus. To make it possible for UM-Flint affiliates to use our resources from other locations, we employ the EZproxy service which, after login, routes UM-Flint affiliates to a UM-Flint IP address. If you're on campus, EZproxy recognizes this and skips the login. (There are a few exceptions to this.)

When online resource providers work with Cloudflare, they provide it with lists of the IP address ranges of their subscribers. This is a security measure to prevent, for example, DDoS attacks. However, EZproxy goes through one specific IP address within our IP address range, and if the database provider has not sent the specific IP address to Cloudflare, for some reason, it may not recognize it. This results in users being blocked.

We are taking steps to address this issue. We notify online resource providers whenever we learn of a Cloudflare problem with their product, and have begun explicitly indicating our dedicated IP address to new providers, in addition to supplying the entire IP address range.

Examples:

  • IP address: 123.456.789.123
    Our EZproxy server uses a specific IP address like this.
  • IP address range: 123.456.*.*  or  123.456.0.0 - 123.456.255.255
    The UM-Flint campus uses an IP address range like this.
  • An IP address translates to the more familiar web address or URL: www.whizzocorporation.com  or  umflint.edu