Re: [google-appengine] unusual traffic from your computer network

2013-04-10 Thread Nick
This just impacted our live site as well.

Users going to domain.com.au are blocked, users going to www.domain.com.au 
are not.

We're using cloudflare, everything seems ok there.
We do have monitoring (Pingdom) which hits the naked domain, not sure if 
this is what triggered this. Either way, it appears to block out all users.

On Thursday, April 4, 2013 3:05:43 AM UTC+11, Jeff Schnitzer wrote:

 If you've been reading about my troubles with this issue in the past, 
 you're going to laugh at my suggestion: 

 Use CloudFlare.  CF's IP blocks are apparently whitelisted by Google 
 now and won't trip Google's alarms. You can disable CF's threat 
 monitoring and response system - and even better, you get metrics so 
 that you have some idea when/why it's being tripped when it is 
 enabled. 

 This seems like a silly way of routing around Google's undocumented 
 and unwanted service, but it should get the job done. 

   Client - Client's Proxy - CF - GAE 

 Jeff 


 On Mon, Apr 1, 2013 at 2:26 PM, Peter Warren 
 pe...@treehouselogic.comjavascript: 
 wrote: 
  I see posts about this issue going back years, so sorry if I'm kicking a 
  dead horse, but I haven't been able to find any resolution. 
  
  (I’ve posted this message twice on a new account, once 5 days ago and 
 once 3 
  days ago, and neither message has actually made it into the forum. So 
 I’m 
  trying my old account. Sorry if this post ends up getting duplicated.) 
  
  We have a paid app on app engine we've been using to serve a commercial 
 web 
  app for 3 years. The app is mapped to a custom domain via Google Apps. I 
  think that’s the crux here. 
  
  We have one application that serves different content for different 
 clients. 
  Each of our clients has reverse proxy set up on their web server to 
 fetch 
  the content from our custom domain on app engine. We use reverse proxy 
  simply to mask our domain to the clients' domains. There is no caching, 
 and 
  the reverse proxy is Apache2 with out of the box configuration. 
  
  On March 26, after 2 years of happily serving content to a particular 
  client's server, Google for some reason decided that this server was 
  violating its Terms of Service and started denying content to that 
 client's 
  reverse proxy, redirecting users to the www.google.com/sorry/misc page 
 with 
  the message that: Our systems have detected unusual traffic from your 
  computer network. This of course caused our application to be totally 
  unusable. We sent requests to Google for more information and heard 
 nothing. 
  The next day App Engine decided that particular server was ok again and 
  resumed serving our content to the problem server. 
  
  Then again on March 30 Google decided to ban this particular server. 
  
  Our app is very low volume, averaging about .05 requests/second. There 
 were 
  no traffic spikes that day. There were no configuration changes to the 
  reverse proxy or any of our infrastructure. 
  
  The only information I can find on the issue is here: 
  
 http://support.google.com/websearch/bin/answer.py?hl=enanswer=86640rd=1. 

  
  That page suggests that the client's server was doing one of these 
 things: 
  
  •Sending automated queries 
  •Using software that sends queries to Google to determine how a 
 website 
  or webpage ranks on Google for various queries 
  •'Meta searching' Google 
  •Performing 'offline' searches on Google 
  
  I could find no evidence of any requests being sent to Google search. 
 There 
  were open requests to one of Google's nameservers, presumably to look up 
 our 
  app's ip from its Google Apps custom domain. Surely that isn't a 
 violation 
  of Terms of Service. We found no malware on the machine. So at this 
 point we 
  have no idea why Google stopped serving the content to that particular 
  server, or why it resumed service. Additionally all our other clients' 
  reverse proxies continued to work fine. There was even another reverse 
 proxy 
  successfully fetching the same content that Google was denying to the 
 other 
  proxy. 
  
  Switching to the yyy.appspot.com domain from our custom domain seems to 
 fix 
  the problem, so I really suspect the problem is with the domain mapping. 
  
  I sent a support request to Google Apps, and of course they said they 
  couldn’t look into it, stating: “You are correct that the custom domain 
  mapping is created in the Google Apps Control Panel and is handled there 
  however any issues with the mapping of Google App Engine apps needs to 
 be 
  investigated and supported by the App Engine team.” 
  
  So I’m left wondering why Google has denied requests from this 
 particular 
  server after 2 years when nothing has changed. And yet Google continues 
 to 
  happily serve our other clients who are using the exact same proxy 
 settings 
  on other machines. 
  
  Searching through previous posts, the best information I can gather is 
 that 
  maybe our proxies headers are 

Re: [google-appengine] unusual traffic from your computer network

2013-04-08 Thread Nacho Coloma
Funny, because in the past CloudFlare was getting banned quickly for 
unusually high traffic. I suppose they have been whitelisted since.

On Wednesday, April 3, 2013 6:05:43 PM UTC+2, Jeff Schnitzer wrote:

 If you've been reading about my troubles with this issue in the past, 
 you're going to laugh at my suggestion: 

 Use CloudFlare.  CF's IP blocks are apparently whitelisted by Google 
 now and won't trip Google's alarms. You can disable CF's threat 
 monitoring and response system - and even better, you get metrics so 
 that you have some idea when/why it's being tripped when it is 
 enabled. 

 This seems like a silly way of routing around Google's undocumented 
 and unwanted service, but it should get the job done. 

   Client - Client's Proxy - CF - GAE 

 Jeff 


 On Mon, Apr 1, 2013 at 2:26 PM, Peter Warren 
 pe...@treehouselogic.comjavascript: 
 wrote: 
  I see posts about this issue going back years, so sorry if I'm kicking a 
  dead horse, but I haven't been able to find any resolution. 
  
  (I’ve posted this message twice on a new account, once 5 days ago and 
 once 3 
  days ago, and neither message has actually made it into the forum. So 
 I’m 
  trying my old account. Sorry if this post ends up getting duplicated.) 
  
  We have a paid app on app engine we've been using to serve a commercial 
 web 
  app for 3 years. The app is mapped to a custom domain via Google Apps. I 
  think that’s the crux here. 
  
  We have one application that serves different content for different 
 clients. 
  Each of our clients has reverse proxy set up on their web server to 
 fetch 
  the content from our custom domain on app engine. We use reverse proxy 
  simply to mask our domain to the clients' domains. There is no caching, 
 and 
  the reverse proxy is Apache2 with out of the box configuration. 
  
  On March 26, after 2 years of happily serving content to a particular 
  client's server, Google for some reason decided that this server was 
  violating its Terms of Service and started denying content to that 
 client's 
  reverse proxy, redirecting users to the www.google.com/sorry/misc page 
 with 
  the message that: Our systems have detected unusual traffic from your 
  computer network. This of course caused our application to be totally 
  unusable. We sent requests to Google for more information and heard 
 nothing. 
  The next day App Engine decided that particular server was ok again and 
  resumed serving our content to the problem server. 
  
  Then again on March 30 Google decided to ban this particular server. 
  
  Our app is very low volume, averaging about .05 requests/second. There 
 were 
  no traffic spikes that day. There were no configuration changes to the 
  reverse proxy or any of our infrastructure. 
  
  The only information I can find on the issue is here: 
  
 http://support.google.com/websearch/bin/answer.py?hl=enanswer=86640rd=1. 

  
  That page suggests that the client's server was doing one of these 
 things: 
  
  •Sending automated queries 
  •Using software that sends queries to Google to determine how a 
 website 
  or webpage ranks on Google for various queries 
  •'Meta searching' Google 
  •Performing 'offline' searches on Google 
  
  I could find no evidence of any requests being sent to Google search. 
 There 
  were open requests to one of Google's nameservers, presumably to look up 
 our 
  app's ip from its Google Apps custom domain. Surely that isn't a 
 violation 
  of Terms of Service. We found no malware on the machine. So at this 
 point we 
  have no idea why Google stopped serving the content to that particular 
  server, or why it resumed service. Additionally all our other clients' 
  reverse proxies continued to work fine. There was even another reverse 
 proxy 
  successfully fetching the same content that Google was denying to the 
 other 
  proxy. 
  
  Switching to the yyy.appspot.com domain from our custom domain seems to 
 fix 
  the problem, so I really suspect the problem is with the domain mapping. 
  
  I sent a support request to Google Apps, and of course they said they 
  couldn’t look into it, stating: “You are correct that the custom domain 
  mapping is created in the Google Apps Control Panel and is handled there 
  however any issues with the mapping of Google App Engine apps needs to 
 be 
  investigated and supported by the App Engine team.” 
  
  So I’m left wondering why Google has denied requests from this 
 particular 
  server after 2 years when nothing has changed. And yet Google continues 
 to 
  happily serve our other clients who are using the exact same proxy 
 settings 
  on other machines. 
  
  Searching through previous posts, the best information I can gather is 
 that 
  maybe our proxies headers are malformed and Google doesn't like them. 
 Why 
  would Google randomly complain after 2 years of happily serving content 
 to 
  this same proxy with the same headers? 
  
  Previous posts described 

Re: [google-appengine] unusual traffic from your computer network

2013-04-03 Thread Jeff Schnitzer
If you've been reading about my troubles with this issue in the past,
you're going to laugh at my suggestion:

Use CloudFlare.  CF's IP blocks are apparently whitelisted by Google
now and won't trip Google's alarms. You can disable CF's threat
monitoring and response system - and even better, you get metrics so
that you have some idea when/why it's being tripped when it is
enabled.

This seems like a silly way of routing around Google's undocumented
and unwanted service, but it should get the job done.

  Client - Client's Proxy - CF - GAE

Jeff


On Mon, Apr 1, 2013 at 2:26 PM, Peter Warren pe...@treehouselogic.com wrote:
 I see posts about this issue going back years, so sorry if I'm kicking a
 dead horse, but I haven't been able to find any resolution.

 (I’ve posted this message twice on a new account, once 5 days ago and once 3
 days ago, and neither message has actually made it into the forum. So I’m
 trying my old account. Sorry if this post ends up getting duplicated.)

 We have a paid app on app engine we've been using to serve a commercial web
 app for 3 years. The app is mapped to a custom domain via Google Apps. I
 think that’s the crux here.

 We have one application that serves different content for different clients.
 Each of our clients has reverse proxy set up on their web server to fetch
 the content from our custom domain on app engine. We use reverse proxy
 simply to mask our domain to the clients' domains. There is no caching, and
 the reverse proxy is Apache2 with out of the box configuration.

 On March 26, after 2 years of happily serving content to a particular
 client's server, Google for some reason decided that this server was
 violating its Terms of Service and started denying content to that client's
 reverse proxy, redirecting users to the www.google.com/sorry/misc page with
 the message that: Our systems have detected unusual traffic from your
 computer network. This of course caused our application to be totally
 unusable. We sent requests to Google for more information and heard nothing.
 The next day App Engine decided that particular server was ok again and
 resumed serving our content to the problem server.

 Then again on March 30 Google decided to ban this particular server.

 Our app is very low volume, averaging about .05 requests/second. There were
 no traffic spikes that day. There were no configuration changes to the
 reverse proxy or any of our infrastructure.

 The only information I can find on the issue is here:
 http://support.google.com/websearch/bin/answer.py?hl=enanswer=86640rd=1.

 That page suggests that the client's server was doing one of these things:

 •Sending automated queries
 •Using software that sends queries to Google to determine how a website
 or webpage ranks on Google for various queries
 •'Meta searching' Google
 •Performing 'offline' searches on Google

 I could find no evidence of any requests being sent to Google search. There
 were open requests to one of Google's nameservers, presumably to look up our
 app's ip from its Google Apps custom domain. Surely that isn't a violation
 of Terms of Service. We found no malware on the machine. So at this point we
 have no idea why Google stopped serving the content to that particular
 server, or why it resumed service. Additionally all our other clients'
 reverse proxies continued to work fine. There was even another reverse proxy
 successfully fetching the same content that Google was denying to the other
 proxy.

 Switching to the yyy.appspot.com domain from our custom domain seems to fix
 the problem, so I really suspect the problem is with the domain mapping.

 I sent a support request to Google Apps, and of course they said they
 couldn’t look into it, stating: “You are correct that the custom domain
 mapping is created in the Google Apps Control Panel and is handled there
 however any issues with the mapping of Google App Engine apps needs to be
 investigated and supported by the App Engine team.”

 So I’m left wondering why Google has denied requests from this particular
 server after 2 years when nothing has changed. And yet Google continues to
 happily serve our other clients who are using the exact same proxy settings
 on other machines.

 Searching through previous posts, the best information I can gather is that
 maybe our proxies headers are malformed and Google doesn't like them. Why
 would Google randomly complain after 2 years of happily serving content to
 this same proxy with the same headers?

 Previous posts described this problem as a landmine, where stepping in the
 wrong place can trigger it. Seems more like a surprise missile attack to me
 because we were simply walking the same path we'd walked every day for 2
 years when everything blew up.

 Obviously this is totally unacceptable. We can't very well offer a
 commercial service to clients with the caveat that it might blow up at any
 time, and we have no idea when or why.

 I also don't understand the