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How to Fix It When Your IP Has Been Banned

Four checks, three fixes in order, and what to send the site in an appeal.

Updated

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TL;DR

An IP ban means a website, or the CDN or firewall in front of it, refuses every request from your public IP address, whoever is using it. The fastest fix is to stop whatever was sending the site requests and wait, because many bans lift on a timer.

What an IP ban looks like

The wording shows which system blocked you: a search engine, a CDN, a web host or a forum or wiki.

WhereWhat you see
Google Search block pageOur systems have detected unusual traffic from your computer network. Please try your request again later.
Cloudflare page, errors 1006, 1007, 1008, 1106The owner of this website (example.com) has banned your IP address (203.0.113.7).
Cloudflare page, error 1005The owner of this website (example.com) has banned the autonomous system number (ASN) your IP address is in (64496) from accessing this website.
OVHcloud shared web hostingYour IP has been banned
phpBB forumA ban has been issued on your IP address.
MediaWiki sites using the default messagesYour IP address has been automatically blocked because it was used by another user
curl with default headers, Cloudflare IP banerror code: 1006

Why this happens

The site blocked your IP address after unusual traffic, which someone else may have sent.

Bans follow bursts of automated requests from a script, a browser plug-in or malware. On a VPN exit or behind carrier-grade NAT, strangers share your public IPv4 address, and their requests count as yours.

Diagnose your IP ban first

Phone and browser checks come first; the last one is for scripts.

  • Open the site on another device on your Wi-Fi without signing in; if it is refused too, the IP is banned, not your account.

  • Compare the IP the block page prints with What is my IP, IPv4 with IPv4; if they differ, a VPN or proxy exit was banned.

  • Read any Cloudflare error code; 1006 to 1008 or 1106 means an IP ban, 1005 your network, 1009 your country, 1015 a rate limit.

  • In a script, check whether the connection is refused before any HTTP reply; that points to a firewall ban such as fail2ban's.

Solutions ranked by effectiveness

The site chose to block the address, so each fix works with that choice, most common first.

  1. Most common fix

    Stop the traffic and wait it out

    Applies when a device on your network, yours included, sent the site a burst of requests. Google's block, for one, expires shortly after the requests stop.

    1. Close scripts and auto-refresh extensions that send requests to the site.

    2. Scan each device on the network for malware and remove extensions you don't recognize.

    3. Wait: a MediaWiki autoblock lasts 24 hours, a default fail2ban ban 10 minutes.

    4. Resume slowly, since fail2ban can be set to double the ban on each repeat.

  2. Check next

    Turn off the VPN or shared proxy

    Applies when you reach the site through a VPN, Tor or a free proxy. Others on that shared exit may have earned the ban, so leave it off here rather than trying other exits.

    1. Quit the VPN or Tor Browser, then check What is my IP shows your address.

    2. Check the operating system's proxy settings too, and clear any free proxy left there.

  3. If nothing else works

    Ask the site to lift the ban

    Applies when the ban outlasts a day without traffic, or you sent nothing unusual. Only the site's owner can have it lifted early.

    1. Use the site's contact form or, for an account, its in-app appeal.

    2. Include the IP, time, URL and any reference ID, such as a Cloudflare Ray ID.

    3. Write to the owner, not Cloudflare, whose support cannot override a site's security settings.

    4. If you need the site's data, ask about an official API and its limits.

Stop the IP ban from coming back

For scripts and shared networks that keep using the same public address.

  1. Honor Retry-After on every 429 or 503, and send that site nothing until it passes.

  2. Read robots.txt and the terms before a crawler's first run, and stop it at the first 403.

  3. Skip apps that offer likes or followers; Instagram warns against giving them account access.

  4. Before buying IP space from a broker, test that major sites accept it.

Collect where a site's terms allowCountry targeting keeps each residential IP in the country you are in.
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Related errors

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FAQ

It means a site has blocked your IP address, or a range that includes it, so every device using that address is shut out. An account ban instead follows your login to any network.

Remove the cause, then wait, because many bans expire within minutes to a day. If yours outlasts that, appeal to the site owner with the details from the block page.

Not in a way the site accepts: returning through a VPN goes around the owner's decision. Google Search even blocks all traffic from some VPNs, since it cannot tell abuse from normal use on them.

Wait and appeal instead, because evading a ban can break the site's rules and make things worse. Under 4chan's global rules, for example, a ban you evade becomes permanent.

Instagram's help center ties its 'Try again later' error to inauthentic activity on your account, so that block may follow the account rather than your IP. Secure the account and slow down.

Keep scripts within published limits and browse at a human pace. Google says very quick searches, or advanced terms that robots are known to use, can bring up its block page.

One IP at a polite pace

A sticky port keeps your job on one residential IP for up to 24 hours.

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