- This topic has 62 replies, 17 voices, and was last updated Jan 23-5:56 pm by Brian Masinick.
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CharlesV
I wanted to inform those who are interested about why Cloudflare was implemented on the antiX forum. (Management agreed it would be useful for me to explain.)
Some statistics first
After DNS was fully propagated and the forum was 100% live on Cloudflare, the first 24 hours produced some eye-opening numbers:
• Blocked known bots / IPs / countries: 7.96K events
• Challenged known bots: 8.67K events
• Protected login & admin pages: 2.51K eventsThat’s nearly 19,000 malicious or automated events in just 24 hours. These blocked requests would have slowed page loads, increased hosting costs, and posed real security concerns for legitimate users.
The reality of today’s internet is that well over half of all traffic is automated. Distinguishing real users from bots is no longer optional — it’s necessary to keep services usable.
Why Cloudflare?
I’ve used Cloudflare for many years specifically to mitigate bot abuse and malicious traffic. While there are other approaches, Cloudflare has proven to be a robust, well-maintained platform that stays current with evolving threats.
Unofficially testing — both in the week prior to enabling Cloudflare and in the days since — the forum feels faster, with snappier page loads. With these protections in place, re-enabling user registration is also now a realistic option again.
A brief reassurance
Cloudflare is being used solely as a protective layer for the forum. No additional tracking or data collection is being introduced beyond what is required for basic security and abuse prevention. The goal is simply to keep the forum accessible, responsive, and safe for the community.
If you encounter a challenge page or captcha when accessing the forum, this is normal security behavior — just complete the verification and you’ll be through. Users on VPNs or Tor may see these more frequently.
The antiX forum exists to support an excellent distribution and its users, and it’s worth protecting. I was asked to help ensure that, and I take that responsibility seriously.
If anyone has questions, concerns, or encounters issues related to Cloudflare, please feel free to reply here or send me a PM. I’m happy to explain further or look into anything that needs attention.
*Linux - This is the way!
anti-apXos
If you encounter a challenge page or captcha when accessing the forum, this is normal security behavior — just complete the verification and you’ll be through.
In my experience, this is not always true. I get flagged as a bot or else stuck in an infinite confirmation loop more than half the time I deal with Cloudflare. I have not been able to login on this forum using my phone at all since the switch to Cloudflare. I guess this would lead to some exageration in the numbers you quoted. What percent of the blocks are actually just regular people who can’t pass Cloudflare’s challenge for whatever reason? Bots calling people bots…
Blocked known bots / IPs / countries: 7.96K events
Which countries are being blocked?
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CharlesV
At this time, no countries are being blocked. Only certain known bots and a couple of ip’s that were already listed as being blocked.
Are you using a VPN on your phone? Infinite confirmation loops can be caused by a few things, and I will be working on streamlining everything in the next couple of days.
And no, there is no way for me to know bot vs human, unless I look through for some specifics ( ie your ip, user agent strings, etc )
In hunting down issues, the best thing is to coordinate a time to try to login, provide me with your IP and then I can check logs and see where / how you are being trapped.
*Linux - This is the way!
Brian Masinick
Charles, thank you for your time and effort. I’ve definitely noticed the difference and I have been able to use different computers and I am using my phone right now to write this.
Who knows what obstacles we may face. Your background, experience and expertise are appreciated very much.
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Brian Masinick
Alternate "Search B":
This search pageCharlesV
Thank you Brian.
*Linux - This is the way!
anticapitalista
Charles, thank you for your time and effort. I’ve definitely noticed the difference and I have been able to use different computers and I am using my phone right now to write this.
Who knows what obstacles we may face. Your background, experience and expertise are appreciated very much.
+1 from me too!
Philosophers have interpreted the world in many ways; the point is to change it.
antiX with runit - leaner and meaner.
Germ
Thanks Charles. Your efforts are appreciated!
Stephen
Regsitered Linux User #274693
marcelocripe
CharlesV, thank you very much.
CharlesV
Very welcome and thanks all!
*Linux - This is the way!
Xunzi_23
Thank you CharlesV,
I get the prove you are human scream (screen every time i want to login)
LibreWolf UBlock, nothing special about that,
Last week or so not getting IP Blocked which is good.
My outwardly seen IP is from a provider, vodafone Cable and depending
on exit point shared with thousands of users.IP blocks are especialy noxious in such cases.
It happens a lot with cloudflare.
Robin
+1, many thanks for all the effort keeping the forum safe and sound!
But seems I can’t login from from lightwight browsers like links2 on antiX 23.1 runit full 64 nor 32 bit live ? I didn’t make it work here, while login from bolide firefox ESR only once asked me whether I’m actually a robin or a robot, before classifying me as human. (I guess, a robot could simply have answered the same, but who knows…)
If anyone has questions, concerns
Does Cloudflare itself collect and accumulate user data of antiX forum users with cloud flare protection data from other web sites, so a pretty clear user profile in the meaning of Surveillance Capitalism is created?
»The economic pressures of capitalism are driving the intensification of online connection and monitoring, with spaces of social life opening up to saturation by corporate actors, directed at making profits and/or regulating behavior.«
Windows is like a submarine. Open a window and serious problems will start.
I really like being called a human for a change 🙂
hi Robin,
Cloudflare Privacy Policy also does not apply to our Customers’ domains, websites, APIs, applications, and networks, which may have their own terms and privacy policies. Our Customers are solely responsible for establishing policies for and ensuring compliance with all applicable laws and regulations, including those relating to the collection of personal information, in connection with the use of our Services by End Users with whom our Customers interact.I can not recommend Cloudflare DNS, there are some privacy respecting options available.
DNS ipv4 and or ipv6 can easily be set in conmann interface, for LibrewWolf in the browser too.Whatever we do, we are in a surveilled environment.
- This reply was modified 9 months, 1 week ago by Xunzi_23.
- This reply was modified 9 months, 1 week ago by Xunzi_23.
CharlesV
@Robin – I have found the issue with light browsers is typically the user_agent string. If that is not ‘normal’ then CloudFlare may get suspicious and think the browser is a bot and will shut it down. I would suggest having a look at your user_agent and see if adjusting that works.
Also using tor, a vpn, or other ‘known traffic pattern’ can cause CF to be grumpy as well.
For data – no, CF only collects IP’s for known bots, or suspected bots and that may get into their system and be used other locations. As for antiX data.. IP’s and user_agents are logged, but that log is swept after 14 hrs. ( basically long enough for us to check it and see if there is an issue, or find / hunt down connection issues. )
As for DNS on your machine .. Xunzi_23 is correct that many locations that provide DNS are tracked and logged, it is one of the methods used to see what is popular etc. It also can keep you out of trouble, if your DNS provider is tracking problems too. ( like CF) There are many methods to a clean, non tracking dns, but frankly many people use browsers that track, don’t cleanup cookies and cache etc etc.. so .. most people are tracked, (regardless of dns servers) unless they take REALLY good security precautions.
*Linux - This is the way!
As for DNS on your machine .. Xunzi_23 is correct that many locations that provide DNS are tracked and logged
@CharlesV and @Xunzi_23 Concerning DNS: I’m aware of this and use trustworthy privacy aware dns servers already myself for a long time instead of the ones assigned automatically by my ISP, had recommended that to others here in forum already occasionally.
the issue with light browsers is typically the user_agent string
Not in links2. There isn’t even a cloudflare request. While when not logged in, antiXforum shows up fine in links2 on antiX 23.1 full runit (64 and 32 bit both, fully apt-upgraded). But when filling in username and password, after clicking on “log in”, the forum site only shows a blank grey background, nothing more. I guess this is where cloudflare would be expected to do something in order to grant access.
Sorry, I have no clue how to change the user_agent string in a browser. If I recollect correctly, there were some plugins for firefox, but in this browser everything works fine with the cloudflare forum protection, so no need to do so. But in links2 there are no plugins like these?
I’d recommend to check this yourself on a Live antiX 23.1 or 23.2, links2 is preinstalled if I’m not mistaken, so simply click it open and try logging on to the forum ( Or install it on MX for checking out, if you prefer. See below for the needed package ). Maybe there is something which can be done to accept lightwight browsers on weak devices with low resources again logging in to the forum.
$ apt-cache policy links2 links2: Installed: 2.29-1.0antix2 Candidate: 2.29-1.0antix2 Version table: *** 2.29-1.0antix2 500 500 http://ftp.halifax.rwth-aachen.de/mxlinux/packages/antix/bookworm bookworm/main amd64 Packages 100 /var/lib/dpkg/status 2.28-1+b2 500 500 http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian bookworm/main amd64 PackagesWindows is like a submarine. Open a window and serious problems will start.
sybok
I guess this is where cloudflare would be expected to do something in order to grant access.
That’s probably some java(-script) work underneath that is required to display the confirmation.
I understand the reasons of implementing Cloudflare.
Still, sorry to see another site succumb to this.
It was (potentially) useful to login from terminal; I know of a topic (or posts in another topic) examining this and the forum member appreciated it was possible.Side-note: a privacy oriented add-on JShelter does not work with Cloudflare; perhaps the Cloudflare verification process requests information that the default setting of JShelter deems to much intrusive.
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