Game server gets blocked to any cloudflare destinations

Hi, I help run a FiveM game server, which has quite a number of active players reaching peak 600 each week. We have multiple intergrations like Discord Webhooks, Tebex and other destinations all behind cloudflare which we can't control.

Sometimes we randomly get blocked from making ANY requests to Cloudflare website, Discord, Tebex or any other website that's utilises Cloudflare CDN (proxy).

Is there anyway to workout what causes this, as we can't seem to find any treads to what makes this happen. Our proxied domains to the game server keep working, so inbound requests from Cloudflare work as expected, but anything new outbound connections just get blocked (time out).

Is anyone able to help here?

Erisa•9/23/24, 2:43 PM

run mtr to find out where in the route its failing, could be cloudflare but could also be your ISP

Erisa•9/23/24, 2:44 PM

some hosting providers will incorrectly identify game traffic as ddos and null route the traffic, which is unhelpful

FingerlessGloves [5'9"]OP•9/23/24, 2:46 PM

We have another server on the same provider that doesn't get the issue when it happens. No players drop when the issue is happening, so it's not an overall routing issue.
I can get a traceroute done next time tho.

Erisa•9/23/24, 2:48 PM

by the way, when it happens, is it a 403 response from these sites or does the network level fail

FingerlessGloves [5'9"]OP•9/23/24, 2:48 PM

Since any proxied connections from Cloudflare still work, I assume the routing will be ok, otherwise those wouldn't work.

What happens is player connects via the CF proxy, which does a little handshake then offers up the direct server IP to connect with.

EErisa by the way, when it happens, is it a 403 response from these sites or does the n...

FingerlessGloves [5'9"]OP•9/23/24, 2:48 PM

no reponse at all, times out

Erisa•9/23/24, 2:48 PM

Erisa•9/23/24, 2:49 PM

then yeah mtr/traceroute would be the first step, even if you have another server at the same provider it could be something at a particular router (literally anywhere in the path between your server and cloudflares) or some block specific to that servers IP

FingerlessGloves [5'9"]OP•9/23/24, 2:50 PM

I'll get one done at the same time when it happens next.
We also changed IP recently, to see if it would help but the same

FingerlessGloves [5'9"]OP•9/23/24, 2:50 PM

I assume CF is blocking the certain IP, due to many requests happening, but their all legitimate

FingerlessGloves [5'9"]OP•9/23/24, 2:51 PM

Is there a global rate limit for CF?

FingerlessGloves [5'9"]OP•9/23/24, 2:51 PM

I can't seem to find one myself.

Erisa•9/23/24, 2:51 PM

there isnt, the only way youll be blocked across every zone is if you trigger the ddos protections

Erisa•9/23/24, 2:52 PM

which are dynamic and hard to predict