503 errors on multiple websites

Hi @bianca205,

Based on the error message you reported, did you try the solutions noted here? Specfically, the topics “Adjust the max execution time” and “Handling memory errors.”

Also, check out this article for other potential solutions.

Cheers ??

Hi @bianca205, thanks for getting in touch.

It might be worth viewing your Live Traffic page for 503 blocks around the times the users are experiencing issues. When clicking the block line (or “eye” icon) to expand it, what does it the red text say for the reason? Sometimes brute force/rate limiting settings, or others can be too strict. Other times, you may see why the firewall decided to throw a 503 if it wasn’t caused by your own settings.

Take a look and let me know what you see so we can help you interpret the messages and suggest any changes.

Thanks,
Peter.

Hi, I will check your suggestions @wfpeter and get back in a couple of days.

I have WordFence installed on practically all the sites I manage for clients. And problems just started occuring randomly since shortly before I reported here. Before that nothing was wrong. Also for what it’s worth, I’m not facing issues with the scans at all.

Some clients experience the issue while others do not. I experienced it myself on one occasion. I will study some more, but since it’s only occuring with Wordfence activated, I’m pretty sure server time out is not the issue here.

Will close the ticket for now. I tried a different security plugin which leaded to a similar result. So I contacted the hosting company. Seems that there was enough memory available but it wasn’t explicitly dedicated to some packages which leaded to this result. Thanks for all that contributed.