URGENT: Unable to verify API key due to 503 Akamai error

Hey @twomixers,

I replied to your email but also pasting the reply here in case anyone else faces the same issue.

It seems your hosting server IP is blocked by the MailChimp firewall. This is not something we can control, it’s not our firewall or plugin doing this, it’s the Akamai firewall.

Akamai is the firewall MailChimp and many other major websites use to protect their servers, which is why this is somewhat harder to fix.

If you are on shared hosting your server IP is shared with a number of clients, it’s possible that one of the other clients did something to get the IP blacklisted by the Akamai firewall.

When this happens, we recommend you to change your IP address because having a bad reputation at Akamai does not just affect the MailChimp API.

There are various ways to go about this.
Ask your webhost for a new IP address.
Migrate to a new webhost if your hosting company is unwilling to fulfill your request.
Configure your server to connect to the MailChimp API server using a proxy.

Hope that helps. If you have any questions, please let us know!

Yes, thank you for your response. Unfortunately, I have gone through all of these steps and the issue has not been resolved. I’ve spoken at length with MailChimp and my host and they assure me that is not their firewalls. My host has spent 2 days and 5 phone calls going through my server with a fine tooth comb. Nothing has been blacklisted, changing the IP address did not make a difference.

MailChimp tells me that they have ability to control their firewall, they can only generate a report for the block (as seen in the post above, that error code was provided by them). They specifically told me to contact the app developer. My host recommended the same thing so here I am.

I will try configuring my server to connect via proxy, I would appreciate any support articles for guidance. Tyia.

Hi,

I can assure you that that error including that reference number is returned by MailChimp’s Akamai firewall, and thus there really is nothing we can do in our plugin.

What sometimes happens when you switch over to a private hosting IP, is that that IP is only setup for inbound connections, and that the outbound cuRL connections still go over the old shared IP that has been blocked, so that is something you may want to check up on with your hosting provider.

As every hosting setup can be very different we don’t have any guidance on how to configure your hosting server.

I would like to talk to the MailChimp representative that told you that our plugin is at fault so that we can get more information about that. The error codes you mentioned are not generated by our plugin and we have never before heard MailChimp say that an Akamai 503 error could be caused by our plugin. You may ask this representative to contact me at support @ mc4wp.com referring to this thread.

Thanks

Here is what they told me:

Victoria Winfrey: I’ve tried 2 different plugins there are both
(03:47:05) Victoria Winfrey: neither will allow any other functions until the API key is verified
(03:48:29) Doyle: Okay im back – thanks for that. So the plugin you are using is called WC4Wp which is developed and managed by ibiricode and uses their servers to pass data over to our API. Screenshot https://d.pr/i/v3pooV You will want to reach out to them and ask them for support on how to get passed this issue as this is the error response that I got back from Akamai just now.
(03:48:36) Doyle: [reasonForFailure] => ERR_ACCESS_DENIED [wafDetails] => klrs_59780||REP_538098
(03:48:52) Victoria Winfrey: OKay, what about the other plugin?
(03:49:00) Doyle: the IP address of the plugin ( the third party plugin ) is getting blocked due to an IP reputation block
(03:49:19) Victoria Winfrey: Okay, I will definitely do that rn
(03:49:22) Doyle: you would want to reach out to the developer of that plugin to inquire about why their tools would be triggering that kind of error
(03:49:24) Doyle: sounds good

We do not use our server to pass data to MailChimp. The API connection is made directly from your hosting server to theirs. It is not our IP that is blocked, it is whatever IP your hosting provider is using for outbound cURl calls that is blocked.

If you want proof of that you can ask MailChimp to give you the IP that was used by the last 10 successful API calls from your API key, and you will see that that is your hosting providers shared IP.

I’m sorry to have to send you back to them, but really it’s their firewall blocking your hosting IP.

Again, i would like to stress that if you did get a new IP address from your hosting provider, and it was still not working, that it may be that the outbound cURL connection at your hosting server is still routed over the old shared IP instead of the new private hosting IP. First tier support at a hosting provider may not be familiar with network routing setup like that, as it’s a very complicated matter. |

Hope that helps. If you have any questions, please let me know!