Oops!! Frustrated with error 523 origin is unreachable? We can help you.

Error 523 in Cloudflare indicates that there is something wrong in the origin web server and it has become unreachable.

At Bobcares, we often get requests to fix Cloudflare errors, as a part of our Server Management Services.

Today, let’s see how our Support Engineers fix this error for our customers.

Why this 523 origin is unreachable error happens?

Before diving into the fix, let’s check on why this 523 error happens.

In general, this error means a problem with the connection between Cloudflare and the original web server. And, it implies that the browser can be connected to the Cloudflare, but the Cloudflare is not able to connect with the original server.

Cloudflare is the one that acts as an intermediator between the user and the website server.

This can occur due to many reasons and some of them are:

• Changes in DNS settings
• Internet routing problems
• Issues with Cloudflare Railgun

Finally, accessing the website in the browser shows up as:

1. Change in DNS settings

This is the first and the important thing to be checked if you find an error like ‘Error 523 Origin Is Unreachable’.

At times, the hosting providers update the domain’s IP information for their customers. However, Cloudflare may not be aware of the change. In such cases, it requires to make sure that the new origin IP address for our A record is reflected in Cloudflare DNS settings.

2. Internet routing problems

Similarly, internet routing problems occurring between Cloudflare’s systems and the origin web server also give an error like this. This can be due to network errors, firewall restrictions and many more.

3. Problems  with Cloudflare Railgun

Likewise, Cloudflare Railgun also can cause a 523 error.

Before discussing this problem, let’s have a glance at Cloudflare Railgun.

Here, Railgun is a WAN optimization technology that speeds up the delivery of non-cached pages. It ensures that the connection between our origin server and the Cloudflare network is as fast as possible.

If a Cloudflare Hosting customer uses Railgun, then tweaks should be made to make the connection working.

Else, if users are running their own Railgun, then we should modify settings at Cloudflare end based on the configuration of our Railgun server.

How we fix 523 error

It’s time now to see the fix for the error 523 Origin Is Unreachable.

Recently, one of our customers approached us with the request to fix a 523 error on his website.

When we checked we found that the DNS settings of the domain were wrong. There was an update in the original server IP to prevent DDoS attacks. But, when searched we found that the customers DNS was still having the old IP.

Therefore, we provided the correct DNS settings and asked the customer to add it to the Cloudflare end.

Finally, this fixed his problem.

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Conclusion

In short, we discussed in detail on Error 523 Origin Unreachable error in Cloudflare and saw how our Support Engineers help customers in fixing it.