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Admin Tools

#17004 Service Unavailable. Technical description: 504 Gateway Time-out - The web server is not responding

Posted in ‘Admin Tools for Joomla! 4 & 5’
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Everybody will be able to see its contents. Do not include usernames, passwords or any other sensitive information.

Environment Information

Joomla! version
n/a
PHP version
n/a
Admin Tools version
n/a

Latest post by nicholas on Thursday, 08 August 2013 00:42 CDT

Wednesday, 07 August 2013 12:56 CDT

fisher12188
Mandatory information about my setup:

Have I read the related troubleshooter articles above before posting (which pages?)? Yes
Have I searched the tickets before posting? Yes
Have I read the documentation before posting (which pages?)? Yes
Joomla! version: 2.5.9 (I think I can't confirm)
PHP version: (unknown)
MySQL version: (unknown)
Host: Plesk on a leased Linux Box
Admin Tools version: (unknown)

Description of my issue: All of a sudden the site started blocking everyone as a spammer. I've been getting 504 Gateway Time-out - The web server is not responding. I've cleaned admin tools completely from the file structure and database, which normally works and it's behaving the same way. Anyone new (new IP) views it they get the site but as soon as they try to login to the backend it's throws you are a spammer. I tried doing a fresh Joomla install in a seperate subfolder and same issues. I apologize for not being able to provide to above information because I can't access thes ite.

http://www.fullpotentialit.com is the website.

Wednesday, 07 August 2013 15:25 CDT

nicholas
Let's make sure that the problem is indeed caused by Admin Tools. In order to do so, try the following:

1. Try setting the Error Reporting level in your Global Configuration to "None". Many errors are caused by harmless PHP Notices and Warnings being output to the browser, breaking anything which requires HTTP header manipulation such as Joomla!'s session management, AJAX calls and download systems.

2. Try to replicate the issue after disabling the "System - Admin Tools" plugin. If you can still replicate the issue, it is not caused by Admin Tools. Disabling that plugin means that Admin Tools code (including the Web Application Firewall) is not running on your site.

3. If you suspect an issue with the .htaccess file, replace its contents with the contents of the stock htaccess.txt file shipped with every version of Joomla!. If you are on GoDaddy please wait for 1-30 minutes for the changes to be effective. Then, retry loading the problem page. If you can still reproduce the error, then it is not caused by .htaccess Maker.

If doing any of the above resulted in the issue still occurring, it's not related with Admin Tools and I can't help you. If doing any of the above did stop the issue from occurring, we'll have to do some troubleshooting.

First go to Admin Tools, Web Application Firewall, Configure WAF. Make sure "Log security exceptions" is set to Yes; if it's not, set it to Yes and click on Save. Now try reproducing your issue. Immediately after that, please go to Admin Tools, Web Application Firewall, Security Exceptions Log and go to the last page. The last log entry should have the date and time of when the issue occurred. Please copy the Reason and Target URL here so that I can help you.

If, however, you do not see a log entry, or the Date and/or IP address do not match your last access, this problem is not caused by Admin Tools' WAF. In this case, you will have to do some .htaccess troubleshooting. You may need to read the general .htaccess troubleshooting page, as well as the page on finding out necessary .htaccess exceptions.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Wednesday, 07 August 2013 15:51 CDT

fisher12188
I haven't been able to get into the website to turn it off. I deleted the plugin, component, and database entries for admin tools. Any new user gets the "you are a spammer or otherwise bad person." I get the errors above because I already received that error and now getting the 504 error.

Changing the error reporting didn't change anything.

Admin Tools is still blocking access somehow.

Wednesday, 07 August 2013 16:29 CDT

nicholas
Since you have deleted the plugin, component and database entry there is no Admin Tools code. Code which does not exist on your site CANNOT run and CANNOT have any effect. Think about it.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Wednesday, 07 August 2013 20:05 CDT

fisher12188
Then explain why every new IP I try I get this: You are a spammer, hacker or an otherwise bad person. Then the 504 Errors starts after a long pause.

Thursday, 08 August 2013 00:42 CDT

nicholas
You did not delete the files, you deleted the wrong files or you deleted the files in the wrong site.

You are not receiving this message; the browser has cached it or you are thinking you are reloading the page but not really reloading it.

You have a CDN or caching reverse proxy in front of your site which has already cached the error page.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

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