Sometimes we have to report that the internet is down. Panic spreads when users try to access a website and it doesn’t work—instead of the usual content, the screen just shows a 502 Bad Gateway error. Why does this happen? Do you know what Cloudflare is and what it does? Here’s the answer.
There are many reasons why the internet might not work properly, but if you see a 502 error in your browser, don’t worry—it’s not your fault. The only ones responsible for that outage are companies like the one we’re talking about today: Cloudflare.
A 502 means the failure happened at a CDN company. But let’s start from the beginning: The internet works by connecting computers to each other, so if you want to access a website on a specific server, only those close to that server will have good access and high speed.
That’s why networks of servers around the world store and replicate websites, apps, and data so everyone can access them quickly and with similar quality.
These are called CDNs, and they’ve become a key part of the internet and services like streaming platforms or social networks, which we want to access from anywhere, anytime, without suffering from high latency.
Cloudflare was founded in 2009 with this concept, but over the years, this company and others have gone further. Besides offering an optimal content distribution network, Cloudflare also aims to protect us from cyberattacks.
Companies using Cloudflare servers to be online—like Dropbox or Pinterest—also get cybersecurity protection against DDoS attacks.
The 1.1.1.1 DNS service, which promises to respect user privacy, and the Warp VPN are some of the tools Cloudflare has created, making its service more secure than other CDNs.
By acting as intermediaries between client and server with reverse proxies, they can detect malicious traffic and limit spam. However, sometimes problems arise.
It’s not often, but the infrastructure can fail, and that’s when the famous 502 appears and websites depending on those CDNs stop working. Just a month ago, we witnessed and suffered one of these issues, blocking millions of websites.
There’s nothing we can do but wait for them to fix it. Be patient and check these companies’ social media for updates on such problems.
