Hi Mari, can you check the log files. There is definitely a conflict somewhere. I am using this plugin in many sites and I don’t receive any such error via Google Webmaster Tools.
Can you confirm that you don’t have other security plugin installed?
In regards to the following comment.
And, users were indeed unable to access pages. This is the only site in which I have this problem. It used to work so well.
What has changed before this issue begun? The above comment also confirms that the problem is not with the plugin.
Hi mbrsolution-
Yes, I do use the Sucuri plugin as well. For a long time they played well together. Only recently I had this issue. And yes, there were AIOSP errors in the log files.
I could delete the Sucuri since I only appreciate it for the login records that show the brute force attacks.
Thanks!
Mari
Hi Mari, if you disable the Sucuri plugin is the issue resolved?
Hi again mbrsolution-
I did deactivate Sucuri but the problem is still occurring. It’s pretty clear in Google Insights when I activate and deactivate AIO. 403 error vs no 403 error.
Are there any other known conflicts?
I’m using:
Advanced Image Styles
Better WordPress Minify
Broken Link Checker
Calls to Action
Click To Tweet
Contextual Related Posts
CTA Widget
Fast Secure Contact Form
HMS Testimonials
itemprop WP for SERP (and SEO) Rich snippets
Menu Social Icons
OptinMonster
Outbound Link Manager
Thrive Visual Editor
WooSidebars
WP Missed Schedule
WP Smush
WP Super Cache
Can you deactivate all your other plugins and carry out a test? Would that be possible?
Since everything was working well in this site until recently do you know if you updated a plugin or added a new plugin?
Which firewall rules do you have enabled?
Which of the brute force features do you have enabled?
Hi again, wpsolutions –
It’s hard to do the deactivation test since I don’t know how to do an immediate 403 error test, so I usually wait to see when one pops up in Webmaster tools.
I have deactivated plugins that were recent suspects such as Autoptimize and Calls to Action.
As for Firewall and Brute Force settings I have selected:
Basic Firewall
Block Fake Googlebots
Rename login page
In Blacklist manager I have a number of IPs and User Agents entered.
I have a new problem in another site that got Server Connection refusal on comment submitted, that was resolved by deactivating AIOSP. That site has hardly any plugins.
But perhaps I should submit another ticket for that.
Thanks for your help.
Mari
@mari, can you confirm that the you have not entered any User Agents or IP addresses that might be blocking Google?
I have deactivated plugins that were recent suspects such as Autoptimize
quick remark from the AO developer; don’t see how AO could cause 403’s for your site 🙂
Hi marikane,
And, users were indeed unable to access pages.
Why don’t you ask those users to try again to see if you can reproduce it.
This behaviour is most likely caused by one of the AIOWPS rules in your .htaccess file.
For example if one of your visitors has an IP address which matches one of the IPs or ranges in your blacklist then they will see a 403.
In summary the plugin is actually doing its job but you just need to tune it to not block some of your legitimate visitors.
Hi again-
I have deleted all the user agents and IP addresses from the Blacklist manager and am hoping for the best.
Frank – no offense. I love your plugin but it was the last one loaded, so I suspected it was causing a problem. Now I see it’s not, so will activate again. 🙂
Thanks guys!
Hi @marikane is your issue resolved?
Hi and yes, thank you. I discovered it was indeed the Calls to Action plugin by Inbound that was giving me the problem. Funny, I’d been using that plugin for some time. Thanks for your help.
