Title: Precondition Failed Last modified: August 18, 2016 --- # Precondition Failed * [luhmann](https://wordpress.org/support/users/luhmann/) * (@luhmann) * [21 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/precondition-failed-2/) * I have a serious problem. I can access these support forums (although without the CSS loading), but I can’t access the root page: wordpress.org. It always gives me an error message: * > Precondition Failed > The precondition on the request for the URL / evaluated to false. * Only WordPress.org and about 5 other web sites give me this error message. Interestingly, if I use a proxy I can access the site just fine. But it is driving me crazy. Anyone have any idea what is going on? I couldn’t find anything on google or in these forums after searching. Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 34 total) 1 [2](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/precondition-failed-2/page/2/?output_format=md) [3](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/precondition-failed-2/page/3/?output_format=md) [→](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/precondition-failed-2/page/2/?output_format=md) * Thread Starter [luhmann](https://wordpress.org/support/users/luhmann/) * (@luhmann) * [21 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/precondition-failed-2/#post-205396) * Hmm. It also seems like the RSS feed for this thread is broken – it redirects to the list of the last 35 updated posts, not this topic. * [Mark (podz)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/podz/) * (@podz) * [21 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/precondition-failed-2/#post-205401) * Who is your isp ? It could be a caching issue at their end. * [emt036](https://wordpress.org/support/users/emt036/) * (@emt036) * [21 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/precondition-failed-2/#post-205402) * What browser are you using? I could have something to do with Bad Behavior: [http://www.ioerror.us/software/bad-behavior/](http://www.ioerror.us/software/bad-behavior/) * [Kafkaesqui](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kafkaesqui/) * (@kafkaesqui) * [21 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/precondition-failed-2/#post-205403) * Technical explanation: [http://www.checkupdown.com/status/E412.html](http://www.checkupdown.com/status/E412.html) * My experience with the 412 error on wordpress.org [http://guff.szub.net/2005/02/14/the-technical-dealies/](http://guff.szub.net/2005/02/14/the-technical-dealies/) * A mention of the subject that may help in the short run: [http://wordpress.org/support/topic/25570](http://wordpress.org/support/topic/25570) * As for rss feeds on individual forum posts, this has been broken for a bit. * Thread Starter [luhmann](https://wordpress.org/support/users/luhmann/) * (@luhmann) * [21 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/precondition-failed-2/#post-205414) * My ISP is TimeWarner. They suggested a virus or spywhere. But I’m using MacOS X and there aren’t any of those that I know of which affect OS X. * I alternate between Safari and Firefox. The problem affects all browsers and all three computers on my network. (Although using a free transparent Proxy server works around the problem.) * Looks like the Bad-Behavior plugin might be at fault. It doesn’t just affect WordPress.org however, there are about 8 sites I use which are affected. I don’t know how to verify if they are all using this plugin. * [http://www.textism.com/tools/textile/](http://www.textism.com/tools/textile/) [http://dev.wp-themes.org/wiki/GetHosted](http://dev.wp-themes.org/wiki/GetHosted) [http://wordpress.org/](http://wordpress.org/) [http://www.vanderwal.net/about.php](http://www.vanderwal.net/about.php) [http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/](http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/) [http://www.speirs.org/flickrexport](http://www.speirs.org/flickrexport) [http://wiki.novemberborn.net/sifr/](http://wiki.novemberborn.net/sifr/) * I have a linksys router. I haven’t tried going in directly to the Cable modem, but even if that works, it seems easier to use a proxy. * If it is indeed the Bad-Behavior plugin, then I would like to know what is triggering it. It may be that it isn’t properly written to handle OS X browsers? I tried changing how my computer identifies itself, but that didn’t help either. * More information on Bad-Behavior and 412 errors here: * [http://www.ioerror.us/software/bad-behavior/412-precondition-failed/](http://www.ioerror.us/software/bad-behavior/412-precondition-failed/) * [error](https://wordpress.org/support/users/error/) * (@error) * [21 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/precondition-failed-2/#post-205465) * Luhmann, I think one of the sites listed above uses Bad Behavior, the remainder either haven’t started yet or aren’t blogs, forums, wikis or other CMS software. * The short 412 error you are seeing is an error returned by [TextDrive](http://www.textdrive.com/)- hosted sites. It has nothing to do with [Bad Behavior](http://www.ioerror.us/software/bad-behavior/), which although it also uses the 412 error, is far more verbose. You would know if you saw a Bad Behavior error message. Among other things it goes on for more than a page, and also gives you a contact email address. * TextDrive uses a somewhat different method of blocking spammers, which relies mostly on User-Agent. This is probably why you were able to get through using a proxy server, as many of them change the User-Agent. If there’s anything funny in your User-Agent, try setting it back to the default. If you still can’t get through, [contact TextDrive](http://www.textdrive.com/contact/). * I would recommend against using open proxy servers for your regular browsing, though, as many sites will prevent you from posting, or ban you outright, if you access them via an open proxy, because nearly all spam comes from open proxies. I’ve got a [project in progress](http://dnsbl.ioerror.us/) dealing with the open proxy problem where you can find some more info. * Thread Starter [luhmann](https://wordpress.org/support/users/luhmann/) * (@luhmann) * [21 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/precondition-failed-2/#post-205497) * Thanks for figuring out the common denomenator! * Thread Starter [luhmann](https://wordpress.org/support/users/luhmann/) * (@luhmann) * [21 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/precondition-failed-2/#post-205499) * Hey, and what do you know. Suddenly the problem is fixed! But only on WordPress. org – and the CSS issues on these forums. The rest of the sites still aren’t working. * Thread Starter [luhmann](https://wordpress.org/support/users/luhmann/) * (@luhmann) * [21 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/precondition-failed-2/#post-205500) * I wish whomever fixed the issue on WordPress.org would let me know what they changed – then I could tell the other sites what to do! * Thread Starter [luhmann](https://wordpress.org/support/users/luhmann/) * (@luhmann) * [21 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/precondition-failed-2/#post-205531) * TextDrive had blocked my IP for some activity from February. (Since I have a dynamic IP it was probably not my activity.) They were very quick about unblocking me after I wrote them and now I can access all the affected sites. Thanks again for helping me locate the source of the problems! * [mrbbking](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mrbbking/) * (@mrbbking) * [20 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/precondition-failed-2/#post-205850) * This just happened to me on my own WordPress 1.5.whatever site, when I tried to post an article. Whittling it down, it turns out that the problem was the word “Perl” in the post. Remove that, and it’s all OK. Put an empty HTML comment after the ‘P’, and it’s OK. * You PHP folks got something against Perl? * (kidding…)(but still … wierd.) * [tim52](https://wordpress.org/support/users/zdislaw/) * (@zdislaw) * [20 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/precondition-failed-2/#post-205876) * I started getting this error today for the first time, and I’ve been using WordPress for a couple of years. I FTP’d in, browsed to the plugins directory, and renamed the “bad-behavior” dir. I am now able to admin and view my blog. Too bad, I’d not had any comment spam for the few weeks since installing it. I guess it decided to lock me out too. Not so helpful in inna big picture. * [tqn69](https://wordpress.org/support/users/tqn69/) * (@tqn69) * [20 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/precondition-failed-2/#post-205877) * This happened to me, too. Sadly, I had to deactivate Bad Behavior. I still use SpamKarma2, and have added Referrer Bouncer, and WordPress HashCash as anti-spam solutions. Bad Behavior still works nicely for my brother’s blog, which is a subdomain of my site. I wonder why my blog is blocked. Perhaps one of the _many_ plugins I use? I don’t know. I don’t have time to do the troubleshooting. * [richards1052](https://wordpress.org/support/users/richards1052/) * (@richards1052) * [20 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/precondition-failed-2/#post-205889) * I am getting 412 errors in 2 separate situations: * 1. someone has tried to add the rss feed for one of my categories to his blog aggregator & is getting a “412 precondition failed” error. * 2. when I try to use Google Remove URL to remove an old, out of date post permalink that I used to use at my old Typepad blog, I get this error: * “We can’t determine if that page is truly outdated because the server returned the following unusual status code: 412” * I can’t tell if this error is due to the fact that both my old blog & current one use domain forwarding; or some other reason. * I plan to call Bluehost in the AM & find out if it’s due to their mod_security settings. Anyone having similar problems w. Bluehost or Bad Behavior? * Moderator [James Huff](https://wordpress.org/support/users/macmanx/) * (@macmanx) * [20 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/precondition-failed-2/#post-205890) * It’s Bad Behavior. First, make sure that you are using the latest Bad Behavior( currently v1.2.2). Then, if that doesn’t improve the situation, add the IPs to Bad Behavior’s whitelist. And, if even that doesn’t work, contact Bad Behavior’s developer. Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 34 total) 1 [2](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/precondition-failed-2/page/2/?output_format=md) [3](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/precondition-failed-2/page/3/?output_format=md) [→](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/precondition-failed-2/page/2/?output_format=md) The topic ‘Precondition Failed’ is closed to new replies. ## Tags * [precondition](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/precondition/) * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/) * 34 replies * 12 participants * Last reply from: [jvyduna](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jvyduna/) * Last activity: [19 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/precondition-failed-2/page/3/#post-206044) * Status: not resolved ## Topics ### Topics with no replies ### Non-support topics ### Resolved topics ### Unresolved topics ### All topics