We tell you what we know and how to solve it

The problems begin. On February 2, Movistar clients They started reporting incidents in the service. Some users such as Daniel Galán indicated that “it seems that Movistar is blocking the connections to websites (among them mine) who use Cloudflare or are having routing problems. It occurs only with fiber, from mobile networks it does not happen. In other companies it works perfectly. Is something known? ” The problem seems to affect only fiber connections, since from the mobile those affected could access those services. Operators such as Digi also seem to have given problems in recent days, According to networks.

Confusing answers. One of Movistar’s technicians replied in the forum indicating that “we can assure you that Movistar does not make website blockages.” Some users indicated in X how to Movistar He temporarily activated them Unlimited data in your mobile lines. Another indicated days later that “we are presenting a problem in the relationship with these servers and the routing to access certain pages on the web, about the problem we already have proof of this and we hope to solve it as soon as possible, any novelty in this regard we will do it to you know”

“At the end of football, everything returns to normal”. The problem, confirmed other members of the Movistar community, affected various websites apparently housed in Cloudflare. Among them are blogs, various services And even some Github repositories Like those who stay AI models to download and use with Ollama. It was mentioned how there were even problems to access Platforms such as Telegram, Instagram or Bluesky. A user indicated that “casually, at the end of the (…) soccer of the (…) worked again everything perfectly.” Others commented the same in the Movistar community forum.

It is speculated with football and IPTV. In recent days it has been speculated with the potential reason for these problems, which would be in measures to try to avoid access to IPTV platforms that among other things issue LaLiga matches. Precisely this organism He announced yesterday that “Duckvision, a pirate platform that offered illegal access to live sports content, among them the Spanish competition, to more than 200,000 people only in Spain.” In that statement they also highlighted how “Google, Cloudflare, VPNS and other agents involved in piracy consumption acquire responsibility for the illegal actions that are allowing and from which they profit.”

Economic damage. The problems were not only limited to the customers of these operators could not access certain websites, but to the fact that some users have companies with web sites and services that depend on that connectivity. So Ángel Gaitan indicateda well -known automotive expert youtuber. “Everything I have not sold today to all those customers of Movistar (who could not access their website), who pays me?”

An analysis tries to reveal the problem. As they point out In Bandanchaan analysis by one of its users details something else the potential problem. When using “probes” in Ripe Atlas you can see how only concrete IP addresses of Cloudflare are affected, but not adjacent, which points according to this analysis to an intentional blockade. IP 104.21.48.1 is owned by Cloudflare, but is used to serve hundreds of web that share it. When trying to access with a Movistar IP, the route is interrupted. A code appears from other operators such as Orange that warns that a website is being blocked by the competent authority.

Cloudflare and the ECH. In October 2023, our genbeta companions already They talked to us of a mechanism that tries to avoid filtering systems of the operators that take these types of measures. It is called ECH (Encrypted Client Hello) and Cloudflare integrated it in their services precisely on those dates. It is an extension of the TLS protocol that is part of the data to “limit access to the information of a private user when you access your website.” Operators have more difficult to block services more specifically, but they can still block full access to that “central” IP that actually emphasizes many web sites and services.

The only safe solution: Use a VPN. Those affected who managed to solve the problem did so thanks to the use of A VPN connection that allowed to avoid the blockade of the affected websites. That allows to camouflage the IP of origin to avoid being shown as an IP from Movistar and gives access to these services.

What Movistar and Digi say. In Xataka we have contacted those responsible for Movistar/O2 and Digi, but for now we have not received an additional response or clarifications about these problems. We will update this information in case of receiving new data.

In Xataka | LaLig