Today, when accessing this WordPress blog, I encountered a temporary error: "Cloudflare encountered an error processing this request: Internal server error." This issue appeared across all of my domains linked with Cloudflare.
This error seems to be temporary, but upon searching online, I found that initially only a handful of pages were listed, and now the number of results is steadily increasing.
Resolving the Cloudflare Internal Server Error
When searching for "Cloudflare encountered an error processing this request: Internal server error" on Google, there are currently 1,420 results, and this number continues to rise.
If you have registered your domain with Cloudflare, logging into their website and clearing the entire cache should resolve this error.
To clear the Cloudflare cache, simply log into Cloudflare, select your domain, navigate to Caching ยป Configuration, and click on the Purge Everything button.
If the error persists in browsers such as Chrome even after taking this action, clearing the browser cache may resolve the issue.
Last August, this site faced a significant DDoS attack that lasted for about a month. Initially, with the help of Cloudways, we blocked the IP addresses involved in the attack. Following their recommendation, we integrated with Cloudflare to effectively defend against the DDoS assaults.๐
Since then, I have maintained the integration with Cloudflare, but today, all connected domains displayed the "Cloudflare encountered an error..." message. Consequently, I cleared the cache and disabled the DNS proxy feature on Cloudflare.
By changing the Proxy status from Proxied to DNS only under DNS ยป Records, you will no longer have access to essential features provided by Cloudflare, such as CDN services, firewall protection, DDoS defense, caching, and SSL (TLS) edge certificates.
In Conclusion
Joining Cloudflare allows you to utilize its security features, enhancing your site's protection. In particular, using Cloudflare during a DDoS attack offers substantial defense.
However, if you are a user in South Korea and are on the free tier of Cloudflare, you might experience slower speeds since you cannot access the Seoul server due to bandwidth issues, and will be directed to servers in Japan or the U.S. Some users in South Korea have reported decreased speeds after integrating with Cloudflare. Therefore, it's wise to monitor website speed before deciding whether to continue using Cloudflare in South Korea.