The Top Reasons Why You’re Blocked By Akamai and Easy Solutions

Cloud computing and content delivery services often work behind the scenes to make your online life easier and more secure. For businesses, these tools can prove to be vital keys for seamless productivity. 

Nevertheless, when they don’t function properly or block organizations from accessing their services, setbacks and business losses can abound.  

If your business relies on Akamai for these services and you find yourself blocked from developing and running important applications through the Akamai platform, you could lose clients and even worse — your cybersecurity could be jeopardized.

The reasons you might be blocked from accessing Akamai vary, but thankfully, there are simple solutions to avoid this obstacle in the future. Let’s take a look. 

How Akamai works

Akamai is an international cloud computing, content delivery, and security company that helps to improve the performance and security of websites. Over 42,000 corporations use Akamai as a Content Delivery Network (CDN) and Akamai is a direct competitor of Cloudflare and Google Cloud.

 Akamai’s services are used by major corporations including:

• Adobe
• AirBnb
• Autodesk
• Capital Group
• Carnival 
• Coca-Cola
• Comcast
• Crate & Barrel
• eBay

Akamai is also widely used by the following industries:

• E-Commerce
• Media 
• WiFi Network Operations
• Public Sector Services

Services provided by Akamai

The Akamai CDN uses a global server network to cache and deliver content which can resolve lags and increase content delivery speed. Akami’s services also include:

• Cloud Computing: The Akamai Connected Cloud allows businesses to create, develop, manage, and run applications and workloads.
• Cybersecurity: Akamai provides robust cybersecurity for cloud computing, company data, digital experiences, and operating systems. This helps to reduce the risk of threats for the online experiences of the business.
• Improved performance of mobile and web apps: Akamai improves the performance of mobile and web applications by distributing content through a global network, allows businesses to connect to servers that are geographically close to their locations, reduces lags in loading times, and provides a better user experience. 

What is a Content Delivery Network (CDN)?

Content Delivery Network may sound like a hardcore tech term that would be used in a science fiction film, but most of us use a CDN daily. A CDN is a server network that is strategically, geographically distributed. 

CDNs like Akamai store a website’s HTML pages, images, and videos to its global network which allows users to enjoy optimized bandwidth, quick loading times, and improved application and website performance. This is especially imperative for businesses, as getting blocked by Akamai can significantly affect operations.

For example, if you’re blocked by Akamai, it could create lag times and improperly functioning websites that can drastically reduce functionality and could detrimentally impact daily revenue.

Is Akamai safe?

Yes, Akamai is safe, even if you didn’t intentionally download it to your computer. The CDN takes cybersecurity seriously and continuously updates cloud content delivery security protocols to ensure it protects users from threats and malicious attacks. 

Reasons you might be blocked by Akamai

Although Akamai doesn’t actively block users, you may find a specific website that utilizes Akamai has blocked you from access. In other words, getting blocked from Akamai isn’t something you’ll have to worry about when handling access to your own website. 

However, if you use Autodesk or need to access a website that uses Akamai, here are some reasons you may find that you’re blocked.

Location-Based Blocking

A website owner might configure their Akamai settings to block users from specific geolocations. If you’re in a restricted region and are not utilizing a Virtual Private Network (VPN), you may find that you’re blocked.

Malicious Code Detection

Akamai uses cybersecurity protocols such as behavior analysis, machine learning algorithms, signature-based detection, real-time monitoring of network traffic, and threat intelligence databases to identify and block malicious code.

If you’re blocked from Akamai, it may be that your domain name, IP address, or signature was flagged for potentially malicious activity. 

Suspicious Activity

Your IP address could be flagged by a website’s Akamai security settings as a result of  too many requests or potential bot behavior. For example, if you attempt to open a website or access a webpage too many times in short succession, you may get blocked.

Similarly, if you open a website and leave it open without clicking, hovering, or scrolling, Akamai security settings might flag this as potential bot behavior and deny you access.

Web Scraping

If you copy or download large amounts of data from a website, you may be flagged for web scraping and find you’re blocked by the Akamai security settings. If you’ve set up a program or a bot to download data like HTML code or content text, this is considered web scraping. 

Web scraping can be useful for important business strategies such as competitor analysis and market research, but it could lead to getting blocked by a website using Akamai.    

Easy solutions to prevent getting blocked by Akamai 

If you’re blocked by Akamai, there are several steps you can take to resolve the issue. Some of the solutions to an Akamai block might include:

• Avoid using automated tools to access Akamai content: Automated tools generate identical, repetitive requests which may cause an Akamai block. If you need to scrape content, consider using a dedicated web scraping tool like TK that can bypass automatic security blocks.
• Check your network: Ensure your network hasn’t been compromised by malware, including viruses, spyware, ransomware, phishing, and DDoS attacks. If you experience slow speeds or other unexpected system behavior including crashes, your network may have been attacked. Antivirus software such as Avast or Norton and network traffic analysis tools like SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor can help to remove threats from your network, eliminate data breaches, and remove an Akamai block.
• Contact Akamai support: If you’ve been blocked by mistake, Akamai customer support may be able to help you bypass the block. You might also want to attempt to contact the website owner directly, as if you’re blocked by Akamai, it may be the result of the website’s security configurations. You can check to see your IP address reputation with Akamai using their Client Reputation lookup.
• Turn off browser extensions: Some browser extensions could cause Akamai to block your access. One of the easiest solutions to an Akamai block may just require you to turn off browser extensions. 
• Use a VPN: If your IP address has been flagged by a website using Akamai, a great VPN is one of the easiest solutions to the Akamai block. VPNs like CyberGhost or ExpressVPN can help bypass IP address and geolocation blocks, while keeping your personal data secure.

Visit What Is My IP Address to learn how to protect yourself online. For more tips on cybersecurity, visit our blog or listen to our Easy Prey podcast available to stream on your favorite podcast platforms.