Issue

The 502 Bad Gateway error is shown when a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is suspected. Typically when a user sees this issue, it is because they have attempted to make too many updates on their site in rapid succession, thus flooding the WiscWeb service with too much traffic. This traffic is suspected to be malicious in nature, like a bot attack. The system will then block the requests, as a security measure. This could also occur when there is a real DDoS attack (where hackers send nefarious traffic our way).

Resolution

This issue arises because the traffic is all associated with a single IP address. Therefore, changing your IP address can help resolve it. If there is no need to be authenticated to your site (i.e., edit your site), the easiest next step would be to disconnect from VPN. This would change your IP address and allow you to peruse the public version of the site as desired.

These options can also help resolve the issue if editing is required:

1. If a single update is needed to be made, please wait at least 10 minutes before attempting to re-publish or save your changes. This should be long enough to allow things to normalize.

2. If multiple updates are needed, please space them out by several seconds to avoid triggering this response.

Tips

• Some users may find that opening multiple tabs or windows might expedite the process of updating several pages at once. However, this is one of the biggest culprits for triggering a 502 Bad Gateway error because it causes the number of requests to double, triple, etc., all at once. Therefore, this approach is not recommended.