All About Pocket Knives

When I open my tablet to AAPK everything goes normally. When I choose a thread it instantly shows a screen that says AAPK is checking to see if I'm a human. It takes a few moments to check then gives a message that everything is okay. I deleted the cookies as I recalled this was happening a while back to a lot of folks on the forum. That didn't help. Aggravating to say the least. So I checked it out on my old PC, same thing, then I opened to AAPK on my wife's cellphone, same thing.
I'm dumber than dirt when it comes to technology so if anyone has a solution that in my ignorance I could follow, maybe we can get it back to normal. Logically, at least in my way of thinking, could the problem be elsewhere since 3 different devices get the same message when initially starting? Out here in the country my PC is still running on an ATT dsl hook up, the tablet and cell phone are with with a cell carrier.
As long as I stay logged in after the initial message it works fine. Closing AAPK and opening some other site to read, then reopening AAPK it starts all over again.
Treefarmer

I’ve been getting that issue as well .

Same here. Looks like it's not because of a problem on your end, Philip.

We can probably thank the hackers and hackers bots and all the damage they have caused in the past for that.

Cloudflare verifies you are human to protect AAPK from automated bots, spam, and other malicious activity by ensuring that only legitimate users access our site. This security measure is a proactive step taken by AAPK to safeguard our user data and maintain AAPK’s integrity against threats like DDoS attacks or brute-force login attempts.

Inconvenience…….yes
Necessary……….….yes

royal0014 wrote: ↑Thu Sep 18, 2025 11:12 amFINALLY .... a reasonable explanation

FYI - Our subscriptions help to keep these safeguards fully funded.

royal0014 wrote: ↑Thu Sep 18, 2025 11:32 amWe trust him

we do Chris! You’ve been here for just about the same time as I have. Remember the days when somebody would shout “who left the back door open”? Those days are long gone thankfully.

You know we're in a "gotta-have-it-now-instant gratification" world when someone thinks 7 seconds takes minutes.
Hey, if it keeps the site from getting hacked, I'll wait, and wait patiently.

I'm glad to read that I'm not the Lone Ranger!
Thanks for the explanation.
Steve, because of our service on my old PC the seconds are actually minutes! My son has been trying to get me to get off the ATT DSL and get my internet through Starlink, in the meantime I'll be patient. I just like using the keyboard, the full size of the PC.
Treefarmer

bestgear wrote: ↑Thu Sep 18, 2025 11:07 am Cloudflare verifies you are human to protect AAPK from automated bots, spam, and other malicious activity by ensuring that only legitimate users access our site. This security measure is a proactive step taken by AAPK to safeguard our user data and maintain AAPK’s integrity against threats like DDoS attacks or brute-force login attempts.

Inconvenience…….yes
Necessary……….….yes

The problem is any time you back out of the first thread after verification, you click a new thread link and it will take you back to the first one you looked at and were verified on. I have to close it all out and reopen a new tab on the main page to see any other threads after verification.

Please see the following post for explanation of the situation

https://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/kn ... 5#p1207805

The technologies used for attacking websites like ours are getting quite sophisticated and these sophisticated attacks are becoming more & more common.

The attacks we are most vulnerable to & sometimes experience are DDOS attacks that flood the site with automated bots to slow the site to a crawl. We have put in several mechanisms to reduce the impact & frequency, but sometimes that is not enough.

Yesterday, our standard safeguards were not keeping up and as a last resort, we turn to Cloudflare services to keep the site up.

We expect this "prove you're human" requirement to be temporary, but without it, the site would be down for the most part right now.

Hope this helps clarify the situation.

Yes, the manner in which you navigate around AAPK and the type of device and browser you are using to access AAPK may be affected by Cloudflare - the price to be paid for cyber-protection.

This morning, all three devices that I mentioned in my original post are opening AAPK without the issue that was being experienced earlier.
If we're checked again to see if we're human, I now understand.
Treefarmer

Well I am going to go ahead and say something that needs to be said. All of us that use AAPK on a daily basis take for granted that it will be here for our use as we demand it. But as the info in this thread has shown, Bryan has many expensive technologies that are needed to keep the website going. I would ask all of you who do not have a premium membership to consider making an effort in that direction.
I mean come on, it's only $20-$40 a year and you use it every day. I have a friend that is a webmaster, and he says his website endures attacks from all over the world almost 24 hours every day. The rise of AI will make that even worse.

OLDE CUTLER wrote: ↑Fri Sep 19, 2025 2:16 pm Well I am going to go ahead and say something that needs to be said. All of us that use AAPK on a daily basis take for granted that it will be here for our use as we demand it. But as the info in this thread has shown, Bryan has many expensive technologies that are needed to keep the website going. I would ask all of you who do not have a premium membership to consider making an effort in that direction.
I mean come on, it's only $20-$40 a year and you use it every day. I have a friend that is a webmaster, and he says his website endures attacks from all over the world almost 24 hours every day. The rise of AI will make that even worse.

Well said O C