Googlebot Issue?

[TaintedWoods]

There was apparently a hack attempt on 78.129.133.15 windows reseller server last week which was happily fixed. However since then we've been getting 403 errors from googlebot (in webmaster tools) in both naturally trying to index the website hosting and even when trying to access the xml sitemap.

This must be an issue for everyone on that server as it's affected all of our domains?

Just trying to get an idea if its a general server issue as support suggested it was because the dynamic ip of my workstation computer might be blocked by their firewall they come up with some real gems sometimes.

[DPS Computing]

I can't understand why that should be happening. Googlebot should easily be able to get around without encountering 403 errors even if security has been increased since the hacking attack.

[eUK-Martin]

First of all let me make it clear that it was not a hack attempt but there was a small DOS attack on a website hosting which was powerful enough to bring that particular website hosting down. Therefore the firewall on the server was tighten up. That is it.

However Jack is already looking into your issue and he will get back to you as soon as possible with his findings. But let me also add that firewall was completely shutdown to ensure if it was the case but it didn't help either.

[Rock]

Hello,

Yes, indeed we had the Google's IP blocked on our firewall.
It was automatically done due to many connections from that specific IP during the DDoS attack period. I apologize for the inconvenience caused. We'll make sure that automatically blocked IPs on our firewall are scrutinized by humans. Please check the same at your end now & let us know if you need anything else. Standing by to assist,