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When attempting to access the NASA ADS ( http://adsabs.harvard.edu/ ) site via my Samsung tablet (SM-T530NU) connected to a WiFi network I get the following message:

http://ads.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/access_denied

This does not happen when I try to access via my laptop connected to the same WiFi network. This also does not happen if I use the default browser that Samsun ships instead of the Chrome Android app.

I contacted the administrator of the site and he told me that there's an issue where Chrome is apparently "sending out HTTP requests with X-Forwarded-For set in the header", which is causing this. My IP is not blacklisted by the way, I checked.

I have no idea what this means or how I can fix this. Any help will be much appreciated.

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  • Any reason why you have to use Chrome?
    – rrirower
    Commented Jan 8, 2015 at 2:44
  • Well because I like it :) I know I can get around using the stock browser but I want to solve this issue, not hide it.
    – Gabriel
    Commented Jan 8, 2015 at 2:54
  • You may not be able to resolve it since you've already indicated it's bug in Chrome. You can always revert back if they fix it.
    – rrirower
    Commented Jan 8, 2015 at 2:57
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    It may be that Google Chrome's traffic compression servers are blocked. They work as proxies and compress your traffic from non-secured websites. Also they are fully transparent so that the server always knows who you are even though you used that proxy.
    – GiantTree
    Commented Jan 8, 2015 at 6:16
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    @GiantTree your comment hit the nail on the head. I had Chrome's "Reduce data usage" (translated from Spanish, not sure how it's called in English) option activated, after I disabled it I was able to access the site normally. Would you mind turning your comment into an answer so I can mark it as accepted?
    – Gabriel
    Commented Jan 8, 2015 at 7:34

1 Answer 1

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Google Chrome's traffic compression servers may be blocked.
They work as proxies and compress your traffic from non-secured websites. Also they are fully transparent so that the server always knows who you are even though you used that proxy.
This means they send the HTTP-X-FORWARDED-FOR flag which seems to be blocked by the website you try to access.

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    I'd suggest to add the solution on OP's comment too, as I can confirm that "Reduce data usage" is using HTTP-X-FORWARDED-FOR and the cause of this issue.
    – Andrew T. ♦
    Commented Jan 8, 2015 at 10:11

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