522 Connection Timed Out

What It Means

522 is a Cloudflare-specific error code. It means Cloudflare tried to connect to your origin server but couldn't establish a connection at all. This is different from a timeout waiting for a response (that's 524).

Common Causes

• Origin server is down — Your server isn't running at all
• Firewall blocking Cloudflare — Your server's firewall is blocking Cloudflare's IP ranges
• Wrong origin IP in Cloudflare — DNS is pointing to the wrong server
• Port not open — Web server not listening on port 80/443
• Server overloaded — Can't accept new connections
• Network routing issues — Path between Cloudflare and origin is broken

How to Debug

1. Check if origin is running — Can you access it directly (bypassing Cloudflare)?
2. Check firewall rules — Are Cloudflare IPs allowed?
3. Verify Cloudflare DNS settings — Is the origin IP correct?
4. Check web server status — Is Nginx/Apache running?
5. Test from multiple locations — Is it a regional network issue?

Allow Cloudflare IPs

Cloudflare publishes their IP ranges. Your firewall must allow these:

# Get current Cloudflare IPs
curl https://www.cloudflare.com/ips-v4
curl https://www.cloudflare.com/ips-v6

# UFW example (Ubuntu)
for ip in $(curl -s https://www.cloudflare.com/ips-v4); do
    sudo ufw allow from $ip to any port 443
done

# iptables example
for ip in $(curl -s https://www.cloudflare.com/ips-v4); do
    iptables -A INPUT -p tcp -s $ip --dport 443 -j ACCEPT
done

Quick Checks

# Check if web server is running
systemctl status nginx
systemctl status apache2

# Check if ports are open
ss -tlnp | grep -E ':80|:443'
netstat -tlnp | grep -E ':80|:443'

# Test connection to your origin directly
curl -v http://your-origin-ip/
curl -vk https://your-origin-ip/

# Check Cloudflare DNS settings
dig +short your-domain.com

522 vs Other Cloudflare Errors

Prevention

• Keep Cloudflare IPs allowlisted (they update their ranges occasionally)
• Monitor your origin server directly, not just through Cloudflare
• Set up health checks in Cloudflare load balancer
• Use a failover origin if your primary goes down
• Subscribe to Cloudflare status updates