Reference note about archive.today and Cloudflare DNS.

archive-dns-issue.md

Problem

If you use Cloudflare's DNS (1.1.1.1), then the popular web archive archive.today (and the related sites archive.ph, archive.is, archive.li, archive.vn, archive.md, and archive.fo) will either fail to resolve, or show an infinite CAPTCHA loop. If it does resolve when you're on Cloudflare's DNS, you may have the domain locally cached.

Solution

Fix this problem by:

• Configuring dnsmasq on your local DNS server to use an alternate DNS server for archive.today (see comment from @joshenders below), or
• Connecting to a VPN before connecting to archive.today (only works if the VPN uses different DNS servers), or
• Temporarily switch DNS to resolve and locally cache the domain, then switch back to Cloudflare

Check if it's still a problem

This has been an issue since at least 2019. To check if this is still an issue today:

In PowerShell:

# Resolve archive.today using Cloudflare DNS
PS> Resolve-DnsName archive.today -Server 1.1.1.1 -DnsOnly

Name                                           Type   TTL   Section    IPAddress
----                                           ----   ---   -------    ---------
archive.today                                  AAAA   85976 Answer     2606:4700::1114
archive.today                                  A      86400 Answer     1.1.1.4

# Resolve archive.today using Google DNS
PS> Resolve-DnsName archive.today -Server 8.8.8.8 -DnsOnly

Name                                           Type   TTL   Section    IPAddress
----                                           ----   ---   -------    ---------
archive.today                                  A      300   Answer     23.137.249.79

In bash:

# Resolve archive.today using Cloudflare DNS
$ dig +short @1.1.1.1 archive.today
1.1.1.4

# Resolve archive.today using Google DNS
$ dig +short @8.8.8.8 archive.today
23.137.249.79

If the A record resolves to 1.1.1.4 like in the examples above, then it's still an issue.

Resolved?

According to some reports online, this problem was resolved in May 2022. However, it looks like this resolution was only temporary because the sites will not resolve again as of July 2023.

Resolved? (v2)

As of August 2024 it looks like this issue is resolved. Meaning Cloudflare's DNS successfully resolves to the archive.today domains and there's no more infinite CAPTCHA loop. Hooray!

References

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19828702

https://jarv.is/notes/cloudflare-dns-archive-is-blocked/

https://twitter.com/archiveis/status/1018691421182791680

If I use Firefox and its own cloudflare or NextDNS in DNS over HTTPS, then I'll get infinite captcha loop. If I use a custom URL, like https://unfiltered.adguard-dns.com/dns-query, everything works.

Problems with archive and NextDNS. Solved bij giving in manual entries to all adresses.

I get the same problem for a week. Adding/changing the dns failed (since i use edge dns default setting, I tried to use Google's DNS, Preferred DNS server: 8.8.8.8 , Alternate DNS server: 8.8.4.4 then ipconfig /flushdns).

I am still experiencing this issue.

• All the different TLD's (ph, vn, today...) are affected
• I have tried changing to Quad9 DNS
• Tried disabling DNS over HTTPS and changing its provider
• With Windscribe VPN, the sites do not load at all, although their addresses do resolve
• Issue present with a fresh install of Firefox (my normal browser is Vivaldi Stable)

What else is there to try?

I am still experiencing this issue.

• All the different TLD's (ph, vn, today...) are affected
• I have tried changing to Quad9 DNS
• Tried disabling DNS over HTTPS and changing its provider
• With Windscribe VPN, the sites do not load at all, although their addresses do resolve
• Issue present with a fresh install of Firefox (my normal browser is Vivaldi Stable)

What else is there to try?

You should share what the domains resolve to and a tcpdump of what an attempted connection look like.

You should share what the domains resolve to and a tcpdump of what an attempted connection look like.

Alright, well here is an example:

nslookup archive.today
Server:		9.9.9.9
Address:	9.9.9.9#53

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:	archive.today
Address: 57.129.134.86
Name:	archive.today
Address: 2a03:94e3:2187:b80c:3b4a:7ccd:bde5:e63c

I am not grabbing a tcpdump right now, and no promises for later. Remember, the problem is not connecting to these sites, nor what goes over the wire, but that the page delivered by the server is in a logical dead end (infinite loop).

Do as you wish but I was just trying to help. You provided no diagnostic info to help debug. Works fine for me with the workaround I shared in the OP. Best of luck!

Do as you wish but I was just trying to help. You provided no diagnostic info to help debug. Works fine for me with the workaround I shared in the OP. Best of luck!

I'm sorry if I came across as dismissive. I do appreciate the help - after all, ideas for debugging were exactly what I asked for. On that topic, can you provide a known-good DNS (where the Captcha loop is not present)? I have heard of trouble with both Google's (8.8.8.8) and Cloudflare's (1.1.1.1), so that's why I tried with Quad9 (9.9.9.9).

e: FWIW, I tried to explicitly flush the DNS cache (on this MX Linux deployment) by restarting NetworkManager, but it did not help.
e2: I also did "Clear host cache" in chrome://net-internals/#dns of my Vivaldi browser.

Issue is still here for me for the last few months..archive's owner must be taking some reddit mod pills

the website is effectively offline due to its infinite captcha

This is still (or again?) an issue. Cloudflare DNS and the default Quad9 resolvers without ECS don't work. 9.9.9.11 or Google DNS that have ECS enabled return the correct records.

~> doggo archive.today --strategy=all @1.1.1.1 @9.9.9.9 @9.9.9.11 @8.8.8.8
NAME            TYPE  CLASS  TTL     ADDRESS                                NAMESERVER   STATUS
archive.today.  A     IN     3601s   104.36.80.107                          1.1.1.1:53
archive.today.  SOA   IN     86400s  carl.archive.is.                       1.1.1.1:53   NOERROR
                                     admin.archive.today.
                                     2036249458 1200 300 604800
                                     3600
archive.today.  A     IN     3603s   104.36.80.107                          9.9.9.9:53
archive.today.  SOA   IN     3600s   carl.archive.is.                       9.9.9.9:53   NXDOMAIN
                                     admin.archive.today.
                                     2036249458 1200 300 604800
                                     3600
archive.today.  A     IN     300s    123.30.186.252                         9.9.9.11:53
archive.today.  AAAA  IN     300s    2a09:b280:fe01:14:1a57:7f32:4ba9:dd88  9.9.9.11:53
archive.today.  A     IN     300s    107.189.8.227                          8.8.8.8:53
archive.today.  AAAA  IN     300s    2a09:b280:fe00:5a:8149:691:8d9e:7b34   8.8.8.8:53