zotero making "too-frequent requests"?

tpaixao
Hi all,

I've been having some problems accessing the PNAS (http://www.pnas.org) site. It blocks my IP (temporarly) for making "too frequent requests for a resource".
This usually happens after I import some paper with Zotero. it should be pointed that I work at a scientific institution and it may be that it is someone else on the network that is causing this (since we all get the same IP) but the correlation between me using zotero on the pnas site and we getting blocked is there.
Has anyone experienced the same?

Tiago
  • tpaixao
    I just noticed that the PNAS site claims to block any IP that makes more than one request per minute. is this the case with zotero? Does anyone know how to slow down zotero to make it compatible with this site?

    Tiago
  • shekhar
    It is unclear whether this is a problem with Zotero, your network on the web-site. Is the error message about too many requests for a resource coming from the site or from your network? Have you tried disabling Zotero and then trying the same sequence of steps?
  • dancohen
    I'm not familiar with the PNAS site but we initially had a similar problem with arXiv.org, which also has request throttling/banning. That problem was fixed by sending an explanatory note to arXiv.org explaining the legitimate use. In most cases when you're saving a single item, Zotero should only make one request. If you're trying to save multiple items at one time (i.e., by using the folder icon in the address bar) you will definitely cause this problem. Obviously if there are multiple Zotero users behind, say, a NAT router, this problem is compounded since it will seem like a lot of requests from a single IP.
  • tpaixao
    I'm not trying to save more than one article. The problem seems to be that zotero tries to grab the current page, its associated pdf file and the full text link all at the same time (or with less than 1 sec interval). I tried to use zotero to just grab one of these (through the "save link as zotero snapshot") and that works just fine and does not block our access.
    Obviously, if more than one person tries to grab something at exactly the same time we will get banned, anyway (as we do have a NAT router). Well, I'll just try to work it out here and with the PNAS office, if things don't get better.
    However, if there was an option to set an interval between requests for the different parts of the item, it would be great.
    Thanks for your help.
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