Last updated at Thu, 10 Aug 2023 22:16:43 GMT
How to deal with unusual traffic detected notifications from Google
If you get an unusual traffic detected notification from Google, it usually means your IP address was or still is sending suspicious network traffic. Google can detect this and has implemented security measures to protect against DDoS, other server attacks, and SEO rank manipulation.
The key thing to remember is that the notification is based on your internet-facing IP address, not your private IP address, which is assigned to your laptop/PC/device. If you don’t know what your internet-facing (or public) IP address is, you can use something like What’s My IP Address.
Top tips for dealing with unusual traffic detected messages
- Get an inventory. Do you have unknown devices on your network? There are many free applications that can do network scans. Another option is to deploy deep packet inspection (DPI) tools, which will passively detect what is running on your network.
- Monitor traffic on your internet gateway. Watch out for things like network scans, traffic on unusual port numbers, and Tor traffic.
- Track down the device using its MAC address. Network switches maintain a list of which MAC addresses are associated with which network switch ports.
- See if your IP address is blacklisted. You can use something like IPVOID to see whether your IP address is known to black lists.
- If you cannot find any issues, talk to your ISP. Maybe you need an IP change. IP addresses are recycled, so it could be that you were allocated a dodgy one. This is a remote possibility, so make sure you cover the first four tips first.
