Jetpack cannoot cannect. Response was not 200: 503

Hello, there.

I took a look at these sites:

https://groot-driene.nl
https://textielkunstenaar.com

It looks like the xmlrpc.php files (which are needed for Jetpack to work properly) are indeed still being blocked by something:

https://groot-driene.nl/xmlrpc.php?for=jetpack
https://textielkunstenaar.com/xmlrpc.php?for=jetpack

Those file are used by Jetpack and other plugins and apps to connect to your site. They must be enabled and have to return the following exact message:

XML-RPC server accepts POST requests only.

You can see a working example here: https://jetpack.com/xmlrpc.php

Since your site returns a 400 Bad Request error for this file, I would recommend reaching back out to your host to ask if they can remove that block so we can try a new connection.

For the absolute best results, you could also have them whitelist the following to avoid future issues:

1. All connections to and from *.wordpress.com
2. The Jetpack IP ranges noted on this page: https://jetpack.com/support/hosting-faq/

Once you’ve spoken with them, please let us know and we can try another connection test from this side. If they’re not willing to activate the xmlrpc.php for you or whitelist us to use it, I’m afraid you may need to consider a new host if you want to use Jetpack.

Hi @ingebaa

They should be able to protect your site’s XML-RPC file without having to whitelist specific IP ranges. Most hosts use tools like [fail2ban](http://www.fail2ban.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page) or [ModSecurity](https://www.modsecurity.org/).

On your side of things, you can use plugins like this one to disable access to one of the methods used by hackers:

https://wordpress.org/plugins/disable-xml-rpc-pingback/

You can also use web application firewalls like [Sucuri](https://sucuri.net/website-firewall/) or [CloudFlare](https://www.cloudflare.com/waf/) to block hackers before they even reach your site.

Finally, Jetpack itself includes a feature that will help [against Brute Force attacks](https://jetpack.com/2015/10/12/jetpack-protection-from-brute-force-xml-rpc-attacks/).
 
If your hosting provider needs more details, or would like to talk about the different options, we’d be happy to help! They can contact us via this contact form:

http://jetpack.com/contact-support/
 
If they’d rather not enable XML-RPC, you have 3 solutions left:
1. Stop using Jetpack altogether.
2. Use Jetpack’s Development Mode to use only our features that do not require a connection to our systems: https://jetpack.com/support/development-mode/
3. Switch to a different hosting provider.
 
I hope that helps!