# Local errors
Spike is a cloud-based service and hence you need a healthy network connection in order to be able to use the service. This guide lists some common issues which prevent network connectivity from working.
# ad blockers
If you use an Ad blocker, or a browser with built-in ad-blocking (like brave (opens new window)) then you may get failures when you try to upload a pdf. The solution is to disable the blocker for spikedata.co.za.
e.g. here we can see brave blocking the upload of a pdf - open the dev-tools (
F12) and you'll seenet::ERR_BLOCKED_BY_CLIENT- indicating that Brave automatically blocked the upload.
The solution is to switch off ad blocking for the site:
