Q. I'm seeing some odd behavior with Zotero -- it sometimes asks permission to access a resource via a proxy or it attempts continuously to download an article, which can then trigger a block from the publisher's site.

This is a known issue with Zotero and a fix was implemented by Zotero personnel around February 3, 2023. 

Users who experience these kinds of issues should check which version of Zotero they are running and ensure it has been updated as follows:

• Firefox update for Zotero Connector 5.0.104
• Chrome update for Zotero Connector 5.0.104
• Edge update for Zotero Connector 5.0.105

Zotero users should have automatically been updated once the latest version was available for their browser, but occasionally auto-updates don't happen as they should.