What's been going on with the forum then? - Arms thread

[zap]

Since 2006 I've hosted the trade forums we know of. And before that it was tiling related forums, training centre websites, and tiling tools websites. Before that when I was about 14, using AOL dialup (9.99 per month and 1p per minute) I was using a packard bell PC and AOL chatrooms creating scripts that changed the colour of the font in chatrooms (got banned a lot). And hosted car related forums and websites.

I'm quite clued up to a point. But instead of going down the 'hacking' route, I went down an actual business route.

We spend a lot on dedicated servers, clusters of servers for mail and other protection, and have had a lot of attempted hacks over the years as we run vBulletin. Lots of exploits in that.

What I've found is rather than me be super skilled in every field, is to get specialists in when needed. So we're on an awesome server that gets upgraded annually, with SSD's, awesome RAM, always DELL, hosted in DC1 in the docklands on the best connectivity with lots of spare bandwidth and whatnot. And know when I shop around what I'm looking for (I rarely switch but I do haggle when it comes to upgrading - I'd rather stay put than build new relationships).

But this, this was new. Small guys don't get DDOS'd and if it was a script kiddy I have lots of bandwidth spare and they'd find their resources outnumbered. This was massive though. It took down my hosts network and his lines he leased (inc his backup lines). The datacentre went nuts. I can't afford hardware myself. So like with my usual outcome, I've paid an external firm to route traffic through who will update their own gear when needed rather than me needing to keep on top of what's what and keep shopping around.

I appreciate your offer, but I didn't go with the 10k guy who came down a bit to something more than a millionaires mortgage. lol

I'm sure he's never touched hardware in his life and drives a ferarri.

I think you took the right route i.e. business.
I was at Learning Tree International studying Microsoft Systems (various) when I became fascinated with the security aspect of IT. I changed my career path and courses ending up with a piece of paper with, 'System and Network Security Certified Professional' on it. It did help me secure work in that arena. However, the company I worked for ignored just about every bit of advice and consequently suffered from 'very stoppable' attacks. I was extremely good at covering my butt and manage to dodge all attempts to sack me. The worse job I've ever had. Paid well but not worth the butt covering exercise and anxiety proving who actually was to blame. Incidentally, I didn't earn as much as the reckless decision makers. I left IT to become an electrician for the remainder of my career and I'm not sure if I've made the right move, what with all the regulations, tricky Dickie down the pub or Mr. P. driving earnings down.
Anyway, well done for your efforts in resolving the issue, Dan.

 

[topquark]

Looks like the DNS caches are all up to date now as well. Maybe someone was testing out their BOTNET and just needed an arbitrary target. Good to see you back up and running.

 

[Admin]

Still actively fighting. We seem to be winning again right now.

 

[Geordie Spark]

or catching up with the bandit. 10-4.

See you on the flip side good buddy ..... keep the shiny side up.

 

[Engineer54]

What's with this security page that keeps appearing, before being allowed on to the site and now it seems every 10 mins or so while you're on the site??

I run a security check on my laptop every time i switch on so i know there is nothing nasty on my equipment. If this is going to be the norm then i won't be hanging around here too long, it takes me at least 5 mins every time, to jump this hurdle as i'm also dodging China's bamboo wall...

I don't mind the security page once, as you enter the site, but not every few bloody minutes!!

 

[Marvo]

Sorry Eng, I'm also plagued with the same problem, I also can't reply to PM's at the moment. It's issues that will hopefully be ironed out over the next few days.

 

[ian.settle1]

Probably being used to stop any auto botnets from flooding the site and causing it to crash as previously

 

[topquark]

Prob because you're accessing the site from outside the UK, not seeing it from here.

 

[Richard Burns]

I have had a log in screen come up whenever I am trying to look at pictures on the forum, I still cannot see all pictures but it seems to be resolving slowly, give it time.

 

[telectrix]

don't mind the occasional security prompt, but FFS. show a number that i can read.

 

[shanky887614]

im glad I use tapatalk then, I don't get them

 

[Gavin A]

Prob because you're accessing the site from outside the UK, not seeing it from here.

Have UKIP taken over the forums immigration policy then?

 

[Geordie Spark]

don't mind the occasional security prompt, but FFS. show a number that i can read.

That would be any number less than five.

 

[Megavolt]

Site is very slow tonight.

 

[HappyHippyDad]

Hooray!! Couldn't log on for the whole of the weekend! That sounds wrong... I mean glad to be back!

Thanks for the explanation Dan, I hope you manage to sort things out, it must be quite a nightmare.

 

[dan86]

Haven't been able to get on last few days. I've been having withdrawal symptoms

 

[7029 dave]

Same as, annoying hope its okay now.!!

 

[Marvo]

I've been away fishing this weekend but I couldn't get anything except pages that were in server cache earlier this evening. Apparently defensive measures are still being applied so I'm just hangin in like everyone else.

 

[Admin]

We got hit hard Friday night and the old host said we needed to shift off their network.

Been working hard for the last 48+ hours in finding a host (that's available on the weekend for a start) and to get us online and also more importantly, protected.

Looks like we're working for now.

We might go offline for a hour or so here and there when we get attacked again (and we will) while we configure the new systems for their type of attacks. But in a week or so we should be totally configured for whatever types of attacks they're throwing at us.

Again, and as always, keep this out of the public domain, if somebody asks, a RCD tripped.

Thanks

Dan

 

[Knobhead]

Dan, this may sound strange coming from me. I do hope you’ve got it sorted now.

Going back 15 years. Been there, got the teeshirt!

Not many will know what it’s like to log on to the admin panel and see a massive never ending list. It is gut wrenching. Then comes “why me?”

I had to contact all the international moderators to explain what was going on.
Explain?
I hadn’t got a bloody clue at that moment.

The hosts Oslo and Hanover Universities went ape ---- at me.