Is it just me, or ...

[MKG]

... has this forum been going off-line at regular intervals over the last couple of weeks. It only disappears for a few minutes, but that is intensely annoying if you happen to be in the middle of a reply. Too much traffic on the server? Mr. Headstrong's wicked experiments? My imagination?

Mike

[MuddyWitch]

Well, not the latter, unless I'm a figment of your imagination too!

Been happening to me too.

MW

[Mr and Mrs luvpie]

me to i did wonder if mr headstrong was punishing me for my lurkdom :D

[oldjerry]

I just thought that someone realised I was talking crap.....

[Green Aura]

I just thought that someone realised I was talking crap.....

No we've known that for AAAAAGES, OJ!

Sometimes the board gets a red banner at the top saying it's disabled, John tells me that's when we're being bombarded by loads of spammers and the server can't cope for a little while (or something like that ). Very little spam gets through, compared to what tries to.

It might be during one of these periods? I've never lost anything though, just had to wait a while. So I don't know if it's that.

[Thomzo]

And I just thought it was my cheapo broadband. Usually only happens when I've just replied to a post so haven't lost anything yet.

Zoe

[Lilyfae]

Is it just me or is this still happening?

Thought my bad typing & need to edit killed the board!

[MKG]

Not you, Lilyfae - it's still happening.

Mike

[oldjerry]

Evidently I'm still talking crap!

[Green Aura]

I asked John Headstrong about this problem months ago - he checked the logs to see what was going on and this was his response.

we are getting scanned by "script kiddies", looking for holes to exploit, from Russia and Poland, they are crap at it and are doing it to loads of people, they will get kicked off the net soon (or get better at it)

They definitely got better at it! We were seriously bombarded by proper spammers from the Baltic regions in the New Year, I'm guessing the current spate(?) is someone else doing the same thing.

[John Headstrong]

I thought I had better comment here and try to explain where we are.

Ish runs on my server, I do all the software updates for the main site and forum, manage the e-mail system and keep rouge hacks/scripts/machines away before they can do their stuff.

The server is not big, in fact, it is a fairly low powered machine energy wise and that helps keep the price down. This means when the machine gets everynameunderthesun@selfsufficientish.com at the same time that 1000+ spam bots get refused entry and the fact that I have other clients on the machine things can slow up.

now, the uptime of the server is great to be honest but the problem is what people are comparing it to, I few years ago someone commented "well, the BBC website never does that" but I guess now it would be facebook. In both cases they have massive server farms, 1000's of machines all there to serve webpages. we are one low power ecoserver.

it is like comparing one of these

small.jpg (17.79 KiB) Viewed 8869 times

with one of these

large.jpg (12.32 KiB) Viewed 8869 times

Ish does not sell anything (apart from the occasional bit of adspace) so the google adverts are the only thing that helps pay for the server and that does not really cover much. The ads are out of the way, I do not want to do what other forums do and place adverts in between posts, while it would get more clicks they get in the way and I just don't like it.


so, there you go. We are small and broke sometimes the site gets very busy.

[MuddyWitch]

John, I'm sure I speak for all members when I say we think you & the Mods do a fantastic job.

We also appriciate very much the ads policy, so it isn't that we are annoyed with. It was the thoughtless morons that spam & spoil the pleasure of millions that incurred our wrath! ISH should be able to run smoothly on your petit server and would were it not for the spammers.

MW

[Lilyfae]

Ditto muddywitch

Thank-you for taking the time to explain John, I honestly thought I'd upset things by pressing 'edit' twice in three minutes!

And thank-you for hosting the forum especially in a thoughtful way.

[battybird]

John, I'm sure I speak for all members when I say we think you & the Mods do a fantastic job.

We also appriciate very much the ads policy, so it isn't that we are annoyed with. It was the thoughtless morons that spam & spoil the pleasure of millions that incurred our wrath! ISH should be able to run smoothly on your petit server and would were it not for the spammers.

MW

ditto, ditto, ditto don't get too big..hate lots of ads...I can cope with crashes now I know its not my fault!!