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Site was down - what happened? (1 Viewer)

Schweddy

Schweddy

Benevolent Dictator
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Libertarian - Right
We are back up now - obviously. :)

A little more than a year ago, our website was hacked - very badly. A few might remember that inncident. It was not a happy time at DP.

Well, because of that we implimented a very strong malicious script checker (virus checker) that watches for events. Often that is the reason why the site is slow. Well, a few weeks ago we decided to go to another malicious checker that can tell us much more info and it was less of a burden on the server. It can close ports and 'quranteen' files. It worked - too well.

It actually ended up quanteeing the entire server - including the backups!!

So, the awesome team at hostdime.com was able to fix the issue by reloading the server with newer OS and then copy individually the files needed for DP to run.

It was a very long process that took them over 16 hours.
 
I thought it was the dopey government firwall today. Incidentally, I am having all kinds of trouble getting any page to load.
 
vauge said:
We are back up now - obviously. :)

A little more than a year ago, our website was hacked - very badly. A few might remember that inncident. It was not a happy time at DP.

Well, because of that we implimented a very strong malicious script checker (virus checker) that watches for events. Often that is the reason why the site is slow. Well, a few weeks ago we decided to go to another malicious checker that can tell us much more info and it was less of a burden on the server. It can close ports and 'quranteen' files. It worked - too well.

It actually ended up quanteeing the entire server - including the backups!!

So, the awesome team at hostdime.com was able to fix the issue by reloading the server with newer OS and then copy individually the files needed for DP to run.

It was a very long process that took them over 16 hours.
Click to expand...

The site seems to be running extremely slow now though. And alot of the posts from last night have been erased.
 
Yeah, the site will be very slow until everything catches back up.
 
Yep - we lost quite a few posts. :(

I am so sorry all - we are working on getting an additional offsite backup solution.
 
Testing speed of posting.
 
It looks like any posts after 4pm 11/28 until ~8:30pm 11/28 were lost.

After 8:30 the site went wacky and was down until 1:20PM 11/29.

We are very sorry for this inconvenience. Please accept my sincere apologies.
We are doing everything in our power (and pocketbook) to keep this from ever happening again.
 
I have it on good authority that this was a
TOT plot,carried out by Islamic Trajan's.
 
I automatically thought it was me being banned... I used to post on Hip Forums and it is a very liberal site and a target rich environment for conservatives... anyway I got in a dispute there with a mod over him showing US soldiers chopped up and he just shut me down... not a note or warning nada...

Any way when I couldn't get onto the site I figured something I wrote had triggered a likewise reaction... then when I couldn't get the sight to load I googled a blog with a site topic and my username and entered the site without trouble... seeing my posts missing and a thread missing I thought immediately sensorship and that I was banned.

Hope the site is back to normal soon! Glad I was wrong!
 
vauge said:
We are back up now - obviously. :)

A little more than a year ago, our website was hacked - very badly. A few might remember that inncident. It was not a happy time at DP.

Well, because of that we implimented a very strong malicious script checker (virus checker) that watches for events. Often that is the reason why the site is slow. Well, a few weeks ago we decided to go to another malicious checker that can tell us much more info and it was less of a burden on the server. It can close ports and 'quranteen' files. It worked - too well.

It actually ended up quanteeing the entire server - including the backups!!

So, the awesome team at hostdime.com was able to fix the issue by reloading the server with newer OS and then copy individually the files needed for DP to run.

It was a very long process that took them over 16 hours.
Click to expand...
Quite a few posts "disappeared". I thought the NSA had come in and erased all sensitive terrorist related topics lol.
 
Topsez said:
I automatically thought it was me being banned... I used to post on Hip Forums and it is a very liberal site and a target rich environment for conservatives... anyway I got in a dispute there with a mod over him showing US soldiers chopped up and he just shut me down... not a note or warning nada...
Click to expand...

Hey the same thing happened to me at Hip Forums. Believe it or not, I'm a right-wing nutjob by their standards over there. :lol: Hip Forums loves to claim they're a "free speech" zone but they're quick to silence dissenting opinions.

DP is so much better. There's real intellectual diversity here and people truly are free to say (almost) anything they want. I'm glad I got banned from HF, or I never would have found this place.
 
I didn't think I had been banned.

I just thought I was ditched because of my pocket protector.
 
Had to restart some services again - sorry about that. It was running -WAY- too slow. Had to tweak some mysql and apache settings like we had previously (we lost all those settings).

*cross fingers*

Man this sux.
 
Kandahar said:
Hey the same thing happened to me at Hip Forums. Believe it or not, I'm a right-wing nutjob by their standards over there. :lol: Hip Forums loves to claim they're a "free speech" zone but they're quick to silence dissenting opinions.
Click to expand...

I may have to investigate this. Anyone care to start a betting pool on how long I last?
 
I didn't think I was being banned, but I did have to check myself into a 24-hour detox when I couldn't get onto the site.
 
So, it was the software problem. I thought one of the mod didn't like what I wrote about Islam.

Everything was fine when I logged in yesterday afternoon to surf the forum and then posted my two responses in the topic "Muslim cleric blames women for rape" in the Middle East sub-section. The trouble began when I clicked "submit" button to post my third response. I kept getting an error page.

Later, I couldn't even get access into the "Muslim cleric blames women for rape" topic page despite repeated attempts. I tried other sections with no problem. It appeared others had no problem except me. When I tried to go back to the "Muslim cleric blames women for rape" page, it was again blocked. The more I tried the worst it got. It got to the point that I couldn't even get access to the Middle East sub-section, then not even the International Politics section. I also couldn't get into my mailbox or CP. Then I was blocked from access to the site altogether.

This morning I tried again several times without success. I'm glad your system is now up and running. My thanks to you, your staffs, and the team at hostdime.com for taking the time and effort to get it running again.

I noticed that the two posts that I submitted yesterday that were posted then, are now gone. I'll try to re-post them.

I know recently there had been two forum sites that were down without any explanation. One was a site about Hebrew culture that was down for more than 2 months. The other was a debate forum site about Islam that was down for almost two weeks already. I'm not trying to make any inference, but just to state some factual events that had occurred.
 
Originally posted by Topsez:
I automatically thought it was me being banned... I used to post on Hip Forums and it is a very liberal site and a target rich environment for conservatives... anyway I got in a dispute there with a mod over him showing US soldiers chopped up and he just shut me down... not a note or warning nada...

Any way when I couldn't get onto the site I figured something I wrote had triggered a likewise reaction... then when I couldn't get the sight to load I googled a blog with a site topic and my username and entered the site without trouble... seeing my posts missing and a thread missing I thought immediately sensorship and that I was banned.

Hope the site is back to normal soon! Glad I was wrong!
Click to expand...
You are banned! It's just that no one cares enough to tell you.
 
CaptainCourtesy said:
I didn't think I was being banned, but I did have to check myself into a 24-hour detox when I couldn't get onto the site.
Click to expand...

Ditto that....
A few hours of lucidity...gone....back to being an airhead, I guess...:mrgreen:
 
ngdawg said:
Ditto that....
A few hours of lucidity...gone....back to being an airhead, I guess...:mrgreen:
Click to expand...

Don't know about you, but after the detox, got a ton of work done...for once. Oh well, back to slacking... :mrgreen:
 
We are looking into upgrading our server - if any of you can help with prices please PM me.

Thanks!
 
Well, so much for the big boys huh, lol, hey, I know how it is, this stuff isn't cheap folks, it takes at least a hundred bucks a month for a forum this size, and it's content, I feel your pain. I don't know who to tell you to go to, as the prices are all about the same, you obviously need a dedicated server, and the more you upgrade, the worse it will get. This vbulletin is a hefty program, I've learned that much, for the time being, I would recommend you shut down the unneeded add-ons, I would start with that picture program, let me/us know how that goes, right now, it's painfully slow, and you're losing members fast!
 
Deegan said:
Well, so much for the big boys huh, lol, hey, I know how it is, this stuff isn't cheap folks, it takes at least a hundred bucks a month for a forum this size, and it's content, I feel your pain. I don't know who to tell you to go to, as the prices are all about the same, you obviously need a dedicated server, and the more you upgrade, the worse it will get. This vbulletin is a hefty program, I've learned that much, for the time being, I would recommend you shut down the unneeded add-ons, I would start with that picture program, let me/us know how that goes, right now, it's painfully slow, and you're losing members fast!
Click to expand...

They will be back - folks know a good thing when they find it. :)

I think we *finally* solved the issue.

EDIT: Maybe not solved, but we are working on it - I promise.
 
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Billo_Really said:
You are banned! It's just that no one cares enough to tell you.
Click to expand...
I love you too! You know you would miss someone from the extreme of the spectrum to explain how stuff is going down... Just to remind you it was me that said embedding US troops in Iraqi units... it was me that said Bush would stay the course... it was me that said Iran wants to control ME oil and blackmail the other states... today on Fox News Col. Ollie North almost repeated word for word what jewels I've been giving you guys... It is a north - south magnetic pole thing... it's natural to repell the opposite...
 
Good news!!

The website appears to have stabilized - we had to do some crazy tests, tweaks and reboots. If you were affected this evening, please accept my applogy. So far, we have lasted about an hour without incident and without errors. :)

For those that utilize the email notifications, it should be resolved shortly.
 
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