Down Time?

**tfp** · 19th Oct 11, 18:41

Was it just me who couldn't access the forum for the past few days? (I can once again blame my rubbish, wooden router

)
Or did this happen to everyone?
Either way, I'm glad I can access the site again

**Mark** · 19th Oct 11, 19:21

Around 12pm Monday we were hit by a massive distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. There were over 300 hosts involved and the hosts say they were being hit by 37Gb/s of traffic all directed against Motorsport Forums. They had to shut down access to the site in order to protect their network, as such is the size of the attack their entire operation was at risk.

On our behalf they traced where the attack was coming from to compromised game servers owned by many ISPs they managed to get these owners to clean their machines and blocked the rest; after which the attack stopped.

The hosts were extremely helpful in getting us going, many would have given up. But Motorsport Forums now holds the dubious record of being the target of the biggest attack they have ever seen.

In addition while we were down I upgraded the operating system to a newer version with hopefully superior security, so if you are seeing errors it may well be down to that.

**race aficionado** · 19th Oct 11, 19:21

I also cannot access the forum using the usual link but I can access it with my iPhone app called Tapatalk. Can you please provide me with the http info so I can try again from my computer? Thanks.
Race

**tfp** · 19th Oct 11, 19:21

Originally Posted by henners88

I've just written that on the other thread but I had that too.

Thats ok then henners, at least I wasnt the only one

**Mark** · 19th Oct 11, 19:30

Originally Posted by race aficionado

I also cannot access the forum using the usual link but I can access it with my iPhone app called Tapatalk. Can you please provide me with the http info so I can try again from my computer? Thanks.
Race

If your URL has /forums/ on the end then get rid of that bit.

**Mark** · 19th Oct 11, 20:29

Impossible to say who it was unfortunately.

**race aficionado** · 19th Oct 11, 20:32

It worked. Thanks Mark.

**tfp** · 19th Oct 11, 23:41

Originally Posted by Mark

Around 12pm Monday we were hit by a massive distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. There were over 300 hosts involved and the hosts say they were being hit by 37Gb/s of traffic all directed against Motorsport Forums. They had to shut down access to the site in order to protect their network, as such is the size of the attack their entire operation was at risk.

On our behalf they traced where the attack was coming from to compromised game servers owned by many ISPs they managed to get these owners to clean their machines and blocked the rest; after which the attack stopped.

The hosts were extremely helpful in getting us going, many would have given up. But Motorsport Forums now holds the dubious record of being the target of the biggest attack they have ever seen.

In addition while we were down I upgraded the operating system to a newer version with hopefully superior security, so if you are seeing errors it may well be down to that.

Unfortunately I have no idea what a DDoS attack is, but thanks for sorting it out

**MD24** · 20th Oct 11, 16:04

Thanks Mark

**Dave B** · 20th Oct 11, 16:29

Originally Posted by tfp

Unfortunately I have no idea what a DDoS attack is, but thanks for sorting it out

Very basically, a server can cope with so many hits per hour. If you run a large site like Amazon or Google, you'll configure your servers to cope with millions and millions of users, which costs a lot of money. Smaller sites don't need such bandwidth. But if thousands of people all descend on a smaller site at the same time, the server will have trouble coping.

A DDoS attack is a network of computers (hence the Distributed part) , usually compromised via malware, all pestering the site with fake demands. Eventually the site is unable to cope with the multiple requests and fails.

Think of it as trying to get served in JD Sports during the riots.

**Martin Liddle** · 21st Oct 11, 09:03

I have been unable to access the British & Irish Rallying section of the Forum at http://www.motorsportforums.com/britishrallying/ since the DDOS. I can access other sections of the Forum.

**tfp** · 22nd Oct 11, 00:23

Originally Posted by Dave B

Very basically, a server can cope with so many hits per hour. If you run a large site like Amazon or Google, you'll configure your servers to cope with millions and millions of users, which costs a lot of money. Smaller sites don't need such bandwidth. But if thousands of people all descend on a smaller site at the same time, the server will have trouble coping.

A DDoS attack is a network of computers (hence the Distributed part) , usually compromised via malware, all pestering the site with fake demands. Eventually the site is unable to cope with the multiple requests and fails.

Think of it as trying to get served in JD Sports during the riots.

I understand now, thanks

But change JD sports to the pie shop at dinnertime

I have just noticed the "like" button is also missing...

**Martin Liddle** · 23rd Oct 11, 13:45

Originally Posted by Martin Liddle

I have been unable to access the British & Irish Rallying section of the Forum at http://www.motorsportforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=108 since the DDOS. I can access other sections of the Forum.

Still not working for me. Can anyone else view it?

**Steve Boyd** · 23rd Oct 11, 14:36

Hi Martin

The url that you posted works for me, as does the link from the home page at http://www.motorsportforums.com/. I'm using WinXP/IE8.

There don't appear to have been any posts since mbrew's addition to his thread about the Manx Auto Sport Stages, though.

Steve

PS: I've just tried http://www.rallyforum.com/ and that returns a 404 Not Found error