502/504 Errors and DDOS Attacks

[Amazee Dayzee]

Not to mention that the forum goes down at some of the most inopportune moments as well when that is the only time I can actually post for the day. It is something that makes me so furious I want to make a voodoo doll of the person responsible and start stabbing it with a safety pin.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

I was about to make a post saying that the forum hadn't gone down at all as far as I was aware in a few days but then the forum went down for most of the afternoon.

[NHWestoN]

Yeah, I got chopped off, too - just as I was about to do birthdays, too.

[Amazee Dayzee]

At this point I am always gonna be suspicious of the stability of the forum probably even after they move the server since any sort of lull in it means we are getting another DDOS attack right around the corner. I did ask one of the moderators how much longer we had to wait before the server was fully moved but they never replied back to me because they were busy.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

I just keep an eye on the "number of users online" stat at the bottom of the page. If it starts going up a lot, it means an attack is coming.

[Amazee Dayzee]

I would do that too but whenever I come on its already in the middle of an attack so I can't get on anyway. My timing really does suck when I decide to visit the forums because there is a 2 out of 3 chance of the forum already being under siege.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Whoever is no-lifeing this DDOS attack for the last 4 months has underestimated my stubbornness. The more they keep me off the forum, the more I want ON. Somebody must REALLY not like the comic.

[Amazee Dayzee]

I mean to be fair unless Rick says that the comic is over and there will be no new content whatsoever and he is moving on from it and takes the comic page (not the forums) down I am always gonna be here. If it won't load when I initially try it, I'll come back.

I do think my voodoo doll isn't being effective though...

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

I do wish we had some of the tech support manpower that FA had a couple years ago when an anti-furry group hacked it. Within 24 hours the whole group had been doxxed and counterattacked. And that was just the users, not the staff.

[Amazee Dayzee]

I don't think Rick would be able to get all of that support though plus I have a feeling that they would want to be paid if they had to do all of that. Even if this was back when the comic was still running and we had people coming in and registering to discuss it on the forum I don't think Rick would be able to find the amount of people needed for tech support.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

That was just people upset that their favorite site had been attacked, not even the staff from the site. It turns out that a good portion of the furry community is in tech support, so attacking a furry site was a bad plan.

[Amazee Dayzee]

If only we could have people here who have this as their favorite site then the attacks might finally stop because they would get to the bottom of it. It feels like we are no closer to getting it fix than we were when it first started.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

I don't know, it hasn't gone down in a full 2 days (fingers crossed)

[Amazee Dayzee]

Because you said that watch as it ends up crashing as soon as we leave. I swear the ******* who is doing this likes luring us into a false sense of security before making another attack. It also makes me want to make another voodoo doll that is stronger than the one i have.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Ah that's the secret, I don't leave. I have the site permanently pulled up on both my laptop and my cell phone. In fact, I'm procrastinating right NOOWWWWW.

[NHWestoN]

I don't know, it hasn't gone down in a full 2 days (fingers crossed)

THE SUSPENSSE IS MURDER, AIN'T IT !!!?

[Amazee Dayzee]

I feel like I should avoid replying to anything that brings up murder in any sort of way because of my feelings towards the idiot that is behind everything. I will be protecting myself just in case something happens to said person so I don't get implicated.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

The site is back up, but incredibly unstable. It seems like it can barely handle 600 connections at a time anymore. I'm wondering if the server hosting the site burned out an access port or part of the processor.

[Amazee Dayzee]

At this point I feel like there is no fixing the whole website and that one day it is going to crash out for good and it won't be able to be brought back despite everybody's best efforts. I think it would just be better if they made a whole new website and forum which would suck because we would lose almost 20 years of history but I am not sure what else can be done and if Rick eventually does decide to continue with Housepets! I'm not sure how successful he will be when the server his site is on randomly decides to blow up for a few days or weeks at a time.

[NHWestoN]

At this point I feel like there is no fixing the whole website and that one day it is going to crash out for good and it won't be able to be brought back despite everybody's best efforts. I think it would just be better if they made a whole new website and forum which would suck because we would lose almost 20 years of history but I am not sure what else can be done and if Rick eventually does decide to continue with Housepets! I'm not sure how successful he will be when the server his site is on randomly decides to blow up for a few days or weeks at a time.

I can't disagree, Amazz. This whole cavalcade of carnage has to be deeply discouraging and enraging to the dedicated folks who Mod and Maintain this site ... not to mention what a disincentive it must be for Rick to return to Housepets! What is it about some people having harmless fun that deranges some people? If you've got the ability, persistance, and talent to wreck this site, why can't you find a constructive outlet for your talent?

[Welsh Halfwit]

At this point I feel like there is no fixing the whole website and that one day it is going to crash out for good and it won't be able to be brought back despite everybody's best efforts. I think it would just be better if they made a whole new website and forum which would suck because we would lose almost 20 years of history but I am not sure what else can be done and if Rick eventually does decide to continue with Housepets! I'm not sure how successful he will be when the server his site is on randomly decides to blow up for a few days or weeks at a time.

I can't disagree, Amazz. This whole cavalcade of carnage has to be deeply discouraging and enraging to the dedicated folks who Mod and Maintain this site ... not to mention what a disincentive it must be for Rick to return to Housepets! What is it about some people having harmless fun that deranges some people? If you've got the ability, persistance, and talent to wreck this site, why can't you find a constructive outlet for your talent?

Because it's not about the Housepets! site. It's testing Cloudflare and their responses. As cloudflare fights back, so they learn.

[NHWestoN]

Thanks, Welsh!

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

I already posted this elsewhere but I'll put it here, too. I've constructed sort of a clone of the forum where we can go when this site is down as a temporary measure until we get some stability back. I'll be making my daily post there, and keeping this forum updated as much as possible until it's a bit more stable.
See it here

[Hlaoroo]

At this point I feel like there is no fixing the whole website and that one day it is going to crash out for good and it won't be able to be brought back despite everybody's best efforts. I think it would just be better if they made a whole new website and forum which would suck because we would lose almost 20 years of history but I am not sure what else can be done and if Rick eventually does decide to continue with Housepets! I'm not sure how successful he will be when the server his site is on randomly decides to blow up for a few days or weeks at a time.

That won't happen. Even if the front end of the site is down, Rick and Inaki can still access it server-side. All our data is safe. They are working on a new site in the background and we will migrate eventually. Key word there: migrate. All the data will be brought across from the old site to the new site.

Thanks again for your patience, everyone! Unfortunately there's not a lot you can do to prevent/stop DDOS attacks, but we're doing what we can. To reiterate though, no user data has been compromised. DDOS is like thousands of people standing between you and the door, but none of them are able to get through the door since they're all trying to get in at once. There is no attempt by the bots to access the back end of the site. They're only trying to get in the front like you folks. Unfortunately the server can't tell the difference between you and a bot. All it sees is a request that it needs to answer. That's why DDOS is so hard to stop.

Thanks again for your patience, though! We do really appreciate you sticking with us!

[Amazee Dayzee]

I seem to be able to get on now with no issue so that is actually really great for now because I know it probably won't last too long. I will try to get what I can do accomplished before I'm kicked off again because there is a lot I have to catch up on.