Server problems fixed - I hope!

[GrimJack]

I've been having some server issues over the last little while, which I just recently discovered.  Evidently some spam-bots had discovered that most of my wife Tracy's blog was open to comments... and they promptly decided to beat the hell out of my server.  This has been going on since at least the beginning of this year, and they had racked up well over 10,000 spam comments, plugged up my temp directory with another 36000 temp files, and stretched my server log file out by an extra 500Mb.

The little bastards should go pick on someone their own size - small, weak, and useless.

First, I removed the post button in Tracy's blog for comments.  They kept appearing.  So I added a checkbox that you had to click in order to post.  No luck, turns out they were calling the comment perl script directly and ignoring the actual HTML.

So... first of all, I locked all Tracy's posts so no more comments were allowed.  That didn't make me quite happy enough, so I did some data filtering on the server log, and added 2335 lines to my "You are banned - please have fun at Disney.com" list.  That should drop the server load by a lot.

Now there is a small chance that I caught someone nice in the backlash... so if you hear of anyone that can only access Disney.com when they try to visit, have them drop me an email at webmaster@idriders.com, preferably with their email address, and I'll re-instate their specific IP.

[kiwi]

Thanks Dave you are great...I will try to monitor this for you and hey drop by every now and then will ya!!!!
How are the family by the way?

[GrimJack]

Oh, I'm here every so often.  I don't have much reason to post anymore, everyone in the riding crew has moved on to bigger bikes - all the proflex hardware is now retired.

The family is good - Darren will be 3 in March, and hopefully I get to start teaching him how to ride soon.  Tracy wants another carpet commando - I think she's stone cold crazy, but there's no reasoning with her, so I'll go with the flow.

[Frankd3000]

Great job, Dave!!!!!

I've never been to Disney, but if it DID look like anywhere i'm glad it looks like this place.

THANKS!!!!!!!!!

p.s. - how many "messages" (as in P.M.'s) are we allowed to have? Is there a warning when it's full? thx

[GrimJack]

p.s. - how many "messages" (as in P.M.'s) are we allowed to have? Is there a warning when it's full? thx

As many as you like.  I've never enabled limits, there isn't enough bandwidth through here to seriously strain my server... or there shouldn't be, anyhow.  I've been thinking of buying some professional hosting and moving the webserver there, just hasn't happened yet, and may never.

[Old Proflexer]

I haven't got a clue what you just said or did - [smiley=blankstare.gif]
but it sounded really technical and i'm sure we'll all appreciate it -


OP

[Matno]

Yes, thanks!

One question: This is something that only recently started, but whenever I try to insert a picture, url, etc using the buttons right above all the smileys (or add smileys, for that matter), they automatically jump to the end of my post, even if the cursor is somewhere else. It didn't use to do this. Not a big deal, but if it's an easy fix...

You're the man!

[GrimJack]

Interesting - it does that for me as well.  I haven't changed anything on the server or the forum software in a long time, so it shouldn't be related to this end... but I'll dig some anyhow, see what I can come up with.

Nice to hear from you guys again, kiwi, OP, Matno, hope everything is going well for you folks.

[GrimJack]

Hmm... ok, that was pretty damn easy.

Did you by any chance switch to Firefox?  If you did, it was a good idea, it's far superior to IE, however, it has this unwanted side effect.

[Matno]

Ha ha. You nailed that one on the head. Interesting. I love Firefox, but it does have some quirks. Every now and then I still have to open up IE to access something random. Tabbed browsing rocks though!

[bmwcarver]

I have tabbed browsing with IE.  I think it came with the MSN toolbar that I installed.

Do like the tabbed browsing too.

I have firefox and like it but the ebay toolbar doesn't yet support it.

[jazclrint]

Things seem really slow tonight.  But I haven't been on this list long, but it has always seemed way slower than any other site.  But I alway figured it was because it was a small site.  Is it me being too fussy, or a sign you're the victum of revenge.  You go get those bastards though.  They should have better things to do than mess with your server.

[GrimJack]

No, the speed is because the server is located on a small (well, by comparison to modern day pipes, anyhow) connection - I run it at home on my personal internet connection.

I keep thinking about buying some professional webspace to host this stuff and speed everything up, but I just haven't gotten around to it.

[jazclrint]

Ahh, ok.  Just as I thought.  Wouldn't having someone else host it be expensive?  I can deal with speeds in order to keep the community feel.