well, around 6PM or so, I figured out that spam was causing the huge spikes in traffic.  The hosting company 4 hours later have told me they think it was one of the accounts being spoofed, thus the flood of email traffic wasn't originating here, it was just all the crap bouncing from bad email addresses in the spammers address book (they fake the return address).  I've seen it before, but never enough to spike the server so bad.  They must have been sending 10,000 a minute or something.

anyways, the hosting company made some changes which should hopefully keep it from being a huge problem again.

  I just can't figure that...

  The spam you mentioned overloading the server - is this intended to just cause general mayhem, or was the spam, like, 100,000 ads for Viagra..?

  I just can't figure that...

  The spam you mentioned overloading the server - is this intended to just cause general mayhem, or was the spam, like, 100,000 ads for Viagra..?




Email on the Internet is very trusting, it was designed in the days when there were maybe 100 universities on the web and other folks that could behave.  When you compose an email, you can specify anyone as the "source" of the email, even if they aren't.  I can send an email to you, that would appear at first glance to be coming from bill.gates@microsoft.com.  A savvy person would look at the email headers, and look at where it originated from and notice the first computer it routed through was nowhere near Washington State. 

However, to a brain dead email router, when the email can't be delivered due to a bad email address, it'll bounce back into bill.gates@microsoft.com instead of the person who actually sent it.  Even if the person who sent it didn't have their server touched at all during the sending of the email.

So what happened, is someone used a domain on my server I host for a friend as the faked sender address.  When email can't be delivered it, ends up trying to send the "bounced" messages to his account instead of to the jerk who sent it in the first place.  If you send 10,000 emails and 1,000 bounce, that's a lot of junk for my email server to look at quickly.

  I see.  So it's not spam related to advertising, it's a torrent of bogus e-mails and a full-on bum rush of the server...

  Some hack attack...

  I see.  So it's not spam related to advertising, it's a torrent of bogus e-mails and a full-on bum rush of the server...

  Some hack attack...


No, it's spam related advertising, the end result of it just looks like a hack attack on the server due to torrent of emails that don't make it to their intended audience.

I'm glad you found the source of the problem. No surprise that it is spam...

I'd give my views on spammers, but, if I went into detail, my account would be deleted for the worst profanity and what not this board has ever seen. So, I'll be nice:

To the spammer who caused this DOS attack: please, try to incorporate some real adventure into your life, like synchronized dancing with trains, skydiving in tornadoes, and eating improperly prepared blowfish. While none of the rest of us like high insurance premiums, I for one would enjoy to see you try something new and exciting in your life. Best wishes to your future endeavors, Mr. or Mrs. Ashcroft.

Phew!  Glad that's cleared up.  I logged on to get my afternoon fixed and was left jonesing!

Spammers invade my hotmail account so I have to set the filter on the highest level possible...but then I have to go fishing for legit emails that end up in my junkmail box.

I'm really sick of the Nigerian check-cashing scams.  I get about 20 of these every day!
::)

i'm glad it wasn't our duplicate threads.

wait. forget i mentioned that. :-X

The board just went down a few moments.  I hope whoever is responsible for this gets an ass-kicking.

they're hitting me again.  Looks like they are just randomly sending them to an account on my server.  Just picking random guesses at names and trying to send them to people who don't exist, thousands at a time.

Why is it the board always goes down when I am submitting a score in the arcade :\'(

Why is it the board always goes down when I am submitting a score in the arcade :\'(


Just your luck I guess.  I'd love to do unspeakable horrors to these people who keep hitting the server

Why is it the board always goes down when I am submitting a score in the arcade :\'(


Just your luck I guess.  I'd love to do unspeakable horrors to these people who keep hitting the server


I've noticed the board slows down when I click on the Arcade. :-\\ Could that have anything to do with anything?

I've noticed the board slows down when I click on the Arcade. :-\\ Could that have anything to do with anything?


The arcade thing is a modification package by a third party.  It's not very well optimized, so it takes a little while to bring up the arcade list.  I've been the only person on the board and hit the arcade button, and it still takes awhile to come up.

The arcade thing is a modification package by a third party.  It's not very well optimized, so it takes a little while to bring up the arcade list.  I've been the only person on the board and hit the arcade button, and it still takes awhile to come up.

Maybe there's just too many games in there right now? ??? Just a thought...

Phew!  Glad that's cleared up.  I logged on to get my afternoon fixed and was left jonesing!

Spammers invade my hotmail account so I have to set the filter on the highest level possible...but then I have to go fishing for legit emails that end up in my junkmail box.

I'm really sick of the Nigerian check-cashing scams.  I get about 20 of these every day!
::)
I know,I hate those too!and they use different asddresses so you can't just block them!

I know,I hate those too!and they use different asddresses so you can't just block them!


Even if you blocked a thousand African scammers, they'd be back next week with another thousand email addresses.  No exaggeration.
I don't IM, but friends of mine who do say these same scammers hack into their personal IM conversations!
::)

Even if you blocked a thousand African scammers, they'd be back next week with another thousand email addresses.  No exaggeration.
I don't IM, but friends of mine who do say these same scammers hack into their personal IM conversations!
::)



What program are they using?  I have never heard of someone's IM conversation being hacked into.  I've used AIM, Yahoo, MSN....never heard of that. 

What program are they using?  I have never heard of someone's IM conversation being hacked into.  I've used AIM, Yahoo, MSN....never heard of that. 


They can actually hack into your account (I've seen it done) and/or spam-IM you with porn/ads.  As for a conversation, dunno how that works.

Is this causing the boards to run painfully slow?

Is this causing the boards to run painfully slow?


it was, it should hopefully not happen anymore, my hosting company made some changes.

it was, it should hopefully not happen anymore, my hosting company made some changes.
...with a sledgehammer?

...with a sledgehammer?


...studded with diamonds glued onto 50-grit sandpaper?

(Did I mention I don't like spammers?)

They can actually hack into your account (I've seen it done) and/or spam-IM you with porn/ads.  As for a conversation, dunno how that works.

My friend Sam is the only one I've heard complaining about that.  It happens on one of the many adult sites he peruses, he looooves to talk dirty!
:P

So, like, with these hook-up chatrooms you've got hordes of lonely ole dirty bastids, like Sam, who become easy targets for Ugandan scammers pretending to be buxom blondes from Ohio!  However, there's one dead give away:
"Hi, hw R-U, U ht--me like make **** w/u gd tiem!?" 

Oh, in case you suspect I'm referring to the proverbial Dear Abbie "friend," no it isn't me surfing these sex chat rooms.  See, most people who do like to keep the activity to themselves.  Not Sam!  He gives you more details than you ever want to know!
http://www.inthe00s.com/smile/12/evil6.gif

Maybe there's just too many games in there right now? ??? Just a thought...


Just my guess, but the arcade probably takes up only a small fraction of the board's resources.

I played with the number of games displayed per page, thinking maybe the thumbnails were slowing it down. No matter if there were 10 or 50 games per page (or 25 like now), the time to display each page was roughly the same.

Just my guess, but the arcade probably takes up only a small fraction of the board's resources.

I played with the number of games displayed per page, thinking maybe the thumbnails were slowing it down. No matter if there were 10 or 50 games per page (or 25 like now), the time to display each page was roughly the same.


Hmmh. Interesting.

Just that when I click on it for the first time, it takes a while to load, but then when I'm somewhere in the Arcade, it's fine after that.

Even if you blocked a thousand African scammers, they'd be back next week with another thousand email addresses.  No exaggeration.
I don't IM, but friends of mine who do say these same scammers hack into their personal IM conversations!
::)
That's bad.i saw a news program about nigerian scammers.it' says the country has nice people who are often quite bright,but there's no jobs.Sp they actually have special classes to learn how to scam people via e-mails.

That's bad.i saw a news program about nigerian scammers.it' says the country has nice people who are often quite bright,but there's no jobs.Sp they actually have special classes to learn how to scam people via e-mails.

That doesn't sound too good. ::) :-\\

That doesn't sound too good. ::) :-\\
No it doesn't.maybe i should look up nigeria on the net to find more about it.

Email on the Internet is very trusting, it was designed in the days when there were maybe 100 universities on the web and other folks that could behave.  When you compose an email, you can specify anyone as the "source" of the email, even if they aren't.  I can send an email to you, that would appear at first glance to be coming from bill.gates@microsoft.com.  A savvy person would look at the email headers, and look at where it originated from and notice the first computer it routed through was nowhere near Washington State. 

However, to a brain dead email router, when the email can't be delivered due to a bad email address, it'll bounce back into bill.gates@microsoft.com instead of the person who actually sent it.  Even if the person who sent it didn't have their server touched at all during the sending of the email.

So what happened, is someone used a domain on my server I host for a friend as the faked sender address.  When email can't be delivered it, ends up trying to send the "bounced" messages to his account instead of to the jerk who sent it in the first place.  If you send 10,000 emails and 1,000 bounce, that's a lot of junk for my email server to look at quickly.

I had to explain the same thing to my wife at pretty much the time when you posted this - my inbox was getting literally hundreds of bounce-backs per day for emails that I hadn't sent...

It lasted for maybe a week, then stopped.  I guess some other poor bastard is being bombarded now.  I do wonder why these people bother, though - surely there can't be anybody stupid enough to order viagra/buy shares on the basis of this sort of mailing?

I had to explain the same thing to my wife at pretty much the time when you posted this - my inbox was getting literally hundreds of bounce-backs per day for emails that I hadn't sent...

It lasted for maybe a week, then stopped.  I guess some other poor bastard is being bombarded now.  I do wonder why these people bother, though - surely there can't be anybody stupid enough to order viagra/buy shares on the basis of this sort of mailing?


the economics are there believe it or not.  Send ten million spams, costs maybe $100.  Get 200 suckers at $50 a pop.

I've been getting this message quite a bit tonight. It started around midnight.


Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /index.php on this server.

Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Apache/1.3.37 Server at www.inthe00s.com Port 80

I've been getting this message quite a bit tonight. It started around midnight.


Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /index.php on this server.

Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Apache/1.3.37 Server at www.inthe00s.com Port 80




Even I received that very same message a few times now.

I've been getting this message quite a bit tonight. It started around midnight.


Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /index.php on this server.

Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Apache/1.3.37 Server at www.inthe00s.com Port 80






I only seem to get that message when I am in the arcade.  When I switch to firefox, I still see it, but not as frequently