Further information.

[Anxiety]

Those who follow our Twitter will already know this. http://twitter.com/marketforumsorg

After checking apache logs we maxed out we could see that the MaxClients value was exceeding the limit in the server. Which basically means lots of people viewing and actively taking part on MF exceeded our limit of 150 (you relatively old members will remember the 30 connections error we had with hostgator. That's how much we've grown. 30 - 150). Once MaxClients is exceeded, further requests will be put into queue and will be served on a first come first basis. So the site will be slower/down. We have increased the MaxClients value from 150 to 200 in the server.

Anyway, further checking the logs, we found we were also DDOS'd and my host supplier is filtering the attacking IP addresses in the server firewall. Around 230 IP's have been filtered/blocked. So that should reduce some of these attacks, but it's a big one. -.-

I do apologize for these moments of downtime, but to me it's positive. MF is growing and we'll need to expect these sort of situations to occur. Just please be patient and always check our twitter page.

-Crayo

 

[duk]

I'm following you on Twitter now

Great the site is back up, though it's off and on. Good luck on getting everything sorted out!

 

[NEC]

It's a shame that people have the urge to DDoS succesful sites.

 

[F3aRâ„¢]

This Ddos'd thing is getting old quick.

 

[Anxiety]

Updated. Our Twitter page will always give more info. Finally, I can post!

 

[harris21]

I am glad you guys are back online. That was a really bad Ddos

 

[Anxiety]

It's not over yet mate. We'll probably experience some more massive attacks.

 

[SilentStriker]

Is it me or like every few minutes the site goes offline.

 

[Anxiety]

http://twitter.com/marketforumsorg

 

[Legend_mybb_import1694]

So that's why the site kept appearing down for no reason yesterday...

 

[Anxiety]

Yup. Doesn't anyone read our Twitter?

491+ IP Addresses blocked currently.

 

[SilentStriker]

WHat's with all these attacks haters gonna hate?

 

[Legend_mybb_import1694]

Where I was at, I couldn't manage to view your twitter account. Anyways I hope the DDoSing stops soon.

 

[Anxiety]

Someone has obviously paid for this service. It's a huge attack.

 

[Legend_mybb_import1694]

Do you have reason to believe that the attacks will continue throughout this month, or do you think they'll stop in a few days?

 

[Anxiety]

No idea. I know as much as you lot when it comes to why we're being attacked. I have a few theories, most likely one is the paid service. No one I know has the capability to do one this large. I'm just lucky my host is fantastic. Moving to this VPS a day before this attack is just fate.

 

[Legend_mybb_import1694]

Do you think nofear is linked to this?

 

[Anxiety]

Perhaps. Doesn't matter who is, there's nothing I can do to them or to anyone who pays for this service. I'll try get in contact him him anyway, I like to defuse all "cyber wars" and forgive.

 

[Legend_mybb_import1694]

Just wondering, is there any such thing as a DDoS shield? Like a firewall or some type of shit.

 

[Anxiety]

Well we have our own firewall, which we're blocking all these IP's with. But we were attacked with a big range of IP's (so alot of datacenters) so was almost impossible to just firewall and move on. Most attacks I'd be able to sort now on our VPS, and be up again in 5 minutes. Because of the range, we couldn't with this. There's an option to pay around $100 a month on DDOS protection, but I'm not expecting these sort of attacks oftenly, our niche isn't the same as HF. As we get bigger, I'll just upgrade our hardware to make sure we can still cope with it ourselves.