Seems our host saw some large cpu spikes and ripped us down. This is the second time this has happened to us with two different hosts. It's a real drag to find out that you can't log in, email down, and you have to wait for someone to answer your email or pick up the phone.
They said the reason was that we got hit with a ton of bots at once. Not sure why we were targeted, but the bots hit and our cpu spiked. I removed some stuff from the front page, got a caching module, and hopefully we'll be good.
Thanks to everyone that emailed me to give me the heads up. We pay for 3 different hosts right now and it seems a waste of money, but the fact that some go down they are the only thing that saved us so that we can communicate.
I apologize for any inconvenience this caused anyone.
Site was down temporarily
Re: Site was down temporarily
I had to google this, so i thought that i would post it for someone else.
What's a Bot?“Bot” is actually short for robot – not the kind found in science fiction movies or on the production line in a manufacturing business. Bots are one of the most sophisticated types of crimeware facing the Internet today. Bots are similar to worms and Trojans, but earn their unique name by performing a wide variety of automated tasks on behalf of their master (the cybercriminals) who are often safely located somewhere far across the Internet. Tasks that bots can perform run the gamut from sending spam to blasting Web sites off the Internet as part of a coordinated “denial-of-service” attack. Since a bot infected computer does the bidding of its master, many people refer to these victim machines as “zombies.”
Bots sneak onto a person’s computer in many ways. Bots oftentimes spread themselves across the Internet by searching for vulnerable, unprotected computers to infect. When they find an exposed computer, they quickly infect the machine and then report back to their master. Their goal is then to stay hidden until they are awoken by their master to perform a task. Bots are so quiet that sometimes the victims first learn of them when their Internet Service Provider tells them that their computer has been spamming other Internet users. Sometimes a bot will even clean up the infected machine to make sure it does not get bumped off of the victim’s computer by another cybercriminal’s bot. Other ways in which a bot infects a machine include being downloaded by a Trojan, installed by a malicious Web site or being emailed directly to a person from an already infected machine.
Bots do not work alone, but are part of a network of infected machines called a “botnet.” Botnets are created by attackers repeatedly infecting victim computers using one or several of the techniques mentioned above. Each one of the zombie machines is controlled by a master computer called the command and control server. From the command and control server, the cybercriminals manage their botnets and instructs the army of zombie computers to work on their behalf. A botnet is typically composed of large number victim machines that stretch across the globe, from the Far East to the United States. Some botnets might have a few hundred or a couple thousand computers, but others have tens and even hundreds of thousands of zombies at their disposal.
davinci
What's a Bot?“Bot” is actually short for robot – not the kind found in science fiction movies or on the production line in a manufacturing business. Bots are one of the most sophisticated types of crimeware facing the Internet today. Bots are similar to worms and Trojans, but earn their unique name by performing a wide variety of automated tasks on behalf of their master (the cybercriminals) who are often safely located somewhere far across the Internet. Tasks that bots can perform run the gamut from sending spam to blasting Web sites off the Internet as part of a coordinated “denial-of-service” attack. Since a bot infected computer does the bidding of its master, many people refer to these victim machines as “zombies.”
Bots sneak onto a person’s computer in many ways. Bots oftentimes spread themselves across the Internet by searching for vulnerable, unprotected computers to infect. When they find an exposed computer, they quickly infect the machine and then report back to their master. Their goal is then to stay hidden until they are awoken by their master to perform a task. Bots are so quiet that sometimes the victims first learn of them when their Internet Service Provider tells them that their computer has been spamming other Internet users. Sometimes a bot will even clean up the infected machine to make sure it does not get bumped off of the victim’s computer by another cybercriminal’s bot. Other ways in which a bot infects a machine include being downloaded by a Trojan, installed by a malicious Web site or being emailed directly to a person from an already infected machine.
Bots do not work alone, but are part of a network of infected machines called a “botnet.” Botnets are created by attackers repeatedly infecting victim computers using one or several of the techniques mentioned above. Each one of the zombie machines is controlled by a master computer called the command and control server. From the command and control server, the cybercriminals manage their botnets and instructs the army of zombie computers to work on their behalf. A botnet is typically composed of large number victim machines that stretch across the globe, from the Far East to the United States. Some botnets might have a few hundred or a couple thousand computers, but others have tens and even hundreds of thousands of zombies at their disposal.
davinci
The only true logic is that, there is no true logic!
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Michael Slaunwhite
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- Posts: 4358
- Joined: Fri Jan 08, 2010 8:15 am
Re: Site was down temporarily
Hi.
The server I am with had a DOS yesterday afternoon. Here is the response I received from the support personnel after I sent in a support ticket.
I had to edit this because I forgot to mention something I found very interesting...
After the DOS attack on the server, shortly after wards I received two emails from two separate companies asking me to upgrade my account...Here are the two emails (screen shots)
I passed on this info to X4, and they say they are looking into it. It's just interesting that all of a sudden I am receiving emails asking for me to upgrade.
Later!
The server I am with had a DOS yesterday afternoon. Here is the response I received from the support personnel after I sent in a support ticket.
So the server Norb is with wasn't the only one. The length of the server being down was about 40 minutes or so. Damn bloody annoying, but there isn't anything you can do about it. If these guys out there want to take you out of action, they will, and they definitely can.A large denial of service attack overpowered both a core network router and the server you are hosted on, causing both to reboot. When the hosting server came back online, a manual file system check had to be performed.
I had to edit this because I forgot to mention something I found very interesting...
After the DOS attack on the server, shortly after wards I received two emails from two separate companies asking me to upgrade my account...Here are the two emails (screen shots)
I passed on this info to X4, and they say they are looking into it. It's just interesting that all of a sudden I am receiving emails asking for me to upgrade.
Later!
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Last edited by Michael Slaunwhite on Fri Sep 23, 2011 4:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.