What is wrong with the site? (Please read updated post #1)

InTheTrees · 18-10-2015 12:59am

Is this the place to report that (for me; Firefox, PC, Win7) the search functions are completely broken?

uck51js9zml2yt · 18-10-2015 1:05am

cowboyBuilder wrote: »

DDOS of attacks, the purpose is to just take down the site ? they don't gain anything from it other then disrupting it for everyone else ?

Why would boards be a target ?

The problem is that the target may not be boards.
They are just one of many customers in the DC.
It may be the DC which is being targeted with all customers on that node being effected.

jprboy · 18-10-2015 1:11am

Was logged in, posted the longest reply I've composed in a long time (not on this thread), hit Submit and ... what?? ... I've been logged out ..... and nothing has posted ....... aaaaaaaaaaarrrrghhhhhhhhh :pac::pac::pac::pac:

No bitchin' and moanin' from me, though

KomradeBishop · 18-10-2015 1:19am

InTheTrees wrote: »

Is this the place to report that (for me; Firefox, PC, Win7) the search functions are completely broken?

It's likely deliberately disabled, to stop the attack leveraging the - relatively slow/expensive - search function.

Berkieahern · 18-10-2015 1:20am

jprboy wrote: »

Was logged in, posted the longest reply I've composed in a long time (not on this thread), hit Submit and ... what?? ... I've been logged out ..... and nothing has posted ....... aaaaaaaaaaarrrrghhhhhhhhh :pac::pac::pac::pac:

No bitchin' and moanin' from me, though

You can retrieve the post by simply...(user logged out.sympnode5464error404)

IRLConor · 18-10-2015 2:42am

KERSPLAT! wrote: »

Can you not do a geographical block on IPs? Block everything from outside Ireland and UK or whatever suits

If the breakdown in traffic is anything like it used to be that would kill about 1/3 of the legitimate traffic.

In general (and I don't mean to single you out!), suggestions beginning with "can you not do..." or "could you just..." are like newspaper headlines that ask a question. You can be pretty confident that the answer is "no". It's not that the suggestions are inherently good or bad, it's just that unless you're working for boards.ie you don't have sufficient context to make a useful contribution to the fixing of the site.

I understand the urge to help, but in the vast majority of cases there's absolutely nothing that a user of this site can say or do that will get site issues fixed. The only thing you can do is wait. I know it sucks to be powerless, but it's the best course of action.

hatrickpatrick · 18-10-2015 5:08am

KomradeBishop wrote: »

It's likely deliberately disabled, to stop the attack leveraging the - relatively slow/expensive - search function.

Agreed. Once again though, it'd be nice if they'd announce this so we'd know not to bother trying.

Tarzana2 · 18-10-2015 6:48am

KomradeBishop wrote: »

It's likely deliberately disabled, to stop the attack leveraging the - relatively slow/expensive - search function.

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

Agreed. Once again though, it'd be nice if they'd announce this so we'd know not to bother trying.

Yes, why not let us know, if that's the case?

uck51js9zml2yt · 18-10-2015 8:42am

IRLConor wrote: »

If the breakdown in traffic is anything like it used to be that would kill about 1/3 of the legitimate traffic.

In general (and I don't mean to single you out!), suggestions beginning with "can you not do..." or "could you just..." are like newspaper headlines that ask a question. You can be pretty confident that the answer is "no". It's not that the suggestions are inherently good or bad, it's just that unless you're working for boards.ie you don't have sufficient context to make a useful contribution to the fixing of the site.

I understand the urge to help, but in the vast majority of cases there's absolutely nothing that a user of this site can say or do that will get site issues fixed. The only thing you can do is wait. I know it sucks to be powerless, but it's the best course of action.

I reckon its an attack at DC level Rather than website level.

It could equally be that someone in digiweb replaced a node and configured it wrong. Happened before !

KERSPLAT! · 18-10-2015 10:47am

IRLConor wrote: »

If the breakdown in traffic is anything like it used to be that would kill about 1/3 of the legitimate traffic.

In general (and I don't mean to single you out!), suggestions beginning with "can you not do..." or "could you just..." are like newspaper headlines that ask a question. You can be pretty confident that the answer is "no". It's not that the suggestions are inherently good or bad, it's just that unless you're working for boards.ie you don't have sufficient context to make a useful contribution to the fixing of the site.

I understand the urge to help, but in the vast majority of cases there's absolutely nothing that a user of this site can say or do that will get site issues fixed. The only thing you can do is wait. I know it sucks to be powerless, but it's the best course of action.

I'm wording my questions wrong, it should be 'why can you not..?' I'm more interested in the answer as to why it can't be done than why it's not being done. I've started working in the area so I'm full of useless questions!

Thanks for the reply

NachoBusiness · 18-10-2015 2:08pm

Boards.ie: Chris wrote: »

This.

Not this.

Fair enough

LeinsterDub · 18-10-2015 3:03pm

2 weeks of the site being fecked. I know we aren't paying for it for it but is there any sign of it being fixed?

mass_debater · 18-10-2015 3:05pm

LeinsterDub wrote: »

2 weeks of the site being fecked. I know we aren't paying for it for it but is there any sign of it being fixed?

It's a distributed denial of service attack, virtually impossible to fix.

Ruu · 18-10-2015 3:10pm

Well what?

Shield · 18-10-2015 3:15pm

Ruu wrote: »

Well what?

Well of hope for Ireland has dried up. How could you not know what the poster meant?

Ruu · 18-10-2015 3:18pm

Sorry the mind reader device was turned off.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 18-10-2015 3:39pm

mass_debater wrote: »

It's a distributed denial of service attack, virtually impossible to fix.

I don't know what that means.

Can somebody explain what's wrong in layman's terms, p,ease.

Quazzie · 18-10-2015 3:42pm

Wilson Petite Sandbag wrote: »

I don't know what that means.

Can somebody explain what's wrong in layman's terms, p,ease.

A website is designed to allow a certain amount of people access it. Someone deliberately sets up a DDoS which is basically an attack that simulates too many people accessing the site. This clogs up the bandwidth and brings the site down temporarily as it can't handle the load.

pmasterson95 · 18-10-2015 4:09pm

Gone to ****e again. Again.

pmasterson95 · 18-10-2015 4:11pm

Gone to ****e again. Again.

IRLConor · 18-10-2015 4:15pm

Tarzana2 wrote: »

Yes, why not let us know, if that's the case?

Ten minutes spent telling people what's going on is ten minutes that would be better spent working on the site. Also, couching an explanation of what's going on in terms that make sense to people who don't work for boards.ie is extremely time consuming.

KERSPLAT! wrote: »

I'm wording my questions wrong, it should be 'why can you not..?' I'm more interested in the answer as to why it can't be done than why it's not being done. I've started working in the area so I'm full of useless questions!

Well, to put it in context, the post-mortem write-up for an outage where I work currently took approximately 10 person hours to produce and it was fairly high level. That's money that boards.ie just doesn't have.

I spent almost three years working in boards.ie and even with the context I have I suspect that an explanation from the folks fixing boards.ie would take about an hour to get to the point where I could offer suggestions that might be valuable.

18-10-2015 4:23pm

boards = broken

InTheTrees · 18-10-2015 4:30pm

IRLConor wrote: »

Ten minutes spent telling people what's going on is ten minutes that would be better spent working on the site.

Thats funny!!

The fawlty towers school of business.

:pac:

IRLConor · 18-10-2015 4:37pm

InTheTrees wrote: »

Thats funny!!

The fawlty towers school of business.

:pac:

"School of business"? You think you're some sort of customer then? Customers pay money! :pac:

Boards.ie: Chris · 18-10-2015 4:37pm

Hopefully a bit of an improvement there.

InTheTrees · 18-10-2015 4:45pm

IRLConor wrote: »

"School of business"? You think you're some sort of customer then? Customers pay money! :pac:

Boards makes money from advertising right?

LeinsterDub · 18-10-2015 4:47pm

Boards.ie: Chris wrote: »

Hopefully a bit of an improvement there.

What has changed general consensus here was nothing much can be done about a ddos?

IRLConor · 18-10-2015 4:53pm

InTheTrees wrote: »

Boards makes money from advertising right?

It's been a long time since I've been privy to any details, but in the past the ad revenue is barely enough to keep the lights on. Also, when I was there the majority of the ad revenue wasn't attributable to logged-in users as best I could tell. Or, to put it more bluntly, the users you see reading & posting here don't pay enough either through subs or ads to cover the cost of supporting their activities. Unless things have changed quite a bit, if you're not a subscriber you're being subsidised by subscribers and anonymous random traffic from elsewhere on the internet.

mass_debater · 18-10-2015 4:56pm

LeinsterDub wrote: »

What has changed general consensus here was nothing much can be done about a ddos?

They can add firewall filters to drop traffic from obvious sources of attack. See this
http://mobile.esecurityplanet.com/network-security/5-tips-for-fighting-ddos-attacks.html

LeinsterDub · 18-10-2015 4:57pm

mass_debater wrote: »

They can add firewall filters to drop traffic from obvious sources of attack. See this
http://mobile.esecurityplanet.com/network-security/5-tips-for-fighting-ddos-attacks.html

And this takes 2 weeks?

What is wrong with the site? (Please read updated post #1)

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