why was the site down for the last week?

Cheri was dealing with the ongoing brute force attacks which have been none stop since the site was restored a few weeks ago. A lot of work has had to be done trying to undo and halt all the attempts to constantly take down the server.. attacks so massive it is taken down the apache and all the sites on the server. It seems now that Cheri (with the help of the security clients she has hired) have managed to fix this problem. Alot of time and money was put into solving the problem, but it should be sorted now.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused during the downtime, but it was of no fault of our own.

I'm just worried because every time this happens, it takes at LEAST 3 days before the site is back up... and every time, we lose more members. Is there any way to send out emails to members if the site is down and is being taken care of? There are the few of us left on here that have been here the whole time, but it must be pretty frustrating for our new members not to be able to ask questions.

yeah does the mailing list get an update on what happens? i've never signed up to it but if it meant knowing what was going on a bit more i will

This has been suggested, and while in theory it is an excellent idea, something got messed up when Tux and Shrap sent a mass PM before. I don't know specific details, i will try and find out, but when you mentioned it before Alison, i did bring it up but there were problems.

As for the site being down, it was not taken down by ourselves, but suffering brute force attempts - someone wants to cause damage - which is why security clients have been hired, so this should not be happening again.

We are all frustrated, and annoyed with the downtime which has been incurred lately, but we are doing all we can.

wow sorry to hear about this.....so childish of people to do something like that!

Man, I wish people would just grow up. Maybe we can start a mass list of our AIM/Yahoo names. We can then add each other and start a big chain of telling people. I know this works at my betta forum at least for the mods. We all have each other on our buddy list somehow. Heck, it's an idea!

Too bad some people have to be immature just to make themselves feel better. Is the site still really slow for everyone else? Is that a part of the server being screwed up?

I'm glad to see that we are up and running again! I love this site, and plan to stick around for a long time!

Yes, the site is slow for everyone. As I understand it, the server doesn't quite have the specs to cover the amount of traffic we get, so it's a bit slower than it should be. I wouldn't be surprised if it was related to the attacks as well.

That's a good idea, Saucy. Everyone is welcome to add me to their buddy lists. You can get my screen name from the buttons under the post. Drop me a note and say hi so I can add you to mine as well.

lol very brave of you lestat!

hi guys, im new.
Just to let you know i run a forum and we too have had the same problems!!!!

**Post edited by moderator to conform to site rules. 00luke00**

That would be a good idea. A thread in this forum for members who would like to be notified about the site progress / problems etc could be a good idea. The one of the mods can email all of these on a regular basis. Good idea

I actually did get an email a day or 2 ago from Reptile Rooms........Cheri I think.

I must be on someone's list

Thats good news. Cheri and i were trying out something to contact members with, and it seems at least it has reached some people.

The e-mail reached me as well, if that helps any.

im a little late i know, I didn't recieve any such e-mail. is there any way that I have to maybe turn it on? *goes to hunt for it in her user CP*

Hm, i don't know. If you PM me your email address i can send you the email.

I found it, didn't show in my inbox until today. Yahoo is evil.

yeah mine didn't turn up until yesterday lol

I did mass email everyone when we had the server back up, but understand all, the mailing list is massive and is controled throught the server. So if they have managed to take the server down again (which is non stop attempts) we can not notify 20000 people. That in itself add to the load on a server that should be MORE than adequate to handle this site. ITs just taking such a beating from jerks playing their games for greed