Approximately 4 hours ago, Ozblogistan began to receive a very high level of traffic. During this period my performance tracking tools stopped working so it is difficult to tell how much traffic was received during the period.
A few minutes ago I kicked over our web server to reset all connections, which resolved this matter last time. This time too, apparently.
There are three possibilities:
- Misconfiguration of the web server software
- A badly behaved indexer program
- A denial of service attack
I am confident that the server is correctly configured, but I cannot eliminate the possibility that I am misinterpreting the available performance records. That kicking the server over “fixes” the problem might suggest this possibility.
If there was a badly behaved indexing program crawling all Ozblogistan sites, it should have turned up in my Cloudflare dashboard which, so far, it has not.
The odd man out in the Ozblogistan network is Catallaxy Files. The Cat is the only site currently not “behind” Cloudflare’s protective service. If we were receiving the loving ministrations of a badly behaved indexing program, then that program was exclusively crawling the Cat.
The unhappiest possibility is that this was a denial-of-service attack; again, directed against the Cat. Sometime in the next few days I expect that Catallaxy Files will be placed behind Cloudflare along with the other Ozblogistan sites and that this will prevent any such attacks from being successful.
Well, that’s it, folks. Please resume your usual blogging and commenting.
“The unhappiest possibility is that this was a denial-of-service attack; again, directed against the Cat.”
My knowledge is scant, but my impression was that you either have to use malware to infect enough PCs to make your own botnet, or you have to hire one. In either case, why would anyone think that effort was worth it to target a blog?
Jarrah
22 Oct 12 at 12:01 pm
The odd man out in the Ozblogistan network is Catallaxy Files.
I had trouble accessing Club Troppo too.
Gab
22 Oct 12 at 12:06 pm
Gab, all the sites are on the same server. If one gets swamped, they are all affected.
Jacques Chester
22 Oct 12 at 12:09 pm
Jarrah;
It’s easy enough to round up a few mates with HTTP load injectors if you want something quick and easy.
Jacques Chester
22 Oct 12 at 12:10 pm
Anything to do with the fact that time is not configured for DST? Or does Ozblogistan = QLD?
Biota
22 Oct 12 at 12:17 pm
I’m sure that getting rid of Numbers, m0nster, 3/4 of the Steves, and a few others will ease the load considerably….
Kaboom
22 Oct 12 at 12:24 pm
The Ozblogistan server is internally run on UTC.
Jacques Chester
22 Oct 12 at 12:25 pm
I’m still having trouble getting on earlier posts with Chrome.
Sleetmute
22 Oct 12 at 12:36 pm
Ah, now okay for some reason.
Sleetmute
22 Oct 12 at 12:38 pm
Okay – I’ve updated to summer time.
Sinclair Davidson
22 Oct 12 at 1:44 pm
Thank you, Jacques & Sinclair.
Gab
22 Oct 12 at 1:44 pm
If Tom will send me $20,000 in unmarked $20 notes, I will pretend to be able to get head office in Sussex Street to call off the denial of service attacks that I will pretend I know all about.
steve from brisbane
22 Oct 12 at 1:46 pm
If Sinc bans SfB, I’ll pretend to give to a shit.
Rabz
22 Oct 12 at 2:01 pm
I’ll also pretend to give a shit!
Rabz
22 Oct 12 at 2:02 pm
Thanks Sinc!
Biota
22 Oct 12 at 2:11 pm
curious but I can get access with Mozilla firefox but not with Windows Explorer
val majkus
22 Oct 12 at 2:14 pm
Thought it was my computer playing up again, as I’ve only just got back home. DOS attack sounds possible, as I think many lefties really hate to see truth writ large and their lies pulled apart on the Cat – and they can’t stand humour coming with it. Thanks Sinclair and Jacques for keeping these home fires burning.
Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.
22 Oct 12 at 2:33 pm
Jacques, you really do need a beer fund attachment. I’d be happy to chuck in a few bob to keep this site on air and functioning.
We also realise you do this work gratis, and thanks for that. It’s appreciated.
Winston Smith
22 Oct 12 at 2:44 pm
Winston;
From an economic perspective, chipping every time the thing blows up just rewards bad behaviour, n’est pas?
Attack of Perverse Incentives.
Jacques Chester
22 Oct 12 at 2:47 pm
Handy to know for tech illiterates like me, if you start getting the “Ozblogistan is broken” page, you need to go to “internet options/delete browsing history” (in nerdspeak “clearing your caches”). This clears obsolete system addresses that can keep you coming to the “Ozblogistan is broken” page for days if you don’t fix it. Jacques can attest to my ignorance in this respect; I annoyed him for days trying to get back to the Cat.
For me, clearing caches is a pain in the bum because it deletes all the seetings in a tool I use called “Your most popular sites”, a keystroke saver I use as a shortcut to my most used pages. But it’s better going through the hassle than not being able to get back to the Cat.
Thanks for your patience, Jacques. Welcome home, Sinc. {I saw your first post was around 5am (yesterday? Saturday?), so I figure you did the double red-eye from Europe and need a few days of horizontality.}
Tom
22 Oct 12 at 3:35 pm
Tom,
Thanks for the info (which I will pass on to my kind family, who keep my computer functional), because that happens to me too. And thank you also for ‘horizontality’. A word that I need in my life.
Ellen of Tasmania
22 Oct 12 at 4:13 pm
Thanks from me too Tom. I think that’s why I was having intermittent problems this arvo.
Sleetmute
22 Oct 12 at 4:22 pm
“For me, clearing caches is a pain in the bum because it deletes all the settings in a tool I use called “Your most popular sites” . . . ”
Figure out where it stores those cookies and/or URLS and make them “read-only.” They should survive the clearing then.
bobby b
22 Oct 12 at 4:47 pm
Tom, try ctrl-f5 (Windows) or Cmd-r (Mac) first.
Dangph
22 Oct 12 at 4:48 pm
Since Jonova has been getting regular attacks last few months, I’d say an attack unfortunately is to be expected.
Bruce
22 Oct 12 at 5:24 pm
I agree, Bruce. I’d guess there’s a small cell of hackers in the GetUp-Labor-Greens apparatus who are using government facilities to launch DDOS attacks on government critics. I’d guess that, although these delinquents consider themselves heroes like the
Assange idiot, their activities are being restrained by someone in Labor who remembers the difference between totalitarianism and democracy.
Tom
22 Oct 12 at 6:44 pm
I could not get into the site all day at my work site, got in via my iphone at lunch to check and posted on this thread – did not make it. I just got in now from my home site. seems okish.
Denial of service. Its just another way to outlaw your opinion.
Jannie
22 Oct 12 at 7:51 pm
Onya Winston, me too.
Jannie
22 Oct 12 at 7:53 pm
It’s 5 o’clock in he morn here in NYC and I’ve been up except for 2 hours sleep. We took the invitation of borrowing our friends apartment while they are away.
But the freaking place sits right over the 59th street bridge. A combination of jet lag and the fucking noise from the bridge makes it impossible for me to sleep even with decent sleeping pills.
I’m looking out of the 30th floor from bed and just can’t believe the amount of traffic up and down the bridge. There was a jam about an hour ago and it’s been cleared…. That’s Sunday evening / Monday morn!
Except for the trucks, where the fuck are all these people going?
JC
22 Oct 12 at 8:02 pm
The troll thinks today’s traffic surge at the Cat was just a sudden increase in popularity.
Tom
22 Oct 12 at 8:42 pm
You can get rid of rex for starters.
Blogstrop
22 Oct 12 at 9:21 pm
Jacques
I’m off to hit the cot, so any answer will be seen at sparrows fart.
( Rabz may like to tell me what time that will be)
But the preview box time on my apple is stuck on “20 Oct 12 at 3:39 pm”
Lil help?
jumpnmcar
22 Oct 12 at 10:14 pm