Problems with Website Stability!

[Ted Craven]

Recently there have been significant problems with the website being inaccessible! Usually you get a long a cryptic error message (SQL database code for the forum).

The problem is -- the site is experiencing a VERY LARGE bot 'attack' which has just recently flared up, though it has occurred randomly in the past.

I can get the site to run normally by clearing a temporary database table, but then it rapidly fills up again until it hits a server limit and the site shuts down again.

If you look at the 'Whats happening' section at the bottom left of the main page, you will the the number of actual Members logged in, then also the number of Guests (i.e. 'bots'). If you refresh the site and look at the number of Guests/bots, you will see that count rises RAPIDLY into the thousands or 10s of thousands! We can not handle that.

Next, I have to investigate a 'Cloudflare' 'Bot-prevention' service to prevent this from happening. I will work on this over the weekend.

Very sorry this is happening and interrupting our use of P&C I will keep everyone updated on progress in this thread.

Ted

[AwesomeAgain]

Thanks for the update and explanation. Good to see you back young man!

[DanBoals]

Damn... sorry to hear that Ted, like you didn't have enough on your plate right?
I don't know anything about websites, but I do know the bot attacks happen a lot on the dark web.
I know some of the sites have a queue.
You have to wait a certain amount of time, before the site lets you in. Not sure if that would solve the problem you have or not.

[Ted Craven]

Sheesh ~73,000 simultaneous hits on the site from bots.




I made a change to increase the database size for such hits before the site dies. No idea what the limit is, but hopefully I get several other things tested and implemented for long term stability. Meanwhile, I can just 'clear the cache' periodically to clean this crap out.

Now just learning more about what 'Cloudflare' does, which is a principal external recommendation by AI to defend against a mass bot-attack.

Ted

[dadams6357]

Good luck Ted.
As if you do not have enough going on.
Don

[Ted Craven]

As of today - the website host has implemented an anti-bot check the first time you access P&C in a browser session. Before the website appears, you'll get this brief message first, while the server checks for robot activity before delivering you to whatever part of the website you're headed to.



I hope this will solve the recent massive bot attacks! It now looks like the number of 'Guests' is down to the previous low level (either legitimate web search crawlers, or actual non-registered viewers).

Good luck to us - and thank you all for your patience!

Ted