Reason as to why our site and countless others were down last night

Steve Williams

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
Many of you who are frequent readers of WBF probably know that our site and many others were down yesterday. It was impossible to ping our site or after a lengthy attempt it timed out with an Error Code 503 and 500 followed by a white screen

Fortunately we incurred no serious sequelae whatsoever. Discussion with our web host lead to this reply

Hi,

The issue has been fixed and the website is loading fine now. There was huge connection from china to the server which caused the service outage. This has been taken care of to prevent this from happening in future. Let us know if you need any further assistance.

As a result China and Hong Kong have been blocked at the server firewall to prevent further assaults and hacks

The sequelae to this is the likelihood that existing members from China and Hong Kong will be blocked access to WBF

If this is the case a VPN may be required to gain access.

Yesterday’s attempt on the server was about as serious as they get and our web host had to take appropriate action

We hope everyone understands the implications
 

WLVCA

Member Sponsor
Nov 2, 2012
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Tucson
I didn't notice that the site was down yesterday. However, I just learned a new word from Steve. Never had seen or heard the word "sequelae" before. Now I know what it means.
 

DonH50

Member Sponsor & WBF Technical Expert
Jun 22, 2010
3,947
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Me either, had to look it up:

se·que·la /s??kwel?/
noun MEDICINE
plural noun: sequelae
a condition which is the consequence of a previous disease or injury.
"the long-term sequelae of infection"

The advantage (?) of having a real medical doctor running the site... :)
 
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Steve Williams

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
At our end our choice is to switch to a VPS. Presently we are on a shared sever with many others. Switching to the VPS is not only very costly but runs the risk of losing data in moving from one server to the VPS
 

SCAudiophile

Well-Known Member
Sep 11, 2010
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Greer South Carolina (USA)

Tango

VIP/Donor
Mar 12, 2017
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Bangkok
So CKchung, howiebrou, etc are casualties? :eek:

On positive side if Thailand gets blocked, I will be saving a lot of money in the future not itching to buy any more audios.

Tang ;)
 

NorthStar

Member
Feb 8, 2011
24,305
1,323
435
Vancouver Island, B.C. Canada
I did some searching yesterday and today as to the exact cause of website's disruptions.
Yesterday as Steve said there were several that went down, very unusual.
There have been other anomalies as well, like slow down of the Internet, Google, Facebook, etc.

Steve mentioned China and Hong Kong above from his source.
I refined my search today, I find couple. I posted one earlier but then deleted it as it was more about iPhones and Androids. It looks like Chinese hackers are real skilled @ infiltrating cell devices.
...And recently.

https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/e...ternet-being-cut-off-through-use-of-emergency
 

Folsom

VIP/Donor
Oct 25, 2015
6,024
1,490
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Eastern WA
Forums are always under attack. The blocking software for people trying to sign on will catch many thousands a month that are known spammers. It's kind of insane.
 

ack

VIP/Donor & WBF Founding Member
May 6, 2010
6,774
1,198
580
Boston, MA
Me either, had to look it up:

se·que·la /s??kwel?/
noun MEDICINE
plural noun: sequelae
a condition which is the consequence of a previous disease or injury.
"the long-term sequelae of infection"

The advantage (?) of having a real medical doctor running the site... :)

Me neither!
 

Mike Lavigne

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
Apr 25, 2010
12,467
11,363
4,410
if we need to fund something to be able to allow our HK or China members to participate i would be glad to contribute. i don't really know how spendy this might be, but if not too much then i would certainly participate. and maybe this type discussion should not start out as a public one. but there may be an appetite for such a thing.

just a thought.
 
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Steve Williams

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
Interesting info. As it stands now our web host to prevent further attacks have blocked all of China and Hong Kong at its fire wall. The only resolutions are
1. Remove the firewall blockb and run the rlsk of another massive attack

2. Members from China and Hong Kong will need a VPN to gain access to WBF

3. WBF switches from a shared server to a VPS. Our issues with this is the monthly cost is almost the same as what we pay annually as well as the risk of losing data in the transfer from a shared server to a dedicated server.
 

howiebrou

Well-Known Member
Jun 29, 2012
2,789
3,635
1,470
Greetings from Hong Kong. I thought something was wrong! Having failed to get onto the site for a few days i thought i would try going through a VPN. Installed NordVPN and bingo it worked!

On behalf of whatever idiot did this, my apologies. I have let CK know as well in case he didn’t and apologies to those who wrote a message to me and didn’t get a timely reply.

As for saving money Tang, let me tell you that in the absence of someone telling me to act sanely, i went out and ordered an EMT JPA 66 Mk 2 phono amp so I blame you all. o_O

Howie

P.s. happy to use VPN to access if necessary. It’s a small price to pay for this community and no one should have to pay for the actions of a few silly buggers.
 

Steve Williams

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
Greetings from Hong Kong. I thought something was wrong! Having failed to get onto the site for a few days i thought i would try going through a VPN. Installed NordVPN and bingo it worked!

On behalf of whatever idiot did this, my apologies. I have let CK know as well in case he didn’t and apologies to those who wrote a message to me and didn’t get a timely reply.

As for saving money Tang, let me tell you that in the absence of someone telling me to act sanely, i went out and ordered an EMT JPA 66 Mk 2 phono amp so I blame you all. o_O

Howie

P.s. happy to use VPN to access if necessary. It’s a small price to pay for this community and no one should have to pay for the actions of a few silly buggers.
It was more than just a few silly buggers. This was a major assault on the servers affecting countless websites
 

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