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Post by Min on Oct 20, 2006 10:21:25 GMT 11
Hi everyone, It's with regret that I tell everyone that www.obernewtyn.net's been hit again - not by hackers this time, but SPAMMERS, so much so that it's disrupted the server that our site and many other people's sites rest on. As such, obernewtyn.net is down for the moment, and may be for a couple of days until they find the source of the problem. So, this includes the moonfair site for the moment. Sorry for the inconvenience. I'm going to check with the other Moonfairies if we can offer an extension on any days we miss out on because of this outtage and I'll update as soon as I know more. *glares at spammers* Luv, Min Edit: This is also why (quite obviously) a lot of our images are down here - because they're hosted on our site. |
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DragonMornir
Guildmember
Dr. Gregory House: You can think I'm wrong, but that's no reason to quit thinking.[x=snowy_gem]
Posts: 2,116
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Post by DragonMornir on Oct 20, 2006 14:15:26 GMT 11
thanks for letting us know Min... damn spammers * glares* was wondering if it was just me but glad that its not! *grugs*
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Post by Dameon on Oct 20, 2006 14:17:17 GMT 11
Wish it was just me. Then I'd be able to fiddle with my puta and fix it. It's very frustrating just sitting and not being able to do anything.
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Fuzzy Elf
Gypsy
Who will you stand with?[x=jacee494]
Posts: 81
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Post by Fuzzy Elf on Oct 20, 2006 17:32:08 GMT 11
Only think that will help me is I have the questions to the great long ober thingy (forget the name) on my comp.
Now I must do them.
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Post by Cat-Eyes on Oct 20, 2006 17:52:36 GMT 11
If it was just me I could yell more. Actually, I can still yell STUPID SPAMMERS!! *glares at them* Oh well, maybe more people will enter the Dreamweaver Story Competition now  |
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Post by Min on Oct 20, 2006 18:29:24 GMT 11
I'm currently updating all the images, scripts etc to temporary (free) accounts for here, so we can at least still use the message boards.
If anyone's after their award (had them all hosted on obernewtyn.net, but can see some of you have saved them), the image names are all the same, just change the "http://www.obernewtyn.net/moonfair06/default/awards/" bit to "http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o183/tempobernet/"
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Post by Dark One on Oct 20, 2006 20:44:47 GMT 11
Was it a denial of service attack? Thats getting more and more common these days
Lets hope they can trace and catch the bastards that did it!
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Kella
Gypsy
Healer
Posts: 773
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Post by Kella on Oct 20, 2006 21:07:19 GMT 11
Does anyone know when it's going to be up and running again? With only two weeks of moonfair left we can't really afford to have the site down for long, can we? Sorry I just figured out that Min answered this!  [glow=white,2,300]Boo Spammers![/glow] |
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Post by Kaylan-R on Oct 21, 2006 11:13:32 GMT 11
That really sux. What did Obernewtyn ever do to them?
It must of been pretty bad though if the Moonfair site has to be fixed. I hope it all goes well fixing it!
On a lighter note, I like the new coloured stars!.....are they temporary or permanent?
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Post by Min on Oct 21, 2006 14:19:07 GMT 11
Was it a denial of service attack? Thats getting more and more common these days Lets hope they can trace and catch the bastards that did it! I have some more information on this now. It was a malicious attack, and it turns out it was directed entirely at us (resulting in many other people's websites going down as well). Our domain was hijacked and exploited somehow by a hacker/spammer. Someone out there just doesn't like us. So it's going to take a while for us and our hosts to sort this out. There's a security vulnerability somewhere, and we have to make sure it's tied up before putting obernewtyn.net back anywhere. We will be extending the moonfair by how ever many days we're down for. For the moment, if you're desperate for some moonfair-ness just enter the message-boarded events (DW Story, Leaf party and Fortune telling). But for the moment just know that we're seriously doing all we can. It's not very nice knowing that someone out there deliberately attacked you, though, particularly since really, we're just a book club. Not sure why anyone would do this. |
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Post by Ness on Oct 21, 2006 17:45:49 GMT 11
thats really bizarre  i would love to know why we were the target ...
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Post by Min on Oct 21, 2006 17:55:13 GMT 11
Believe me, so would I...
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Post by Cat-Eyes on Oct 22, 2006 12:44:40 GMT 11
Who attacks a book club?! Stupid people...
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Post by Min on Oct 22, 2006 12:50:24 GMT 11
The latest is that our hosts *are* still having problems. They're not related to the spamming issue, but there's other problems with their servers. Given this, the spam and the hacking, maybe it's just time to move hosts.
The domain's been released from our hosts and we can transfer it wherever we wants so...anyone know of any really good hosting packages? The sooner we find a new host, the sooner the moonfair will be back up.
It's all just really, really bad timing. Feels like a nightmare.
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Post by Cat-Eyes on Oct 22, 2006 14:51:27 GMT 11
It's ok Min, it's not your fault! We can all survive without moonfair for a while (hey, we might even get some homework done... ) *grug* |
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Post by Min on Oct 23, 2006 10:30:09 GMT 11
Okays...it appears we're back up. The DNS transfer is finally done. There'll be some buggy things on the site now, I'm sure, but the moonfair appears to be operating. So get back to it!
Moonfair will now go for two more weeks starting today.
The only things that aren't working yet are Crackleopated and Pac Elf, because I can't get them to connect to the database. So don't enter those for a few days until we've had a chance to fix it.
Also, I've been doing some investigating on spam attacks, and one of the main things to avoid is putting your email address ANYWHERE - on any web site or any forum. I've amended a couple of pages on obernewtyn.net so they don't have the actual email address stored (you'll see things like mindy - at - obernewtyn.net now). I recommend everyone do a similar thing unless you want to be at risk of being spammed - don't display your primary email address anywhere.
That's about all we can do to stop this from happening again, as our ex-hosts couldn't tell us what the actual problem was.
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Kella
Gypsy
Healer
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Post by Kella on Oct 23, 2006 10:31:41 GMT 11
Yay Moonfair!!!!! Watch out norman! Is the link going to come back up on the front page?
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Post by Min on Oct 23, 2006 11:27:40 GMT 11
Yes, eventually, when I have some more time to update everything. Any of course, if you find anything not working on the moonfair, or the main site, please tell one of us immediately so we can get it fixed. Edit: Crackleopated and Pac Elf are working again. So everyone can continue developing their RSI now  |
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Post by Dragon on Oct 23, 2006 13:18:50 GMT 11
Yay for being up and running!!
And 3 cheers for Min for her work on the site. I think there needs to be a Moonfair award for being Cool, Calm and Collected in a Moonfair crisis.....Well Done Min!
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Post by Min on Oct 23, 2006 14:16:23 GMT 11
Cool? Calm? Collected? Me? I feel like I pulled a Rushton on this crisis, I couldn't stop moping about whinging "why did this happen?" for the first couple of days. I'm just glad we can continue with the moonfair now. |
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Post by Dark One on Oct 24, 2006 2:50:20 GMT 11
Well done for sorting it out though Min
and don't worry, these sort of things can an do happen to anyone, though its usualy big corporations that get hit like this.
I'd love to know who they were and why they did this to us!
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i would love to know why we were the target ... 
