TalkAboutUSA Status

Site down on Thu Mar 29-Fri Mar 30 overnight

2007-03-30T07:53:00.000-04:00

Our host is working on the problem. I reported it last night, but it looks like it still an open issue right now.

Hopefully it will be back up soon.

Hosting issues

2007-02-25T13:54:00.000-05:00

Sorry, gang, seems like there might be an emergency on our server, and the host is doing some maintanence to address it. I'll let you know when I know more.

Update at 5:16PM EST

Dreamhost is hard at work with a rather large issue that's effecting not only us, but several servers. We do expect to have service restored today. Sorry for the outage.

Update, much later
All fixed.

Minor database problem

2007-02-13T08:53:00.001-05:00

We've got a minor problem on the database, but we should have things back up shortly.

Internal server error (and awful slowness)

2006-11-30T16:18:00.000-05:00

I'm not able to confirm it yet, but I'm fairly certain our hosting company is getting hit with DoS. I'm sure they'll get it under control shortly. But we're aware the site is returning that error, or painfully slow.

This too, shall pass.

"bad_httpd_conf" problem

2006-11-27T00:58:00.000-05:00

We're aware that the forum isn't up right now, and we're investigating. Hopefully it should be back up in 10 or 15 minutes.

Update
We've had to escalate the problem to hosting support. Once they can get to the problem, they should be able to resolve it fairly quickly, but I don't have a timetable.

Hosting problems

2006-07-31T18:42:00.000-04:00

Our provider is having some networking problems, and that's causing the outage currently. They are working to resolve it as quickly as possible.

Forum maintenance

2006-07-29T15:37:00.000-04:00

The forum will be down starting at 4PM EDT for 30 to 60 minutes while I do some maintenance. Thanks for your patience.

Update

This is going to take a wee bit longer than I thought. Hopefully will be done within the hour. Still wrestling with the database rebuild.

Further update
Almost there. Got one BIG table to load in. Probably another hour still. Sorry about the delays.

Still another update
Well, that table with 29,358,935 rows didn't load in quite right, so taking another approach. I'm hoping to finish up before 8PM EDT, but I've thought I'm only an hour away from being done 3 times now, so...

Last update!
It's done. See you on the forum.

Outage on April 12th

2006-04-12T15:52:00.000-04:00

Our host is aware of a problem on our server and is working on it. We should have service restored soon.

Sorry about the hassle.

Outage on April 10th

2006-04-10T07:38:00.000-04:00

Our host is sorting out some technical problems. For the duration, we seem to down. They should have it resolved soon.

Sorry for the bother.

Host technical difficulties

2005-11-18T12:41:00.000-05:00

Dreamhost, our web hosting provider, is having some router issues currently, which is effecting all their sites, including ours.

They are frantically trying to correct the situation, so we should be back online again soon.

Downtime Nov 4th, 2005

2005-11-04T11:51:00.000-05:00

The forum is down while we investigate a problem. We will have it up as soon as we can.

Sorry about the bother.

Brief periods of downtime

2005-02-18T11:19:00.000-05:00

We seem to be having ocassional periods of the site not responding today. It is effecting several domains I host (but not all.)

I've reported it to the hosting company, and hopefully we can get it sorted out.

Sorry for the hassle.

Server wide exploit attempted

2004-12-09T15:35:00.000-05:00

Someone managed to execute a script on our server which replaced all instances of the file "viewtopic.php", the code that displays a post, with an older and insecure one.

This attack was not targeted at TalkaboutUSA specifically, but all PhpBB forums running on the server we share. I know this because some test forums I have, which aren't available or known to the public, had the viewtopic.php changed at the same time. Looks like the script simply search the disk for all instances of the file with that name.

We detected this attack within minutes of the attempt because we monitor all forum code for unauthorized changes. Once it was detected, I locked down our forum and reported the details to Dreamhost, who are investigating and securing the box.

Other than a few hours of downtime, I don't forsee any other inconvenience from this attack. Rest assured we will restore service as soon as we are able to so safely.

Thanks for your patience.

Security concerns

2004-12-09T14:47:00.000-05:00

The site is off-line now due to some security concerns. I'm investigating, and hope to have service restored in a few hours.

Sorry for the bother.

Back from the ashes

2004-08-21T22:30:00.000-04:00

We're back up.

Note that moderator email accounts are still down, but I'll fix that tomorrow.

Thanks for hanging in there, folks, and the kind, supportive words you posted here are much appreciated.

The non-TalkaboutUSA.com web sites I host will be up soonish too. By the end of tomorrow we should have everything more or less restored.

Any oddities, send me email at: hubert AT talkaboutusa.com

Fables of the Reconstruction

2004-08-21T17:29:00.000-04:00

And so it begins.

I've been working for awhile today getting things back up. It goes well, but slowly. But I think maybe tonight we'll be on the air again. Worst case, tomorrow.

Thanks again for your patience.

TalkaboutUSA.com Propagation

2004-08-20T19:35:00.000-04:00

If you came to this site via the temporary TalkaboutUSA.com placeholder page, please pipe up. It seems like we're getting very unlucky with DNS propagation. Though I do think almost everyone should be redirected to the new host by the end of the weekend.

The restore/rebuild/update process begins in earnest tomorrow. It is confirmed that we'll be rebuilding from an August 14th backup due to our old host being uncooperative. Sorry about that. You don't know how much it upsets me, but we'll marshall on.

Tonight's progress

2004-08-19T19:54:00.000-04:00

I've been begging and pleading our old host to send me a backup more current than the 14th, but they've been giving me the cold shoulder, as if I some how have arranged to have my own site targeted for a DoS attack.

We'll see though. I'm hoping they'll come through for us one last time.

Other than that, you won't see much tonight, or probably tomorrow either. But I'll keep everyone informed.

TalkaboutUSA.com will be back soon for sure (and all my other domains/blogs/nonsense).

The good news is Leo's site (y'know, the forum mascot) was on another host, and has been up without a problem! Too bad it is so out of date...

DoS (Denial of Service) attack

2004-08-19T17:44:00.000-04:00

What is a DoS attack, you ask? From the Symantec Security Response web site:

A Denial of Service (DoS) attack is not a virus but a method hackers use to prevent or deny legitimate users access to a computer.

DoS attacks are typically executed using DoS tools that send many request packets to a targeted Internet server (usually Web, FTP, or Mail server), which floods the server's resources, making the system unusable. Any system that is connected to the Internet and is equipped with TCP-based network services is subject to attack.

For example, imagine a hacker creates a program that calls a local pizza store. The pizza store answers the telephone, but learns that it is a prank call. If the program repeats this task continuously, it prevents legitimate customers from ordering pizza because the telephone line is busy. This is a denial of service, and analogous to a DoS attack.

Many DoS attack tools are capable of executing a distributed DoS attack. For example, imagine the hacker secretly plants his program onto many computers on the Internet. This would have a bigger impact because there would be more computers calling the same pizza store. It would also be more difficult to locate the attacker, since the program is not running from the attacker's computer; the attacker is only controlling the computer that secretly had the program installed. This is an analogy for a Distributed DoS (DDoS) attack.

DoS tools such as TFN, TFN2K, and Trinoo are distributed DoS attack tools. The DoS attack tools can be secretly installed onto a large number of innocent systems that can be centrally managed by a hacker to initiate DoS attacks at targeted computers. Systems that unknowingly have DoS attack tools installed are called Zombie agents or Drones.

The methods of how and what resources are flooded differ based on the DoS tools used. For example, Smurf DoS attack uses a forged ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) echo request. Other DoS tools, like the TFN (Tribe Flood Network) family, use the SYN flooding technique, which creates half-open connections. More detailed descriptions of several DoS tools can be found later in this document.

How to combat a DoS attack
It is difficult to trace the origin of the request packets in a DoS attack, especially if it is a distributed DoS attack. It is impossible to prevent all DoS attacks, but there are simple precautions server administrators can take to reduce the risk of being compromised by a DoS attack. For example, disabling ICMP response to protect from a Smurf-type attack or configuring a router to filter and check if an IP coming from the outside has an external IP (or vice versa) to avoid a TFN type attack.

Nice to know someone cares enough about our little forum that they feel compelled to try to bring it down.

But we'll just move to a host that runs a shop where they can deal with such things.

Move in progress

2004-08-19T10:01:00.000-04:00

It will take up to 48 hours for Talkaboutusa.com to resolve correctly to the new host. In the meantime, I'll be trying to get everything ready.

So, don't expect much today. But at least know that we've started the process.

Extended Outage

2004-08-18T22:54:00.000-04:00

We're weathering a denial of service attack right now, so this outage may be awhile.

And sadly, our current host has decided that they don't want to deal with us since we seem to draw this type of attention a little too often. So we have to deal with migrating to a new host under rather difficult circumstances. But we've got backups of all the data, so mostly we're looking at a few days of down time.

The good news is we've been getting ready to move to a new host for some time, but I never made the cutover because I wanted to get things perfect on the new host before moving. So almost everything is in place already, and perfection (mostly the way the email server is configured) can come later.

Right now the big priority is getting things back up and running.

I'll keep posting any progress here. Stay tuned.

DNS problems

2004-08-18T21:58:00.000-04:00

For some reason, our hosts DNS isn't listing our domain... We're investigating.

Database problems

2004-08-18T14:26:00.000-04:00

We're having some problems with the forum database, which is basically keeping everyone out.

We're working with the host to resolve this.

Update 3:05PM
The host pushed the magic reset button, and we are back to normal.

Restoration complete

2004-08-01T11:47:00.000-04:00

Some older posts were dropped from the topics table, and these have been restored.

It also look like no data was lost from the search tables, so that means all the data that can be recovered is back.

Recovering from database problem

2004-07-31T11:31:00.000-04:00

It seems we still have a few missing posts, but I'm working on restoring them. I think any posts that were up pre 7/29 should be restored by the weekend.

-- Hubert