Welcome to the Australian Ford Forums forum.

You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and inserts advertising. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, communicate privately with other members, respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features without post based advertising banners. Registration is simple and absolutely free so please, join our community today!

If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us.

Please Note: All new registrations go through a manual approval queue to keep spammers out. This is checked twice each day so there will be a delay before your registration is activated.

Go Back   Australian Ford Forums > General Topics > Ford Forums Central > Site Support

Site Support If something isn't working or you have a suggestion ( a nice one !! ) let us know here.

Closed Thread
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 01-02-2024, 11:24 AM   #1
None-ya
Regular Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2019
Location: Earth
Posts: 476
Default Forum down yesterday??

Just curious if there is any reason as to why I couldn't get on AFF yesterday??
None-ya is offline  
Old 01-02-2024, 11:30 AM   #2
Mechan1k
Moderator
Donating Member1
 
Mechan1k's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Kenthurst
Posts: 40,403
Valued Contributor: For members whose non technical contributions are worthy of recognition. - Issue reason: Brings a wealth of knowledge to the forums and is frequently giving helpful advice. Technical Contributor: For members who share their technical expertise. - Issue reason: Always willing to help out with technical information. 
Default Re: Forum down yesterday??

It took an afternoon nanna nap.
Mechan1k is offline  
4 users like this post:
Old 01-02-2024, 12:43 PM   #3
mad2
Regular...with metamusal
Donating Member2
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Geeeloong
Posts: 6,805
Default Re: Forum down yesterday??

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mechan1k View Post
It took an afternoon nanna nap.

it was a very goood nap .. too
mad2 is offline  
This user likes this post:
Old 01-02-2024, 03:08 PM   #4
russellw
Chairman & Administrator
Donating Member3
 
russellw's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: 1975
Posts: 107,543
Community Builder: In recognition of those who have helped build the AFF community. - Issue reason: Raptor: For Continued, and prolonged service to the wider Ford Community 
Default Re: Forum down yesterday??

We had an outage late yesterday afternoon caused (I think) by a rogue Bing bot chewing up server resources by spawning a LOT of page views. It came good after a reboot and blocking that particular spider IP range.
__________________

__________________________________________________

Observatio Facta Rotae


russellw is offline  
Old 01-02-2024, 08:24 PM   #5
DFB FGXR6
Donating Member
Donating Member3
 
DFB FGXR6's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 12,979
Valued Contributor: For members whose non technical contributions are worthy of recognition. - Issue reason: For the excellent car-care guide 
Default Re: Forum down yesterday??

I was putting the finishing touches on a lengthy post as it went down, ended up saving the draft into a word document just in case. Was having withdrawals in the end.
__________________
The Fleet -
2016 PX MK II Ranger Cool White
2008 FG XR6 Sensation Blue
2014 FG X XR8 Emperor Red
2024 Mustang GT Race Red

The Departed -
2002 T3 TS50 Blueprint
2017 Mustang GT Race Red
DFB FGXR6 is offline  
4 users like this post:
Old 01-02-2024, 08:43 PM   #6
Mechan1k
Moderator
Donating Member1
 
Mechan1k's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Kenthurst
Posts: 40,403
Valued Contributor: For members whose non technical contributions are worthy of recognition. - Issue reason: Brings a wealth of knowledge to the forums and is frequently giving helpful advice. Technical Contributor: For members who share their technical expertise. - Issue reason: Always willing to help out with technical information. 
Default Re: Forum down yesterday??

Always save a copy somewhere before submitting ... especially if lengthy
I have learnt that from past experience.
Mechan1k is offline  
2 users like this post:
Old 01-02-2024, 08:49 PM   #7
DFB FGXR6
Donating Member
Donating Member3
 
DFB FGXR6's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 12,979
Valued Contributor: For members whose non technical contributions are worthy of recognition. - Issue reason: For the excellent car-care guide 
Default Re: Forum down yesterday??

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mechan1k View Post
Always save a copy somewhere before submitting ... especially if lengthy
I have learnt that from past experience.
Yeah, most of my lengthy posts are now typed in a word processor. Although I lost one last week that I had for some reason typed directly, clicked the wrong exit tab and lost the lot.
__________________
The Fleet -
2016 PX MK II Ranger Cool White
2008 FG XR6 Sensation Blue
2014 FG X XR8 Emperor Red
2024 Mustang GT Race Red

The Departed -
2002 T3 TS50 Blueprint
2017 Mustang GT Race Red
DFB FGXR6 is offline  
Old 01-02-2024, 09:41 PM   #8
mad2
Regular...with metamusal
Donating Member2
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Geeeloong
Posts: 6,805
Default Re: Forum down yesterday??

Quote:
Originally Posted by DFB FGXR6 View Post
Yeah, most of my lengthy posts are now typed in a word processor. Although I lost one last week that I had for some reason typed directly, clicked the wrong exit tab and lost the lot.





mad2 is offline  
Old 01-02-2024, 09:42 PM   #9
DFB FGXR6
Donating Member
Donating Member3
 
DFB FGXR6's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 12,979
Valued Contributor: For members whose non technical contributions are worthy of recognition. - Issue reason: For the excellent car-care guide 
Default Re: Forum down yesterday??

Quote:
Originally Posted by mad2 View Post



Not really, more annoyed at myself actually.
__________________
The Fleet -
2016 PX MK II Ranger Cool White
2008 FG XR6 Sensation Blue
2014 FG X XR8 Emperor Red
2024 Mustang GT Race Red

The Departed -
2002 T3 TS50 Blueprint
2017 Mustang GT Race Red
DFB FGXR6 is offline  
This user likes this post:
Old 01-02-2024, 11:05 PM   #10
Citroënbender
DIY Tragic
 
Citroënbender's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2018
Location: Sydney, more than not. I hate it.
Posts: 22,942
Chairman's Award: Chairman's Award - Issue reason: Your outstanding contributions to this community have not gone unnoticed. IN my view you are a worthy recipient of the (rarely used) Chairman's Award. 
Default Re: Forum down yesterday??

Might be time to dust off the old botgun again. #deepsouth #porch
Citroënbender is offline  
This user likes this post:
Old 02-02-2024, 10:18 AM   #11
Franco Cozzo
Thailand Specials
 
Franco Cozzo's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Centrefold Lounge
Posts: 49,837
Default Re: Forum down yesterday??

Quote:
Originally Posted by None-ya View Post
Just curious if there is any reason as to why I couldn't get on AFF yesterday??
The database error is what you see when you get banned from AFF, I was wondering what I did wrong as I've been behaving myself mostly
Franco Cozzo is offline  
3 users like this post:
Old 02-02-2024, 02:44 PM   #12
None-ya
Regular Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2019
Location: Earth
Posts: 476
Default Re: Forum down yesterday??

Makes it worse I can't even remember exactly why I was trying to visit

ADHD moments lol

Last edited by None-ya; 02-02-2024 at 02:46 PM. Reason: Add on some
None-ya is offline  
2 users like this post:
Old 06-02-2024, 07:12 PM   #13
whynot
FF.Com.Au Hardcore
 
whynot's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 1,103
Default Re: Forum down yesterday??

Quote:
Originally Posted by russellw View Post
We had an outage late yesterday afternoon caused (I think) by a rogue Bing bot chewing up server resources by spawning a LOT of page views. It came good after a reboot and blocking that particular spider IP range.
Scary thing is that the Bing bot was probably a Natural Language AI training its neural network on the conversations here.

Just think of some of the instant classic verbal comebacks it has now taught itself.

And "its a fact" that a Camry V6 is faster around a racetrack than just about anything else one cares to mention. Sigh. The cyber world is getting to be a very weird place ....
whynot is offline  
4 users like this post:
Old 06-02-2024, 07:19 PM   #14
DFB FGXR6
Donating Member
Donating Member3
 
DFB FGXR6's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 12,979
Valued Contributor: For members whose non technical contributions are worthy of recognition. - Issue reason: For the excellent car-care guide 
Default Re: Forum down yesterday??

Quote:
Originally Posted by whynot View Post
Scary thing is that the Bing bot was probably a Natural Language AI training its neural network on the conversations here.

Just think of some of the instant classic verbal comebacks it has now taught itself.

And "its a fact" that a Camry V6 is faster around a racetrack than just about anything else one cares to mention. Sigh. The cyber world is getting to be a very weird place ....
Just wait until "Thailand Special" or "Thailux" becomes a widespread term, it started here first, hey Franko?
__________________
The Fleet -
2016 PX MK II Ranger Cool White
2008 FG XR6 Sensation Blue
2014 FG X XR8 Emperor Red
2024 Mustang GT Race Red

The Departed -
2002 T3 TS50 Blueprint
2017 Mustang GT Race Red
DFB FGXR6 is offline  
Old 07-02-2024, 08:54 PM   #15
Franco Cozzo
Thailand Specials
 
Franco Cozzo's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Centrefold Lounge
Posts: 49,837
Default Re: Forum down yesterday??

Quote:
Originally Posted by DFB FGXR6 View Post
Just wait until "Thailand Special" or "Thailux" becomes a widespread term, it started here first, hey Franko?
We're going to make it happen, Vote 1 Thailand Specials 2025

Our new AI overlords, trained in English by Franco, oh my lord.
Franco Cozzo is offline  
5 users like this post:
Old 09-02-2024, 04:15 PM   #16
Sprintey
FF.Com.Au Hardcore
 
Sprintey's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: Catland
Posts: 3,878
Default Re: Forum down yesterday??

Really like 'Thailux' as once nearly choked on Tom Kha soup...

Did you know in the late 1960's Holden had it's own ship, and exported to Thailand?
__________________
I6 + AWD
Sprintey is offline  
Old 15-02-2024, 10:04 AM   #17
Citroënbender
DIY Tragic
 
Citroënbender's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2018
Location: Sydney, more than not. I hate it.
Posts: 22,942
Chairman's Award: Chairman's Award - Issue reason: Your outstanding contributions to this community have not gone unnoticed. IN my view you are a worthy recipient of the (rarely used) Chairman's Award. 
Default Re: Forum down yesterday??

Quite a long outage overnight and into this morning. I imagine there’ll be a half-day spike in GDP to match.
Citroënbender is offline  
This user likes this post:
Old 16-02-2024, 09:38 AM   #18
russellw
Chairman & Administrator
Donating Member3
 
russellw's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: 1975
Posts: 107,543
Community Builder: In recognition of those who have helped build the AFF community. - Issue reason: Raptor: For Continued, and prolonged service to the wider Ford Community 
Default Re: Forum down yesterday??

... and it continued into this morning.
For those who don't want technical details, look away now.

The 'normal' issues we get occur where attempts are made to slow the server down with lots of page requests coming from a single IP address or a cluster of close IP addresses using automated software. A bit like what a legitimate 'bot' does but with a lot more requests. This means that the server is trying to deliver thousands of page loads per minute and simply doesn't have the grunt to do it and slows down to the point of being unusable. These are reasonably easy to fix because once the IP range is identified it can be blocked before they ever get to the server.

More recently, these people have been getting smarter. There is an ISP (and I use the term loosely) called Host Royale that is now being used to do similar attacks to those above but from lots of random IP addresses in countries like UK/USA/Australia and Canada and each IP address only does a handful of concurrent requests so it's almost impossible to block them all without logging all the attempts and then finding ranges to block like: 45.66.0.0/16 or 46.161.11.0/24.

The latest method seems to be to just use those host ranges to attempt to brute force access to the server (the last couple of days) and as these attempts don't actually hit the forum database. it's the network interface that gets hammered so that while the server is running fine, you can't get to it. I've installed software this morning to automate blocking of those attempts at the perimeter but it is also likely it may clobber some legitimate users, particularly those using static IP addresses or VPNs.
__________________

__________________________________________________

Observatio Facta Rotae


russellw is offline  
Old 16-02-2024, 10:40 AM   #19
whynot
FF.Com.Au Hardcore
 
whynot's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 1,103
Default Re: Forum down yesterday??

But, you will have to admit that the AI building the deep fake of Franco Cozzo is coming along quite nicely. It should make an appearance any day now ...
whynot is offline  
5 users like this post:
Old 16-02-2024, 11:11 AM   #20
Citroënbender
DIY Tragic
 
Citroënbender's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2018
Location: Sydney, more than not. I hate it.
Posts: 22,942
Chairman's Award: Chairman's Award - Issue reason: Your outstanding contributions to this community have not gone unnoticed. IN my view you are a worthy recipient of the (rarely used) Chairman's Award. 
Default Re: Forum down yesterday??

Good stuff - keeping the malingerers away, seems to get harder by the year.

Is the flak from Host Royale coming from a country with a flag that’s mostly red, or one which has the French colours but rearranged and horizontal?
Citroënbender is offline  
2 users like this post:
Old 17-02-2024, 09:45 AM   #21
russellw
Chairman & Administrator
Donating Member3
 
russellw's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: 1975
Posts: 107,543
Community Builder: In recognition of those who have helped build the AFF community. - Issue reason: Raptor: For Continued, and prolonged service to the wider Ford Community 
Default Re: Forum down yesterday??

Almost all of the Host Royale activity is coming from UK/USA/Australia/Canada but the traffic that has been blocking the network is all from China.
__________________

__________________________________________________

Observatio Facta Rotae


russellw is offline  
2 users like this post:
Old 17-02-2024, 10:47 AM   #22
None-ya
Regular Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2019
Location: Earth
Posts: 476
Default Re: Forum down yesterday??

Quote:
Originally Posted by russellw View Post
Almost all of the Host Royale activity is coming from UK/USA/Australia/Canada but the traffic that has been blocking the network is all from China.
For some reason or another I kinda believe that. . . .
None-ya is offline  
Old 17-02-2024, 03:55 PM   #23
T3rminator
FF.Com.Au Hardcore
 
T3rminator's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Melbourne
Posts: 6,940
Default Re: Forum down yesterday??

Hmmmm what are they after?

Taking AFF off line gains nothing other than to **** some AFF addicts off for a short period of time.

Sometimes a DDOS style attack can be used to hide other traffic coming through....but there is nothing "sensitive" kept on here? There is no personal data and no intellectual property to steal?

Unless they are throwing a wide net all over the place and just seeing what comes back.
__________________
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Rides (past and present)
Current: 2004 Ford Falcon 5.4L 3v Barra 220, Manual
Past: Mitsubishi Sigma (m), Toyota Seca (m), Toyota Seca SX (m), Toyota Vienta V6 (m), Toyota Soarer 4L v8 (a), BA XR8 ute (m), T3 TE50 (m), BMW Z4 (m)

AFF motto - If contrary views trigger, please use ignore button.
T3rminator is offline  
Old 17-02-2024, 05:17 PM   #24
whynot
FF.Com.Au Hardcore
 
whynot's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 1,103
Default Re: Forum down yesterday??

Quote:
Originally Posted by T3rminator View Post
Hmmmm what are they after?


Sometimes a DDOS style attack can be used to hide other traffic coming through....but there is nothing "sensitive" kept on here? There is no personal data and no intellectual property to steal?
Social media is an absolute gold mine for certain malicious actors. Facebook, LinkedIn to be sure, but also the lesser trafficked sites.

Some people store date of birth in their FF profile. That is very handy. Also is the list of email addresses. A person of interest may reuse their handle and password across a number of sites. The pros are a generally good at travelling under the radar, not generating too much traffic to signal they are poking around.
whynot is offline  
2 users like this post:
Old 19-02-2024, 12:56 PM   #25
Trevor 57
FF.Com.Au Hardcore
 
Trevor 57's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 7,770
Default Re: Forum down yesterday??

I had a problem early this morning, the site wouldn't load

As a side issue it is asking me to sign in every time, it is not remembering me from one log in to the next
__________________
I reserve the right to arm bears
Trevor 57 is offline  
Old 19-02-2024, 01:18 PM   #26
mad2
Regular...with metamusal
Donating Member2
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Geeeloong
Posts: 6,805
Default Re: Forum down yesterday??

Quote:
Originally Posted by Trevor 57 View Post
I had a problem early this morning, the site wouldn't load

As a side issue it is asking me to sign in every time, it is not remembering me from one log in to the next

it's not asking me to sign in again and...
mad2 is offline  
This user likes this post:
Old 19-02-2024, 01:35 PM   #27
FoxtrotGolfXray 5.0
Donating Member
Donating Member3
 
FoxtrotGolfXray 5.0's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Heading thru Hell (Corner)
Posts: 8,372
Technical Contributor: For members who share their technical expertise. - Issue reason: Willingly providing technical info and documents, despite glitches. 
Default Re: Forum down yesterday??

I was getting asked to put in my credentials every page last week, even after I had logged in, but I put that down to the new work laptop. Wasn't happening on my phone.
__________________
Labels are for jars, not for people.

Life is a journey, not a destination.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Daily: 2013 FGII EcoLPi in Winter White
Play: 2015 FG X XR8 in Emperor Show' N Shine thread

Gone, but not forgotten: 2015 SZII petrol Titanium Territory in Emperor
FoxtrotGolfXray 5.0 is offline  
2 users like this post:
Old 19-02-2024, 05:09 PM   #28
CastrolRocks
Starter Motor
 
Join Date: Dec 2023
Posts: 4
Default Re: Forum down yesterday??

..........
CastrolRocks is offline  
Old 19-02-2024, 05:11 PM   #29
CastrolRocks
Starter Motor
 
Join Date: Dec 2023
Posts: 4
Default Re: Forum down yesterday??

How do we view the posts in correct order please someone?
CastrolRocks is offline  
Old 19-02-2024, 09:09 PM   #30
mad2
Regular...with metamusal
Donating Member2
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Geeeloong
Posts: 6,805
Default Re: Forum down yesterday??

Quote:
Originally Posted by CastrolRocks View Post
How do we view the posts in correct order please someone?
what order are you refering too?.


in most of the forum pages the ones with the latest replies are at the top .. except for the "stickies" which are ALWAYS at the top of the page.


hope that was what you were after?.


cheers
mad2 is offline  
Closed Thread


Forum Jump


All times are GMT +11. The time now is 04:12 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.5
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Other than what is legally copyrighted by the respective owners, this site is copyright www.fordforums.com.au
Positive SSL