Sins Website issue

Hiya, could the web team take a look at the sins website.  Im able to access everything there except the forums.  Had to come use stardocks link to the site in order to gain access.   Kinda aggravating to have to do that.   The forums link just sits there for me for like 10 minutes, then says the server is busy.  

 

5,309 views 12 replies
Reply #1 Top
we experienced the very same problem at home, Friday evening & Saturday morning ... even though all other websites worked fast & fine ... and even though we had previously accessed the SINS forum with NO problem whatsoever since June 2007 !

did IC reduce their forum servers traffic-handling capacity ?

i finally got back in late Saturday morning, after 2½ hours of unsuccessful attempts (i did not test your SD link trick) ...

Reply #2 Top
I, too, have had some strangeness accessing the forums and website (forums.sinsofasolarempire.com and www.sinsofasolarempire.com). It was fine yesterday morning (local Swedish time), but after lunch I suddenly couldn't reach the website (or forums). Of some reason, I put it down to network problems. So, I changed my DNS, and I could reach the sinsofasolarempire.com sites again.

Today (Saturday) I have had similar problems but only with the forums.

My guess is that something happened around the ol' Internet that upset some of our DNS. Temporarily confusing them about sinsofasolarempire.com. If so, it should be all right very soon. If not, it may be a deliberate sabotage by scared competitors in the gaming industry... ;)
Reply #3 Top
I get a 50ms ping to forums.sinsofasolarempire.com with no packets lost, however, I can only access these forums through forums.stardock.com because (like the OP) the wait time is ridiculous. I often get some varying large-text errors like Service is Too Busy and such as well. But through Stardock, it's as fast as any other site.
Reply #4 Top
It's normally related to the software or database the forums run on. This is a custom piece of forum software and therefore there will be some bugs or glitches to work out. It happens with all custom coded websites that don't use cookie-cutter products for purchase and licensing.

The "Server too busy" thing started for me Friday at around 5pm EST and is still going on today. However, I would guess that there are less people trying to get to the forums right now and that's helping what little capacity a crippled system has become available for me to use.

Query intensive pages on this site appear to be bogged down by something, so perhaps it's time to run some table optimization or go hunting around in the code for what threw a shoe and toppled over. Good luck!

For everyone trying to visit the forums, we might have to wait until Monday to get a fix to this btw.
Reply #5 Top
Sins forums are being DOS's. We're trying to track down the range of IPs and block them now.
Reply #6 Top
Thanxxx a lot for your Saturday-afternoon zeal !

It's a great forum, for a great game : lots of info & debates to digest.
Reply #7 Top
Sins forums are being DOS's. We're trying to track down the range of IPs and block them now.
End of quote


Who the hell would want to do that?

I can't imagine a reason why someone would want to DOS the forum... or did someone hate the balance in Sins so much?


Joke....

ok, bad joke, sorry for that.


But I had to say that... the voices...


the voices demanded it!


For the unity!
Reply #8 Top
DOS as in denial of service attack?

Yea, out of all the websites on the net why the heck would someone go after this one?
Reply #10 Top
Any word yet on the status of who (or what) is doing it?
Reply #11 Top
I was being redirected to https://www.joeuser.com all morning and most of the afternoon.

KP
Reply #12 Top
Yea, out of all the websites on the net why the heck would someone go after this one?
End of quote
They don't need a reason. Sometimes it's targeted and sometimes it's not. There are people literally actively hunting for any security lapse on any hardware or software in order to exploit it for their purposes.

I remember when the university I worked for got DOS attacked. Unfortunately, the attacker(s) didn't realize we were also an ISP with a smart, industry-hardened faculty. Attacking the people who wrote books on networking and such is beyond stupid. Imagine the surprise of someone in Montreal, Canada when they got their net disconnected and were arrested because we were able to connect the dots, communicate with the right contacts, and go digging through all the attempts to cover his/her path. Ouch. I felt like I was on a TV show like CSI though! :D