The board is temporarily unavailable...

[HugeFanOfBadReligion]

Does anyone else keep getting a message when they visit the site that says the board is temporarily unavailable and to visit again later? It's been happening quite often to me lately. It wouldn't be that odd if it happened every once in a while, but it's been happening a lot lately to me, and was wondering if I was the only one that this was happening to.

And what do you know? When I pressed the enter button on this post, it said the board was temporarily unavailable and to try again later.

[Skul]

I've been getting this a lot for a while, too. I really have no idea what's going on. If I was the one taking the board offline every so often, I'd tell you guys why.

Right now, "this board is currently disabled".

A glitch in the server's code? I dunno.

And it's online, again.

[Fat Man]

Yes, I've been having the same problem!

I think the Republicans here in the USA are trying to screw around with web site forums on the Internet to keep people from expressing their opinions!

I believe Governor Rick Perry of Texas is behind it, and even Pat Robertson of The 700 Club.

Yeah! it's the republicans!

Or, maybe I'm just nuts!

Take your pick!

[Brigan]

Yeah! it's the republicans!

Or, maybe I'm just nuts!

Take your pick!

[Skul]

I'm gonna go with the unlisted answer:

A possible bug in the forum server's code.

[Fat Man]

I'm gonna go with the unlisted answer:

A possible bug in the forum server's code.

Yes, a bug planted by the Republicans in the USA.

Either that, or I'm just nuts!

[Skul]

[Earl]

(Yes, I'm still around. )

[Earl]

Yeah! it's the republicans!

Or, maybe I'm just nuts!

Take your pick!

You restrained yourself quite well, Brigan.

[Agent 47]

Hey, I found a pattern to one of those "Sorry but the board is temporarily unavailable..." situations.

I had a hunch that one of them was happening regularly for about a half an hour at around 3am (UNlogged-in board time).

So I checked, and here are the actual times for the last 3 days when access to this site was completely impossible -

3:03 - 3:29 am
3:02 - 3:31 am
3:01 - 3:25 am


And it turns out that there is a virus/trojan/exploit called "3am Darkness"

Does that mean that it does it's dirty work at 3 am?

Could that be what's going on here?

3am.Darkness Categorized as:

DoS

A DoS (Denial of Service) attack is designed to disrupt or stop the normal running of a Web site, server, or other network resource. Hackers or malware writers resort to various ways to achieve this. A DoS attack can commonly result in a server being flooded with more network traffic than it is capable of processing. This hinders or prevents the serverâ??s normal operation and sometimes causes its complete failure.

Unlike a DoS attack, a DDoS attack employs multiple PCs. The hacker or malware writer normally uses one infected computer - â??masterâ? - to centrally coordinate the attack across other, so-called â??zombieâ?, computers. Typically, the malware writer gains control of both master and zombie computers by exploiting a weakness in an application or the operating system on those computers, in order to install a trojan or other malicious code.


http://www.exterminate-it.com/malpedia/ ... m-darkness

Remove 3am Darkness Denial of Service

3am Darkness is a Denial of Service. Technique used to block or crash server machine services.

Information about spyware / malware file:
3am darkness.exe

Spyware / Malware Description:
3am Darkness

Type: Denial of Service
Type Description: Technique used to block or crash server machine services.
Level of Danger: High
Default action: Remove
File names: 3am darkness.exe
Fingerprints: -


http://www.spy-emergency.com/research/3 ... kness.html

Coincidence?

[abitagirl]

Must be 3 a.m. Australia time. I'm never on at that hour here.

[Skul]

Seemed to be more or less random to me. I'll have to try and remember to check, myself.

...But I won't be able to do anything, as Ray is the one who handles all the forum upgrades. Not sure if an upgrade would do anything, however, but it needs one, anyway.

[Agent 47]

That particular 3 am event, (Unlogged-in time/UTC/GMT time), is early afternoon for me here. I think it works out to sometime around mid-evening in the USA?

But wherever you are in the world, have a look at the posted time of THIS post, and it will be starting in 5 minutes from now...

[Agent 47]

Yep, just then today's blackout went from 3:01 - 3:26 am (UTC/GMT).

[Fat Man]

For me, it seems to be at random.

Sometimes it happens in the morning, sometimes during the afternoon, sometimes in the evening, or sometimes late at night.

But then, I live in Texas.

So, I still think the Republicans are doing it to us!

Yeah! It's got to be the Republicans!