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Several questions from a newbie

Started by 20abc22, December 27, 2022, 01:01:42 AM

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20abc22

I tried blocking specific Yandex IPs, and I still see them accessing the forum.

Also, added this code:

SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "^Yandex*" bad_bot
Order Deny,Allow
Deny from env=bad_bot

and still no good outcome.


20abc22

Not a day without issues.

I wake up this morning and can't load the website. Hosting provider checked on their end and it looks like a denial of service attack, which would not surprise me, given the contents.

What are my options? Provider suggested Cloudflare. I am worried it will make my users' experience more cumbersome :(.

Doug Heffernan

Quote from: 20abc22 on January 21, 2023, 11:17:23 AMNot a day without issues.

I wake up this morning and can't load the website. Hosting provider checked on their end and it looks like a denial of service attack, which would not surprise me, given the contents.

What are my options? Provider suggested Cloudflare. I am worried it will make my users' experience more cumbersome :(.

Personally I don't think that Cloudfare is worth it. Who is your host? A decent host should provide adequate protection against ddos attacks.

20abc22

Quote from: Doug Heffernan on January 21, 2023, 11:53:50 AM
Quote from: 20abc22 on January 21, 2023, 11:17:23 AMNot a day without issues.

I wake up this morning and can't load the website. Hosting provider checked on their end and it looks like a denial of service attack, which would not surprise me, given the contents.

What are my options? Provider suggested Cloudflare. I am worried it will make my users' experience more cumbersome :(.

Personally I don't think that Cloudfare is worth it. Who is your host? A decent host should provide adequate protection against ddos attacks.

This is included with the hosting. They checked on their side and their server is fine.

The other thing I noticed that some folders in my custom theme folder were updated yesterday. Which I haven't done myself :) wonder if there is a possibility there may be issues because of that.

20abc22

The message I am getting is this:

Connection Problems
Sorry, SMF was unable to connect to the database. This may be caused by the server being busy. Please try again later.

Or the site is just very slow.

Doug Heffernan

Quote from: 20abc22 on January 21, 2023, 11:56:59 AMThis is included with the hosting. They checked on their side and their server is fine.

The other thing I noticed that some folders in my custom theme folder were updated yesterday. Which I haven't done myself :) wonder if there is a possibility there may be issues because of that.

If you haven't updated any of those files yourself, the question is who did? You should contact your host and ask them to check the logs for your account and see how the files were updated. Also, if I were you, I would check the contents of the updated files to see that nothing malicious has been inserted into them.

Quote from: 20abc22 on January 21, 2023, 11:58:55 AMThe message I am getting is this:

Connection Problems
Sorry, SMF was unable to connect to the database. This may be caused by the server being busy. Please try again later.

Or the site is just very slow.

If the database permissions are in order and the database info has been entered correctly in the Settings.php file, the issue lies with your host. I suggest that you contact them about this.

20abc22

Quote from: Doug Heffernan on January 21, 2023, 12:10:37 PM
Quote from: 20abc22 on January 21, 2023, 11:56:59 AMThis is included with the hosting. They checked on their side and their server is fine.

The other thing I noticed that some folders in my custom theme folder were updated yesterday. Which I haven't done myself :) wonder if there is a possibility there may be issues because of that.

If you haven't updated any of those files yourself, the question is who did? You should contact your host and ask them to check the logs for your account and see how the files were updated. Also, if I were you, I would check the contents of the updated files to see that nothing malicious has been inserted into them.

Quote from: 20abc22 on January 21, 2023, 11:58:55 AMThe message I am getting is this:

Connection Problems
Sorry, SMF was unable to connect to the database. This may be caused by the server being busy. Please try again later.

Or the site is just very slow.

If the database permissions are in order and the database info has been entered correctly in the Settings.php file, the issue lies with your host. I suggest that you contact them about this.

I've been in touch with them since this morning.

The theme I have installed has recently been updated, but I did not update it through the forum. Is there a chance some of these scripts are updated automatically or this is not possible?

Doug Heffernan

Quote from: 20abc22 on January 21, 2023, 12:15:40 PMThe theme I have installed has recently been updated, but I did not update it through the forum. Is there a chance some of these scripts are updated automatically or this is not possible?

Did you update them through either, ftp or the cPanel? I don't see how they can get updated automatically, unless you have set up a cron/task job for it?

If you haven't, you should really check their contents. I don't mean to alarm you, but better safe than sorry.


20abc22

I wonder if I am having favicon issues. I've found online that depending on the size, they can slow down the site.

20abc22

Quote from: Doug Heffernan on January 21, 2023, 12:18:51 PM
Quote from: 20abc22 on January 21, 2023, 12:15:40 PMThe theme I have installed has recently been updated, but I did not update it through the forum. Is there a chance some of these scripts are updated automatically or this is not possible?

Did you update them through either, ftp or the cPanel? I don't see how they can get updated automatically, unless you have set up a cron/task job for it?

If you haven't, you should really check their contents. I don't mean to alarm you, but better safe than sorry.



The only updates I did yesterday was some .htaccess code changes, as discussed earlier in this thread, and placed favicons. Yes, it would be via Cpanel. But I did not touch these scripts in these folders at all.

I wonder if I should get rid of favicons completely for now.

Kindred

Send me your connection info again  (I don't keep that info after helping)

Let me take a look at what could be going on
Слaва
Украинi

Please do not PM, IM or Email me with support questions.  You will get better and faster responses in the support boards.  Thank you.

"Loki is not evil, although he is certainly not a force for good. Loki is... complicated."

20abc22

Sent you the PM. Thanks again for your help!

Kindred

OK....  (note: Posting this publicly in case others have similar problems and get to this thread through search - nothing private included in this post)

first, the recent edits to files.
The files you noted are the minified versions of the CSS.   Nothing to worry about. The system automatically generates those files based on the index.css and other css files -- because the minified versions are faster fro the browsers to load.

Second, yeah, your site seems to be getting pounded and is slow to load. I added the block for yandex and baidu into your forum .htaccess. See if that has any effect)
The site seems to be responding faster now than it was 20 minutes ago.
#deny access to yandex and baidu agents
    SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent (yandex|baidu) bad_bot_block=1
    Order Allow,Deny
    Deny from env=bad_bot_block
    Allow from ALL

third, your google ID has a space in front of it, in the pageload.  That means that you either have a space in the google analytics mod that you added, or the mod is incorrectly adding a space before the ID
I don't know if that's enough to cause google to error out/delay the load. (looking at the mod code, it looks correct and that suggests that you have a space in front when you entered the ID in the mod settings)


fourth, I fixed your favicon. :)
Слaва
Украинi

Please do not PM, IM or Email me with support questions.  You will get better and faster responses in the support boards.  Thank you.

"Loki is not evil, although he is certainly not a force for good. Loki is... complicated."

20abc22

Quote from: Kindred on January 21, 2023, 05:56:29 PMOK....  (note: Posting this publicly in case others have similar problems and get to this thread through search - nothing private included in this post)

first, the recent edits to files.
The files you noted are the minified versions of the CSS.   Nothing to worry about. The system automatically generates those files based on the index.css and other css files -- because the minified versions are faster fro the browsers to load.

Second, yeah, your site seems to be getting pounded and is slow to load. I added the block for yandex and baidu into your forum .htaccess. See if that has any effect)
The site seems to be responding faster now than it was 20 minutes ago.
#deny access to yandex and baidu agents
    SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent (yandex|baidu) bad_bot_block=1
    Order Allow,Deny
    Deny from env=bad_bot_block
    Allow from ALL

third, your google ID has a space in front of it, in the pageload.  That means that you either have a space in the google analytics mod that you added, or the mod is incorrectly adding a space before the ID
I don't know if that's enough to cause google to error out/delay the load. (looking at the mod code, it looks correct and that suggests that you have a space in front when you entered the ID in the mod settings)


fourth, I fixed your favicon. :)


Thank you SO MUCH! Unfortunately it looks like the site is still having issues. I see the error message 'the site unexpectedly closed the connection'. And then it's up and running, and quickly.

Will go check out that google thingie.

Kindred

yeah, that connection issue is odd....    that almost always ends up being some sort of host problem... but your current stats don't show anything unusual.
Слaва
Украинi

Please do not PM, IM or Email me with support questions.  You will get better and faster responses in the support boards.  Thank you.

"Loki is not evil, although he is certainly not a force for good. Loki is... complicated."

20abc22

Quote from: Kindred on January 21, 2023, 06:23:11 PMyeah, that connection issue is odd....    that almost always ends up being some sort of host problem... but your current stats don't show anything unusual.

For now, it is lighting speed. I will monitor it and will keep everyone posted.

Please check your PM soon and again thank you, thank you, thank you - I am so grateful!

20abc22

Just wanted to thank everyone, and especially Kindred, for your help and support.

There were some issues on the host/database side, but they were eventually fixed and the forum has been running wonderfully. Russian and Chinese bots issue has been totally addressed. There is one NA bot (SEMRush CY Ltd) coming, but it seems to be quite benign.

You guys have been awesome and thanks again!

Steve

DO NOT pm me for support!

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