Site changes in the background

[Frank Murch]

Site changes in the background

Over the past year the site has been fighting off hackers from 2 directions: Internal to the hosting company and hackers using the forum to enter.

Internal: Over the past year the site has been down 2 or 3 times. The last time was a systematic attack on a server at the hosting company. Most and maybe all the hosted sites were put down on a single day. The hosting company seemed unwilling or unable to stop these and directed its attention to its subscribers rather than their own security issues.

Forum: We also had a series of forum postings (over 200, likely closer to a 1000) that were unrelated to tools. These people were basically hackers. To stop this we had to start a registration process. Many of you probably were worried about “being approved”- don’t be, you were never the target. I am very sorry about this – If you are a regular guy and interested in tools – you are approved. The registration process inconvenienced 2000 members and was directed at no more than 3 or 4 people. This people seem to have moved on to easier sites.

It blows me away to have to inconvenience 2000 people to stop 3 or 4 idiots. I am sorry to have had to do that.

Solution: The site has changed now. The forum is backed by better software, the registration process have cut the bad postings down from 1 or 2 an hour to 1 or 2 in three months. The Hosting of the site has also changed: We left “Inmotionhosting” and are now running out of “1and1”. The jury is still out on this change, but I hope the dramatic and destructive attacks from within will stop.

Sorry for the problems - I hope these changes will create a better site