An update as to the outage last night for about an hour on 2 separate occasions.......
Our WebMaster was able to trace the attack to 3 distinct IP addresses which showed spikes at the time of the attacks. Two of these IP addresses were from Arizona area and two others coming from Texas.
When I traced our data base the 2 out of California were not members of WBF. The IP address out of Texas is indeed being used by one of our well known members
Here is where I find the problems. We work diligently to keep spammers off the site as you can see with all the recent TEMU discount this is fraud posts.
Many members either use a VPN, or use Apple Relay, Microsoft , Amazon asmost large ISP providers provide this service where the user can hide his geographical area. We have countless members who have 30-40 registered IP addresses from allover the country and the EU. I understand the need for privacy but VPN servers and Proxy servers are not allowed on WBF as stipulated in our TOS for such reasons. We understand that a significant number of our members use a VPN and we never enforce that rule but we do with Proxy Servers
The member out of Texas was called by me to understand if he was on the site last night and at the time of the attack he was out for dinner with his parents. He told me that he always uses Apple Relay and uses whatever IP address he is assigned . I know this member very well and have talked to him many times and I know that he was not the perpetrator but rather someone else who took this IP address and used it in the assault last night on the site.
I suggested that he change his passwords and search out different IP addresses for his own security
The bottom line is this created enormous work for me , Julian and our Webhost last night as we have lately become a target a we are so noticeable by spammers. I attribute this to our Google Analytics which over the past 4-6 weeks show WBF as the number one audio site on the internet. We are very proud of this achievement and strive to maintain our ranking which we could not do without all of you members who are part of this community. For this we thank you immensely
The take away is that in this present day and age nothing is fool proof on the internet, I know that most users of the forum are using means to hide their geophysical location. I would suggest that if you do and you use the SAME IP address all the time that you go back and change this periodically to protect yourselves from becoming a victim
The downside of using these services such as Apple Relay is that from time to time we get messages from well known members asking why they have been banned. When we do a search at our end it is not a ban direct from our mods but rather fbecause a new member (spammer)who tries to register and his IP address is rejected and banned by the SpamGuard provided by our Xenforo Platform . Such instances have happened twice in the past month which the member can easily fix by using a different IP address. The toxic IP addresses are registered on www.stopforumspam.com
In summary this took many hours of work. aggravation and hair pulling until the site could be restored. Thank you all again for understanding and helping to make WBF the best high end audio forum on the internet. We couldn't do it without all of you here .
Our WebMaster was able to trace the attack to 3 distinct IP addresses which showed spikes at the time of the attacks. Two of these IP addresses were from Arizona area and two others coming from Texas.
When I traced our data base the 2 out of California were not members of WBF. The IP address out of Texas is indeed being used by one of our well known members
Here is where I find the problems. We work diligently to keep spammers off the site as you can see with all the recent TEMU discount this is fraud posts.
Many members either use a VPN, or use Apple Relay, Microsoft , Amazon asmost large ISP providers provide this service where the user can hide his geographical area. We have countless members who have 30-40 registered IP addresses from allover the country and the EU. I understand the need for privacy but VPN servers and Proxy servers are not allowed on WBF as stipulated in our TOS for such reasons. We understand that a significant number of our members use a VPN and we never enforce that rule but we do with Proxy Servers
The member out of Texas was called by me to understand if he was on the site last night and at the time of the attack he was out for dinner with his parents. He told me that he always uses Apple Relay and uses whatever IP address he is assigned . I know this member very well and have talked to him many times and I know that he was not the perpetrator but rather someone else who took this IP address and used it in the assault last night on the site.
I suggested that he change his passwords and search out different IP addresses for his own security
The bottom line is this created enormous work for me , Julian and our Webhost last night as we have lately become a target a we are so noticeable by spammers. I attribute this to our Google Analytics which over the past 4-6 weeks show WBF as the number one audio site on the internet. We are very proud of this achievement and strive to maintain our ranking which we could not do without all of you members who are part of this community. For this we thank you immensely
The take away is that in this present day and age nothing is fool proof on the internet, I know that most users of the forum are using means to hide their geophysical location. I would suggest that if you do and you use the SAME IP address all the time that you go back and change this periodically to protect yourselves from becoming a victim
The downside of using these services such as Apple Relay is that from time to time we get messages from well known members asking why they have been banned. When we do a search at our end it is not a ban direct from our mods but rather fbecause a new member (spammer)who tries to register and his IP address is rejected and banned by the SpamGuard provided by our Xenforo Platform . Such instances have happened twice in the past month which the member can easily fix by using a different IP address. The toxic IP addresses are registered on www.stopforumspam.com
In summary this took many hours of work. aggravation and hair pulling until the site could be restored. Thank you all again for understanding and helping to make WBF the best high end audio forum on the internet. We couldn't do it without all of you here .
