Site went down ... situation unknown...

December 09, 2016 at 05:48 PM Hello, We are currently experiencing a network outage at the datacenter where your server is located. We are diligently working to resolve this issue to bring the network back online. You can track the progress of this issue in the following forum post: https://forums.hostgator.com/12-09-16-15-00-multiple-t345474.html We apologize for the trouble that this has caused. If you have any further questions or concerns regarding this issue please do not hesitate to contact us again. ------------------------------------------- Adam J. Linux Systems Administrator

Re: 12/09/16 15:00 : multiple servers : emergency network maintenance Hello, We are seeing problems with network flapping which could be caused by denial of service or other network issues in our switching fabric. We are methodically isolating the issue while making sure we don't deteriorate the network further. It's a large network and we are working on it in sections. Our best team is working through this at our data center and it is our goal to have this resolved very soon. In other words, we know this is frustrating and we are on it! Again, our sincere apologies for this inconvenience. __________________ Derrick L. Linux Administration Supervisor HostGator.com, LLC

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As common as this happens, I'm sure I'll get all sorts of criticism, but the site went down again. I've contacted the host for a reboot, should be up shortly.... As soon as we know more, I'll post again. Apologies.... but maybe it gives you time to look at more YouTube videos to Gossip about next!?!

Server Adjustments / Updates

We had some server updates and I made some adjustments to hopefully improve performance... FYI.

Activations Fail on Bad Emails

If you did not receive the following and click the activate link when you created your account, you must have an invalid email address. You will now need to contact an admin to resolve the issue or recreate a new account with a VALID EMAIL! One that you can actually read the incoming emails and respond, preferably. If you can, and still don't receive this email upon account creation, we must be having an issue with your email domain. Please inform us and we will work as fast as possible with that email domain to get the problem resolved. Thank you. Welcome to Guru Gossip forums Please keep this e-mail for your records. Your account information is as follows: ---------------------------- Username: *************** Board URL: http://gurugossiper.com ---------------------------- Please visit the following link in order to activate your account: http://gurugossiper.com/ucp.php?mode=activate&u=######&k=1234566 Your password has been securely stored in our database and cannot be retrieved. In the event that it is forgotten, you will be able to reset it using the email address associated with your account. Thank you for registering. -- Thank you! Lulu xx

Yes, I read your comments and opinions and reflect on them daily.

Please don't confuse this with a statement that you feel keeps your silly theories running on and on. I don't run the site, never have, what I do is technical and only to keep the site up and running. Did all the other sites meet your needs? No, that's why you are here complaining that our site keeps going down. We've been attacked a thousand times by DDoS and several other methods to prevent your words from being heard. Now you want to blame the one person keeping the site active? Ok. Fair enough. Who else is to blame. Maybe I haven't been taking as good of care of the site as someone making tons of money, which I don't. Maybe you should complain even more about me, when I'm only trying to help. Or maybe you should realize I'm just here to make things run as smoothly as possible to keep the site running. I have no further obligations, nor do I care what you talk about. I just respect your right to say what you feel and will continue to dedicate myself to the membership that values what we are accomplishing here. That being said, we are working towards a much better solution to downtime, by switching hosts to a more reliable company and more reputable than HOSTGATOR. Who has failed this membership and site, time and time again. I'm constantly monitoring and paying attention to things you could potentially think are insignificant. However, this site has a large following of lovers and haters. We expect some downtime when we get attacked by DDoS and various other methods we've noted over the years. We have implemented several measures in the past year to avoid downtime and are working towards a much better (and more permanent) solution. You all should understand how much time this can take. Please have patience. And to all the loyal followers, please understand, we are working on a solution. This is not just a load of BS to give you and make you feel complacent. Please give us some time to fix the problem, before giving up completely. GG will never die, if you don't let it.

Official Hostgator Response to the downtime

Gus D. July 27, 2016 at 02:43 PM Hello, Thank you for your response. To further clarify our previous contacts, your server's primary IP (REDACTED) experienced a Direct Denial of Service (DDoS) attack, and the IP was mitigated to protect the integrity of our network. This issue should now be resolved, and I am able to access WHM, cPanel, etc over the IP at this time. Please verify this from your end as well. Our logs indicate an instance of a similar attack occurring on this IP address back in 2013, but that event would have *not* have had any sort of effect on this most recent issue. We apologize for any confusion caused by our earlier contact. As for steps you can take to help prevent DDoS attacks, you are already using Cloudflare, which is an excellent way of hiding your server's IP. However, the domain is configured to use the same server for both http and mail purposes. If your mail server hosted by the same IP as your http server, an attacker could find the IP address from an outgoing email or even by a standard mx lookup. I've included some articles below from our online knowledgebase and from the Cloudflare website which contains some information you may find to be helpful: http://support.hostgator.com/articles/pre-sales-policies/security-abuse/what-security-measures-are-used-to-protect-my-server https://blog.cloudflare.com/ddos-prevention-protecting-the-origin/ https://support.cloudflare.com/hc/en-us/articles/200170166-General-website-security-guidelines https://support.cloudflare.com/hc/en-us/articles/200170196-I-am-under-DDoS-attack-what-do-I-do- We do apologize for any inconvenience. If you have any additional questions or concerns, please let us know that as well. We'll be happy to assist in any way that we can. Sincerely, Gus D. Linux Systems Administrator

Site Issues

I've requested information regarding the recent problems, I've also requested to restart the server today. FYI. Please feel free to comment.... UPDATE: Our crappy host, which I'm now going to bug (again) the owner about switching, namely HOSTGATOR, sucks so bad, they can't properly do support - causing this issue to lagg on... apologies. I'm tired of it, and so are you, we are going to fix this ASAP, I cannot have another day of yelling uselessly at hostgator to do the job we pay them for. Sorry, GG Netizens.... I've heard your crys, far and wide - I will get this resolved.

Email Issues - currently blocked by SBCGLOBAL.NET

We are currently noticing failed emails to the SBCGLOBAL domain ... if you attempt to register or get our notification emails from an @sbcglobal.net domain you need to change your email address. Many reasons could have caused our email server to be blocked, including sending our notification emails to your spam folder because you didn't (or were too lazy) to prevent them from sending, via the website's User Control Panel - which is where you can change your email and other settings, including getting emails from us. IF... you put us in a spam folder, this causes many issues and affects your account as well. Please do not do this! IF... that isn't the case and it was another reason, apologies for the issue with your email server... you can also contact your domain administrator for the SBCGLOBAL email address (which might be served by AT&T) ... and ask them to unblock our domain. Thanks. Again, we are working on getting this problem resolved, but this is not a fast process and sometimes takes a very long time to get results from the stupid company that decided to block our email domain. The only emails we send out, you've signed up for - generally used for activation/registration and notification emails only... we RARELY send anything else out... WE DO NOT USE YOUR EMAIL FOR MARKETING PURPOSES OR SELL IT TO A THIRD PARTY OR ALLOW YOUR INFORMATION TO BE COMPROMISED.

Emergency Fix

Battling some issues.... give me a moment.... please... **EDIT: SERVER CRASHED**

YTMD Issues - Apologies

I believe we have a malicious hacker attempting to corrupt the posts on YTMD, I'm fixing the corruption again, I'll have you back up and running shortly. Apologies for the offtime.... I have to sleep occasionally.

Hosting Issues... ugh, again...

Hostgator fails again... I don't know what happened, but one of our servers is offline. Working on bringing it back up and getting you all back to your gossip.

Adjustments have been made and are ongoing

Please have patience while we make some minor adjustments...

Due to Recent Unruly Members

I'm now performing strict maintenance of the forum, good luck all....

Transition Nearing Completion

You should notice YTMD and GG are finally attempting to see end user requests... in otherwords, I opened the floodgates, the doors are open, we are online, etc... Let the testing and complaining begin. :)

Offline Notice - 10PM PST until TBA - For Data Transfer

We are going to take the board offline to avoid data corruption while we transfer data to a server in the same location as our other server ... tonight at 10PM PST the process, I'm told, is going to start. I figure within 12 hours best case it's done.... but could take longer. I may be able to bring the server online faster, but I'm at the mercy of our hosting provider. In theory, this will give less latency between our website and our database to provide the best performance and loading times with our current infrastructure. Enough nerd talk, we're putting the thingy next to the thingy to make the website faster. :) This will affect YTMD as well as GG ... apologies, future goals might separate the two, but YTMD is our sister and she lives in the same room as GG. :) LOL

FYI... Apologies, but it'll help you come up with better conversation I think...


Please also visit Hostgator and complain how long their migrations take - I put in the "Transfer Request (ID:202682)" on March 16, 2016:

Via Email: feedback@hostgator.com <- Subject: gurugossiper.com

https://plus.google.com/u/0/+hostgator/

And https://www.hostgator.com/management-team

Maintenance / Downtime Today - Unexpected and We apologize....

So while working out a few glitches, expecting a short return to regular use, we seem to be having a few tasks taking longer than expected. Apologies, we will be back up and running today, but you might have to work on your patience while this process finishes. Normally I would have notified prior to taking stuff down, but this was a bit unexpected and I truly apologize for the lack of notice. I was trying to get it back up and running and now I think I'm on the last bits, so I hope to have everyone back online soon!

Host issues - CURRENTLY UNEXPLAINED

We seem to be experiencing some issues, we are currently working with the host to resolve connectivity. Apologies. Please have patience and wait an hour before re-trying ... the less connect attempts, the faster the resolution.

Downtime today... apologies

Yes, today we were down for several hours and we would like to apologize for the inconvenience of that. Apparently, our webserver host decided to prevent access to our website while they claimed there was content in a thread that was "phishing" which violates our Terms of Service ... After notification of this, they promptly took action which was clearly unprofessional and ignorant. Speaking with one of their technical support persons - who didn't understand why I would be requesting access to the site to see this content they claimed was against the TOS - I realized they don't have our best interests in mind, as they wouldn't provide me access to see the content, nor would they let me see the "report" they received. All they provided was a link to the page, which turns out had nothing like that on it, nor does any of our site have "phishing" links or anything like that. If and when we do - they are quickly removed, and the user is banned. So, turns out they made a "mistake" - blaming their 3rd party company that deals with these reports - and brought the site back online. I told them it is not acceptable to prevent access to the site without giving me a chance to deal with reports such as that beforehand and will likely not be a customer much longer. Their response - we apologize - let us credit you a day of service ... are you kidding me?? This has got to be the most idiotic response. Of course you will credit us for the service, you thought we paid for downtime? No, we pay for uptime. Needless to say, as I have previously commented in other posts, we are looking into some upgrades this year - one of which will be finding a new host that has our best interests in mind and aren't going to make ignorant mistakes that cause unnecessary downtime. In addition to that, we are looking into changing the forum software to something more capable than what we currently are using. We appreciate the continued support and loyal membership that we have and will always attempt to give the best possible outlet for your gossiping needs! Thank you and have a Happy New Year!!!