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Author Topic: Off-topic: The great amiga.org IP ban conspiracy...  (Read 9740 times)

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Offline Karlos

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Re: Sky UK ISP block
« Reply #14 on: September 03, 2011, 02:12:44 PM »
Quote from: Piru;657642
Just a stupid question: amiga.org does have an audit log for all administrative actions?


Well, the site, like all vB installations, has two administrative tiers. The first is a control panel for moderators, which allows access to various tools pertinent to basic forum moderation. The second is a control panel for administrators only and provides control over the site, 3rd party modules. Any admin/moderator activity logging would be in there.

I don't really get involved with anything beyond basic moderation, except when there are security threats or major software bugs on the site that I've looked into. I retain an FTP account that has access the site's web root for that. Naturally all access through that will be logged by ftpd.

The last time I used it was to check for alterations made to key files that would are the usual target of any code injection attack against the forum software. Prior to that, it was disabling the experimental cache (some time ago now) and before that, that bloody eval() bug.
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Offline Karlos

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Remember the ToS?
« Reply #15 on: September 03, 2011, 02:26:07 PM »
I realise people may have strong views about the admins, moderators, other members and what not. However, direct personal attacks on any of the above won't be tolerated.
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Offline Kesa

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Re: Off-topic: The great amiga.org IP ban conspiracy...
« Reply #16 on: September 03, 2011, 02:32:08 PM »
I agree. For the most part the mods do a good job and i don't really think the admins can be criticised either. I mean, if they never bought this site off Wayne this site would probably have been shut down. The admins did us a favor.
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Offline number6

Re: Sky UK ISP block
« Reply #17 on: September 03, 2011, 02:42:55 PM »
Quote from: Karlos;657639
Well, since we're all playing Cluedo, My take:

The class C ban was already in effect for a long time. Certainly there was some mention of it when a certain member (like you can't tell who) was permanently banned some time back.

Some time later, but before the hosting upgrade (I think) a Sky ISP user on aw.net (Amigaone Productions, IIRC) reported being blocked. I wasn't able to sort it out as the built-in IP ban tools are not available to moderators and suggested he use a proxy. I can't find that thread right now, but if I do, I'll post a link.

It seems that nobody really made a big deal out of it since then. I believe the issue kicked off again due to comments made on this thread...

http://amigaworld.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=34172&forum=2

... particularly Steve's comment here:


It was my understanding that whatever restrictions had been put in place to keep the aforementioned member banned were overturned in their entirety when he was permitted to return. I'd have to do some IP address checks, but it could just be that he was using a proxy once his ban was lifted and the IP address range ban was never revoked. More likely, it was probably just forgotten about - certainly the admin seemed unaware.

I don't see any evidence to suggest that someone has broken in and added this IP ban recently.




Your post on the earlier issue implies a connection to SKY only, which would be misleading as to cause.

I was affected in the U.S.
Your reply followed.

#6
 

Offline whabang

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Re: Off-topic: The great amiga.org IP ban conspiracy...
« Reply #18 on: September 03, 2011, 02:45:42 PM »
I'd say this drama is popcorn-worthy, but I'm on a diet, so it'll have to be :VLCD-shake: instead.

My opinion: Why would anyone even care so much about anyone on this board that they'd commit a fairly serious offence (depending on his/her country of residence, of course) just to ban their IP range?

It doesn't make sense.
Beating the dead horse since 2002.
 

Offline tone007

Re: Sky UK ISP block
« Reply #19 on: September 03, 2011, 02:47:01 PM »
Quote from: number6;657649
Your post on the earlier issue implies a connection to SKY only, which would be misleading as to cause.

I was affected in the U.S.
Your reply followed.

#6


Obviously an unrelated issue, site performance vs IP block..
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Offline Karlos

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Re: Sky UK ISP block
« Reply #20 on: September 03, 2011, 02:49:51 PM »
Quote from: number6;657649
Your post on the earlier issue implies a connection to SKY only, which would be misleading as to cause.

I was affected in the U.S.
Your reply followed.

#6

Actually, my site cacheing experiment caused a lot of problems when the cache got flooded with IP ban notifications caused by unwelcome bots attempting to spider the site. That was the main reason I abandoned it and haven't sought to reimplement it since.

The directory containing the cached content jumped from about 30MB to 700MB in an hour or so and every page appeared to be blocked, except to users that were logged in. I am pretty sure I apologised for that here on the site somewhere.

-edit-

Oh, and on the last post of the thread you linked too.
« Last Edit: September 03, 2011, 03:10:05 PM by Karlos »
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Offline Karlos

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Re: Sky UK ISP block
« Reply #21 on: September 03, 2011, 02:55:31 PM »
^^
Found it. See here: http://www.amiga.org/forums/showpost.php?p=649229&postcount=40

The ban notifications weren't genuine. Or rather they were, but they weren't for your IP. You were seeing (cached copies of) pages that were generated when an unwanted bot tried to trawl old links. As there was no way of fixing the cache to check for IP bans without accessing the database (which at the time was the cause of a lot of our performance problems), I had to do away with the idea all together.

Fortunately, the hosting got updated not long later.

The idea was ok, but implementation was another matter. I believe the front page "top 10" stats stuff is still cached though. Read the thread the post was from to find out more.
« Last Edit: September 03, 2011, 03:14:00 PM by Karlos »
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Offline nicholas

Re: Off-topic: The great amiga.org IP ban conspiracy...
« Reply #22 on: September 03, 2011, 03:11:51 PM »
I live in hope that one day this place will once again be full of Amiga related topics and not amateur dramatics...........
“Een rezhim-i eshghalgar-i Quds bayad az sahneh-i ruzgar mahv shaved.” - Imam Ayatollah Sayyed  Ruhollah Khomeini
 

Offline Karlos

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Re: Off-topic: The great amiga.org IP ban conspiracy...
« Reply #23 on: September 03, 2011, 03:15:43 PM »
Quote from: nicholas;657656
I live in hope that one day this place will once again be full of Amiga related topics and not amateur dramatics...........


If you start it, they will come...
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Offline nicholas

Re: Off-topic: The great amiga.org IP ban conspiracy...
« Reply #24 on: September 03, 2011, 03:27:57 PM »
Quote from: Karlos;657657
If you start it, they will come...


Well I have a few idea for projects but until I get the A3K back up and running they are on the back burner.  The new baby is due any day now too.
“Een rezhim-i eshghalgar-i Quds bayad az sahneh-i ruzgar mahv shaved.” - Imam Ayatollah Sayyed  Ruhollah Khomeini
 

Offline Karlos

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Re: Off-topic: The great amiga.org IP ban conspiracy...
« Reply #25 on: September 03, 2011, 03:33:26 PM »
Quote from: nicholas;657659
The new baby is due any day now too.


I think you can kiss goodbye to any projects after s/he arrives :lol:
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Offline TheBilgeRat

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Re: Off-topic: The great amiga.org IP ban conspiracy...
« Reply #26 on: September 03, 2011, 05:20:48 PM »
Here's my theory:

Karlos, Wayne, Piru, Franko, Smerf, are all the same person.

But it wasn't always that way...

It was the year 1999.  In a last hurrah, those individuals had dialed into one of the last BBS around with their amigas.  Little beknownst to them, the Icelandic Front for the Pickling of More Strange Fish had just perfected a new deep atomic method for fish preservation.  They flipped the master switch and aimed at a large barrel of haddock when something went terribly awry.  Instead of hitting the barrel, it hit their A2000, which had been serving up that very BBS the other forementioneds were dialed into.  when the dust had cleared, there standing before them, was a gnarly multi-appendaged conglomerate of persons all terribly knowledgeable about amigas and other assorted computer topics.  These Icelanders knew that the only way to keep the world safe from their terrible sad knowledge was to build a server room about them and tap them constantly into the new internet to prevent the spread of FUD concerning the holy trinity of AOS/MORPHOS/AROS.

And that is how Amiga.org banned Skynet from taking over and sending a termination unit back to the past to kill Sarah Connor.

The end.
 

Offline Karlos

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Re: Off-topic: The great amiga.org IP ban conspiracy...
« Reply #27 on: September 03, 2011, 06:53:43 PM »
Quote from: TheBilgeRat;657681
The end.


And I would have gotten away with it too if it weren't for you pesky kids!
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Offline Piru

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Re: Off-topic: The great amiga.org IP ban conspiracy...
« Reply #28 on: September 03, 2011, 07:20:59 PM »
Quote from: TheBilgeRat;657681
...

Exterminate... Exterminate... Exterminate...
 

Offline Karlos

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Re: Sky UK ISP block
« Reply #29 from previous page: September 03, 2011, 07:45:52 PM »
Quote from: Kesa;657643
More deflecting...


Actually, I should just say that Piru exposed a potentially serious JS exploit in one of the site's 3rd party modules not long after we moved to vbulletin. It was all handled calmly and professionally via the bug reporting system/PM and without any alarmist scaremongering. Even as he was contacting the authors, I fixed the issue in place so that any potential XSS hole it would have opened was closed.

In doing so, he helped make the site a safer place for everyone.
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