Messing up the servers

Retto · December 23, 2005, 08:03:06 PM

So our usage spiked. Across all the sites, we're using 1.7% of the possible CPU power of an entire server over an entire day. The other sites on rovl are never a problem - it's always RWL, I find.

A few things, then:
Until this gets resolved, turns will come once a day if at all.
I am resetting regular in the first days of the new year, be prepared
I am resetting turbo at the same time - it's useless to reset it now, because there may be no turns.
I'm angry because this is the third time the hosting company has threatened to suspend my account because of RWL in the past few months. (admittedly, this might not be because of RWL. The last two times were, and they sent me an e-mail this time saying that the contact forms here were potentially unsafe, so...it probably is RWL this time, too)
I'm angry because all the service for the hosting company shut down early today, and won't be back until Monday. Therefore, I don't get any feedback on my attempts to fix the problem until Monday.

Have a happy holidays, you've all just made mine a bit worse.

Gen. Volkov · December 23, 2005, 08:19:43 PM

Well isn't this just fuggin wonderful. Is there anything us RWLers can do to help?

windhound · December 23, 2005, 09:24:18 PM

= (
is 1.7% really all that much? unless its a really powerful machine... *shrug*
and we're not near as big now as before...

ah well, happy holidays Retto

and thanks again for hostin and putting up with us..

Gen. Volkov · December 24, 2005, 12:06:30 AM

It is when are only supposed to take up 1%. And the turns thingy isn't working Retto. We aren't getting any turns at all now. Unless it starts tomorrow?

wolf bite · December 24, 2005, 12:44:52 AM

I think you are not getting how important this is. 1.7% of a server could be a lot if they rent space to ? lets say 100,000 people. We have no way to know if this fixed the problem. If not, then all of ROVL will come tumbling down in a few days. We have reason to think Turbo may be the problem, but can?t be sure. We debated a lot of options, including taking both games down and wiping them out, then reset in a few weeks after a complete overhaul. Be happy we took the least major option, and still risking that if the problem is in regular or one of Retto?s other games, then still we will go down without further notice.

Listen well my little critters, type softly and hope we will be seeing each other in the new year. If anyone comes to check the site and we are down, we will hope to get back up in less then 10 days.

Wolf Bite

Shogun · December 24, 2005, 05:54:38 AM

Who's the current provider? Maybe it's time to switch?

bjornredtail · December 24, 2005, 06:34:39 PM

Take forum database dumps, just in case. The same goes for current BAXX codebase. Do not allow the host to take our data down with them.

I must also wonder if there has been something unusual in the recent server logs that could explain this. Is someone launching some sort of denial of service attack aginst RWL?

Gen. Volkov · December 24, 2005, 08:48:11 PM

I realize how serious it is wolf. I was just curious about turns, I thank Retto profusely for keeping us up and running. And listen to nevada! He's right, we can't afford to lose the forums data or the codebase.

I talking to Retto about that very question, but he says he can't access anything that would tell him that. He suspects a hacker messing with scripts, or spammers, but no one has done anything obvious. Whatever they are doing, they are being very subtle about it.

And Shogun, I thought of that very idea, I tried to talk to Joe (Creator of Hack, maintains the staronesw server FaF runs on), but he never answered. Do you know if there is space on his server nev? (...And if he would let us on it of course)

cloud · December 24, 2005, 09:21:24 PM

Did I break RWL?

Shogun · December 24, 2005, 09:33:43 PM

There are plenty of great, cheap webhosts out there. No doubt Retto could find one that has everything he needs at a reasonable price.

Gen. Volkov · December 24, 2005, 09:46:43 PM

No, you didn't cloud, not unless you messed with the scripts.

bjornredtail · December 24, 2005, 11:46:09 PM

We were haveing problems with space a while ago... Apperently the catchall mailbox was filled with 50mb of spam. Not sure about now... And as far as if they would let RWL in, I can't say.

RWL is hosted by a company by the name of "Lunarpages", a division of Add2Net, Inc. It is based out of La Habra, Calafornia. 100 East La Habra Blvd., La Habra, CA, 90631 to be exact.

wolf bite · December 24, 2005, 11:48:06 PM

There may be a lot of hosts out there. But think of it like a hotell, you pay for one room but bring 50 people that use the full floor, they kick you out and don't give your money back. So even if we changed hosts, the problem MUST be fixed or the new one will kick us out. But then if it is fixed, why go to a new place?

Wolf Bite

Wolf Snare · December 24, 2005, 11:53:36 PM

I'll mail retto a 20$ for his trouble.

bjornredtail · December 25, 2005, 12:37:07 AM

The complaint of excessive resource usage is a rather vapid charge at best. Mainly because it is hard to measure consumption of system resources. So, no real way for a custamer to either prove or disprove what the host says. So, it is basicly a classic way for a webhost to rip off its custamers. And there is still the possibility of a (D)DoS attack...

<plug>Perhaps a change of codebase is in order? FAF is easy enough to adapt, and perhaps may consume fewer reasources</plug>