• FluTrackers.com Inc. does not provide medical advice. Information on this web site is collected from various internet resources, and the FluTrackers board of directors makes no warranty to the safety, efficacy, correctness or completeness of the information posted on this site by any author or poster. The information collated here is for instructional and/or discussion purposes only and is NOT intended to diagnose or treat any disease, illness, or other medical condition. Every individual reader or poster should seek advice from their personal physician/healthcare practitioner before considering or using any interventions that are discussed on this website. By continuing to access this website you agree to consult your personal physican before using any interventions posted on this website, and you agree to hold harmless FluTrackers.com Inc., the board of directors, the members, and all authors and posters for any effects from use of any medication, supplement, vitamin or other substance, device, intervention, etc. mentioned in posts on this website, or other internet venues referenced in posts on this website.
  • We are not asking for any donations. Do not donate to any entity who says they are raising funds for us.

Down Time

sharon sanders

sharon sanders

Editor-in-Chief & President
FluTrackers has been experiencing some odd down time recently.

Some times we will go down for 20 minutes. Once in a while it might be for an hour. Usually this is occurring abound dinner time on the east coast of the United States.

The server company is reporting that, according to their information, we have not been down.

We are now investigating Denial of Service Attacks. This is a serious situation. If this is occurring, we will cooperate with the authorities.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denial-of-service_attack
 
Re: Down Time

This has happened fairly frequently to me, the last time being at about 6 PM Pacific Daylight Savings time this evening and lasting for at least an hour.

I would guesstimate that you have been down to me at least a dozen times since January.
 
Re: Down Time

Yes -- I experienced some down time yesterday -- it was around 4:30 a.m. ET. I was logged on and about to post something and suddenly FTs was gone. Don't know how long it lasted 'cause I just quit computing for a few hours.
 
Last edited:
Re: Down Time

I have also noticed connection lost for a while from time to time. It is not related to problems on other sites. Thought it was DNS related as no one else mentioned them.
 
Re: Down Time

I could not access the site last night between 9:30-10:00 PM EDT (but did not try later). I could get to the front page, but when I tried accessing a linked post, or get the most recent posts, nothing happened, other than an hour glass appearing).
 
Re: Down Time

I noticed this several times the past week also. I could not connect to the site. I could connect to other flu forums, just not flutrackers.
 
Re: Down Time

I just opened this email from the server company about last night's outage:

"Hello,

I have checked the domain flutrackers.com and it resolved fine. Your forum is working fine........"

The rest of the note explains the next steps that are being taken.

Why would someone(s) deliberately sabotage the linkage to FT?

1) We have taken controversial positions. Both the liberal and conservative political ideologues are not pleased with us.
2) We provide safe harbor for several controversial, leading-edge scientists.
3) While we respect the governments, we do not "bow" to them.
4) While we respect all industries and commerce, we do not "bow" to them either.
4) Competition among the various "bird flu" forums.


All of the above is being reviewed now. I will keep everyone updated. We are committed to provide consistent and reliable online service.

Thank you for participating in the largest participatory online Public Health Charity in the world.
 
Re: Down Time

I tried last night and could not get on line between 9:45 - 10:25 pm EDT did not continue to try afterwards.
 
Re: Down Time

I was on FluTrackers last knight between about 24.00 and 03.30 a.m. today in Dutch time, and at ones I couldn't refresh (F5) anymore. At the same time the connecting with other sites like Google News was working well. This happened to me several times.
 
Re: Down Time

I've noticed this too, but I don't think it's anything sinister. This kind of thing happens when a router goes out. That's why the service will say there is nothing wrong with their end. The problem sometimes is a bottleneck at the first main distribution hub. My guess is that it's an outage at one of the big router farms in Jersey.
 
Re: Down Time

Florida1 said:
Why would someone(s) deliberately sabotage the linkage to FT?

1) We have taken controversial positions. Both the liberal and conservative political ideologues are not pleased with us.
2) We provide safe harbor for several controversial, leading-edge scientists.
3) While we respect the governments, we do not "bow" to them.
4) While we respect all industries and commerce, we do not "bow" to them either.
4) Competition among the various "bird flu" forums.
Click to expand...


what might be their motivation ? could this work ?
all "they" can achieve, that FT goes to another server.

Is it just "revenge" for unfavourite posts ? Then "they" might
want to give us a hint, who they are and which posts are targeted...


1) we avoid controversial positions (no bashing)
2) no safe harbour. Everyone is at increased risk of banning (suspending)
3) politics avoided
4) no commercials
4) other forums should report similar problems


you could maybe make a mirror page, I don't know how much effort,
cost it would be.


could it be caused by someone downloading FT-pages automatically
in bulk ? I once tried it, but only a few hundred pages, only a few minutes.
I did it with fluwiki but I told them and they agreed.
You could use that for archiving or to "rebuild" FT on another server.
Or for merging it with other forums and open a merged forum
on another server.
Let's merge the bird-flu forums !
 
Re: Down Time

The problem is being handled.

We will not be intimidated into submission.

We will stand for truth in mass communication.

We will continue to present all sides of an issue.

We will present ideas that are controversial.

We will demand respect and dignity for all persons, in every culture, in every country, of both sexes, and of all races.
 
Re: Down Time

Why does anyone think it could be a DoS attack? The hosting servers firewall and traffic monitoring software should have no problem seeing a DoS attack, the problem is working out who initiated it. Attacks take considerable coordination and are 'best' arranged by virus infection of innocent PCs which then swamp the target at a signal or pre-arranged time (hence no obvious perpetrator). FluTrackers does not fit the profile; F1's list notwithstanding we are not that controversial. I suspect we are the least offensive Flu site.
 
Re: Down Time

JJackson said:
Why does anyone think it could be a DoS attack? The hosting servers firewall and traffic monitoring software should have no problem seeing a DoS attack, the problem is working out who initiated it. Attacks take considerable coordination and are 'best' arranged by virus infection of innocent PCs which then swamp the target at a signal or pre-arranged time (hence no obvious perpetrator). FluTrackers does not fit the profile; F1's list notwithstanding we are not that controversial. I suspect we are the least offensive Flu site.
Click to expand...
I agree. I think this is a server issue. I could access the site, but not the links on the site. The server sees that users are accessing the site, and assume all is well.
 
Re: Down Time

There have been several times where the site has been 'unavailable' when I have checked in.

However, let us not be naive. In the event that H5N1 goes pandemic there is a great deal at stake viz information control. If I were in a position whereby I was tasked with ensuring managed communication in the event of a pandemic outbreak, the first place I would seek to disrupt is the fluboards - this being one of them.

Might it be a good idea to have a backup means of communication? Since we all register our emails, could these means be used for members communication - or some other solution? Perhaps others with more knowledge of technology (my eyes glaze over) could suggest a viable set of communication means if the world goes (forgive the expression - one of my fathers) tits up? I think it is worth having such strategies in place - just in case.
 
Re: Down Time

The most fail safe communications is HAM radio.
We have had some dicussion on interested members obtaining training for this.
Obviously a poor substitute for the web, but better than nothing.
JT
 
Re: Down Time

I have noticed times when links didn't seem to work, but I'm logged on at odd times & assumed there must be concurrent maintenance.

.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top