DDOS attack?

[DRiddle]

Is the site being softened up for a DDOS attack again? or is it just quiet since yesterday?

People have obviously noticed the influx of what look like computer generated 'new members' which seem to be happening every hour or so, assurfamabe being the latest.

Could it be that one or two articles of late have provoked an attempt to silence the HP voices in the run up to the elections?

[danny_boy]

It's a Spam robot that has somehow managed to get by the registration process but hasn't figured out how to post its ads yet. I'm working on it.

[fred c]

Thank goodness for that....... with all the new poster names i couldn`t pronouce i was starting to wish i had spent more time at skool.

Nice One... Danny

[stokoe]

sent you a pm fred.

[craig finton]

Excuse my ignorance but what is a DDOS attack?

[steveL]

The site has had a couple of experiences of being swamped with access requests which has the effect of denying access to those actually using the forum. AS DR points out this usually occurs before elections or when we have run stories that certain people have found uncomfortable. We managed to trace the instigator last time and informed the Police.

[dave77]

Excuse my ignorance but what is a DDOS attack?

A DDOS attack (better known as a Distributed Denial of Service attack) is a type of web attack that seeks to disrupt the normal function of the targeted computer network. This is any type of attack that attempts to make this computer resource unavailable to its users. While this type of attack typically follows the same sorts of patterns, the definition of the term Distributed Denial of Service does not make any specific indications of how this type of attack is to be pulled off. What makes this type of attack "distributed" is the concerted efforts between a large number of disruptors all for the common goal of preventing web servers (and therefore websites) from functioning effectively at all. These users may be willing participants, or in some cases be tricked into downloading software that will use their terminal to aid in the offensive. All in all, regardless of the means, a DDOS attack is simply a combined effort to prevent computer systems from working as well as they should, typically from a remote location over the internet.