Denial of Service Attack?
 

I was watching my BS server run a few days ago, and noticed that uploads had dropped to zero, when there are normally 10 or 12 going on. I switched over to the Upload page, and saw huge lists of files (20 or more at a time) pop up in red, with the status of "authorizing". All of the "requests" appear to be from the same user (someone using Limewire, if it matters), and all vanish after a moment, then reappear a few seconds later. It kept on doing this until I rebooted BS.

It occurred to me that BS probably has a finite ceiling for the number of simultaneous inquiries it can handle, and if someone slammed it all at once (as in a classic DOS attack), they could clog up the works and prevent legitimate users from being able to get in. I've since noticed this happen several times now, and when it does, UL's drop to nothing. It will keep it up for an hour or so, then stop.

Granted, this might also just be some idiot batching files via Limewire, but the end result is not very pretty. And this is on a fast machine (2.8ghz dual cpu unit w/2 gig of ram). On systems with either a slower machine or a slower connection, it would clog things up quite nicely.

I may have to play with Limewire some to see if I can make it hit a specific address in such a manner.

Cheers

Nick

this is most likely macrovision doing this...there are a few others that do this, but not nearly to the intensity of macrovision...

what I want to know is how is this legally allowed?

just how do they know that any user is illegally using the network?...I know for a fact that none of my downloads or uploads carry any sort of copyright so its obvious they are blindly hammering every user they can on the network...aren't DDOS attacks illegal?

download and install PeerGuardian2 to in some way mitigate the effects of this, but trust me they can still knock you off of the network with the concentrated attacks you get from their IP range...

DOS Attacks
 

I tried to discern the originating IP addresses, but didn't find a way to see them. If I could find out where they're coming from, I think I could convince them to leave me alone. I have no problem shutting down their email server if they persist in doing this. Of course, I need to know WHO it is, before I can respond in kind.

Cheers

Nick

if you install PG2 it will display all the attempts at connections by blocked IPs....as noted, I've found macrovision to be the worst offender...

DOS Attacks
 

Thanks... I'll have to check that out. I've never blocked an IP address using BS. Isn't that done via the Hostiles list?

Nick

DOS Legality
 

BTW, Denial of Service attacks are illegal, but if someone is hassling a P2P file-sharing network, they have to figure they can get away with it, as most law enforcement consider us "criminals". :)

It looks like you have not enabled the IP address column in the uploads view. Right-click any
column header in any view to see a list of available columns. By default less than a third of them
are enabled.

UL display
 

Ahh... (thumping head on desk). Gracias. I should have looked for that. Suffering from CRS (Can't Remember Sh*t).

Nick