Recent Server Downtime

[Bob Connor]

G'day Folks

The recent Server problems were caused by someone from Eastern Europe hacking into the system and deleting all of the information on the hard drives.

We have been running an older version of the forum software than you see here which had security vulnerabilities and this was where the perpertrators gained access.

Unfortunately recent backups were corrupt so the best I can get the forum restored to is December last year.

I have sent the corrupted database files off for an attempt at recovery. If this is successful we will get back to July of this year. It will probably take some time to do this.

As you see we are now running a later version of the forum software which is free of security vulnerabilities as far as we know. I have also implemented further measures to ensure that this does not happen again.

Thanks for your patience in this matter. It has been most frustrating as well as time consuming trying to recover data and rebuild all of this from scratch. I know it is not ideal that we lose information from what is becoming an important resource for us instrument builders in Australia and New Zealand. (and other parts of the planet)

Regards

[Nick]

I know it is not ideal that we lose information from what is becoming an important resource for us instrument builders in Australia.

And New Zealand!!!

Welcome back everyone, could we have a big round of applause for Mr Connor, who's been working like the proverbial to get us back up & running again!

[Kim]

Well done Bob,

Sad new to have lost so much good stuff at least for the short term and I am still scratching my head as to why anyone would do this to the ANZLF considering we have no commercial affiliations. Anyhow I guess the silver lining is that we now have newer software that is not only more secure, but also has some great new bells and whistles that will allow our members to upload pdf files and sound files directly within their own post. Also when you add a smiley it will now go where the cursor is rather than at the bottom of the edit screen like it use to, and oh yeah, the forum seems a lot faster too

Thanks for all the hard work mate we know you gave it your best to have us back and running unscathed but circumstance was against us. But at least we have our core back and a great members list that will help us rebuild.

Cheers

Kim

[Craig]

could we have a big round of applause for Mr Connor, who's been working like the proverbial to get us back up & running again!

Here here ! Onya Bob . Great work all round .

[Localele]

I think this says it all.

Get some into you BOB.

[Allen]

It's not a job I'd wish on anyone. Tough enough to get these things set up right in the first place, but having to reinstate after something like this happening is a nightmare.

Well done Bob, we've all missed this place.

[John Steele]

Yup, from the other hemisphere, Good job Mr. Bob.
Glad to see you all back!
John

[Mike Thomas]

Bob, all your efforts, the time (and I imagine, money) that you put into the forum is much appreciated. We are very grateful.

[Clancy]

Yay, we're back
Let me know how I can get a case of beer to you Bob.
You deserve a truckload & you must have gone through at least that with all the work & stress!

[Lillian]

Onya Bob. Wish I could buy you a few cold ones. I know this was/is a stressful and difficult recovery.

There have been a rash of hackings. Several of the forums I frequent were hit. Considering the various topics of the ones I know, there was no rhyme or reason, just a massive attack to prove they could.

Missed you guys.

[peter.coombe]

Good on ya Bob. Glad to see the forum back.

I feel your pain, boy do I feel your pain. You are not alone. Unfortunately when things like this happens, Murphy steps in and it tends to turn into a nightmare. My web site was hacked earlier this year through no fault of my own. Basically the host provider failed to keep their server OS patched with the latest fixes. I have worked in the IT industry for over 20 years and this is just plain incompetance for a professional host proivder IMHO. They had provided years of trouble free and cost effective service until then. My web site has gotten to be rather large when compared to the average Luthier's site, so represents a huge amount of time, and is where most of the sales happen, so this sort of thing is a real concern. I managed to get it back up fairly quickly but a few things just did not work any more. After stuffing around for days, I could not get it working properly and managed somehow to corrupt the latest copy on my PC. That also did not work any more. So, had to revert to a backup. Unfortunately the backup was done before I did some major updates, but it did the trick. 99% working. Then I manually did all the updates I could remember and all was working for a couple of weeks (Phew!). Of course, the emails started coming in during all this - did you realise your web site has been hacked? YES, go away, I'm trying to fix it! I thought it was finally all over. Then what happened? It went off the air for some unkown reason. So, some hours later I had narrowed it to some sort of DNS problem. Contacted the host provider. Oh, they had moved all the web sites to a different server and had changed the DNS server. That really got me Nothing makes customers madder than planned outages that are not notified. Another screw up by the host provider. Such a simple fix if only I had been NOTIFIED!!! Anyway, changed the DNS server and it came back. AAHHHGGG! It was an old copy. They had copied an old backup to the new server. Once again, notification of when the backup was being done would have saved me many more hours of work and big downloads. Then an email arrived from my Internet provider. You have exceeded your quota. Sheeeeet, that was about the last straw! Eventually did get it back with just about all of the updates, but I am still discovering a few small things that are wrong.

Anyway at the end of all this I was ready to lynch the hacker AND the host provider. The hacker was probably some script kiddie who thought it was hilariously funny to cause all this trouble. I should have been in the workshop, not stuck in front of the PC for hours and hours trying to sort out web page problems. grrr.

So, Bob, my sympathies, you are not alone.

[liam_fnq]

Thanks a whole bucket load Bob. This is always the first place I hit when I fire up the pooter in the afternoons. It's an essential part of my after work wind down. Usually Fridays are an exception (beer day). Today I've been hanging all week for ANZLF so I'm combining the two.

Cheers to you Bob.

[rocket]

Thanks for the effort you,ve put in to get the forum up and running again Bob, Three cheers for you,,,
Cheers Rod.

[Allen]

Love your new avatar Lillian.

Karen and I are cat addicts. Just erected the new mail box yesterday.

Oh, and this is also the first and last place I visit online every day. I missed it a lot.

Cat Mailbox.jpg (44.88 KiB) Viewed 36512 times

[DarwinStrings]

The recent Server problems were caused by someone from Eastern Europe hacking into the system and deleting all of the information on the hard drives.

Drama on a international scale at the ANZLF, not sure whether to laugh or cry.

Thanks for all your time and effort Bob, here is cheers to the future ANZLF.

Jim

Life is good when you are amongst the wood

[Dave]

Good to have the forum back

Dave

[ozziebluesman]

Yes, I sit down at the computer every evening and love to see what all the guys are up to on the ANZLF. I sure have missed being able to communicate and talk guitar building. Thank you Bob for efforts to get the forum up and running again.

Cheers

Alan

[Steve]

Nice work Bob - your efforts are really appreciated.
Steve

[Stu]

Tough times, especially with your workload in reinstating everything on file ,Bob.

I understand that there is a heap of stuff since last year that isn't here any more, but that's not what I think is important.

What is important are the people that have contributed and are the forum's brainstrust are still here. As long as we're all still here, that's more important.\
Everything else will work out in time.

Thanks for all your hard work, Bob and mods.

BTW Doesn't the new software look snazzy !!!

[Peter T]

Good to be back guys. Thanks Bob.

[John Maddison]

Ditto all the above ... very well done Guru Bob; the nights have been pretty lonely without all you people ... am also liking the new interface, very swish. BTW - I have the odd couple of recent threads in printed hard copy form if it's of any use Bob, but probably not worth all the typing involved (tho' could put it through an OCR scan and send u text - lemme know. Cheers

[xray]

didnt like the empty feeling of my home page missing! good to here from you guys. You gave me quite a scare bob. It is true that you dont know what you have till its gone!

[pat foster]

Glad to see the ANZLF up and running again. Thanks for all your hard work, Bob!


Pat

[Joe Sustaire]

Hurrah!
Very glad to see you up and running again!

Our thanks to you Bob!

Joe

[kiwigeo]

Missed you guys.

Missed you too Lil'. Love the avatar.....looks like a cat that's just had turps painted on his nuts!