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Re: Server updates
Posted: 17 Sep 2026 10:11
by viking272
Isn’t that the behaviour between being logged out and logged in? If you’re not logged in you only see the homepage.
Re: Server updates
Posted: 17 Sep 2026 10:54
by exxos
Right, recent topics works correctly when logged in, but does not work when logged out. The problem there is the index pages served from a html "copy" of the index and isn't served live anymore. So the reason topics extension cannot change the paid content because it isn't actually even running.
I will see if I can come up with a fix for it..
Re: Server updates
Posted: 17 Sep 2026 11:01
by viking272
We are almost at the stage where the forum could be totally behind a paywall and the sign up takes a credit card for a nominal one off fee.
That will stop free accounts being setup and AI/crawlers scavenging the site.
It may discourage a few legitimate users sadly but could be a quick win.
You also reserve the right to charge the card £1000 if the account is used in AI/crawler activities :o
Re: Server updates
Posted: 17 Sep 2026 11:18
by exxos
viking272 wrote: 17 Sep 2026 11:01
We are almost at the stage where the forum could be totally behind a paywall and the sign up takes a credit card for a nominal one off fee.
That will stop free accounts being setup and AI/crawlers scavenging the site.
It may discourage a few legitimate users sadly but could be a quick win.
You also reserve the right to charge the card £1000 if the account is used in AI/crawler activities :o
Yeah the pay wall thing was actually discussed probably about a year ago somewhere. Like you says has obvious consequences and drawbacks. The problem is though it may not actually help anyway..
For example the login and register pages get a significant amount of traffic already and if those were the only two pages accessible publicly I can guarantee those two pages would get hammered with millions of requests every hour. So the content hidden behind it is basically irrelevant. Of course having many pages on the website amplifies that problem yes.
There is a ton of signup protection which is mostly hosted by CleanTalk services. The problem is with every system, it works fine until it doesn't.
- Capture.PNG (8.46 KiB) Viewed 100 times
Generally I don't like to have third-party companies involved but that company actually seems to act upon my requests for changes and problems and the service obviously does work.. But of course costs money.
In terms of AI, that's another topic in its own right...
viewtopic.php?t=8524
Re: Server updates
Posted: 17 Sep 2026 11:22
by exxos
peters wrote: 17 Sep 2026 10:00
I am not sure where to report web page issues but I noticed an odd thing this morning.
When on the board index page and I click on the page numbers or the Right arrow it doesn't change page, it just scrolls down a little bit.
PS.
Now it is working again. Might have been a local issue but I didn't even close the browser.
There was a typo in the nginx config stopping it from working correctly. seems ok for me now as well.
Re: Server updates
Posted: 18 Sep 2026 11:03
by exxos
We seem to have some unwelcome guests. Not causing any issues as such, just they shouldn't be there. This one is a bit of a tricky one to diagnose.
- Capture.PNG (176.63 KiB) Viewed 80 times
EDIT:
Orange France seems to be the largest contributor but still only accounts for 2.8% of traffic.
EDIT2:
A small sample window was taken and this is the breakdown so our friends in Brazil are the biggest slice so far again...
Guest traffic by country - live snapshot 2026-09-18
Total distinct guest IPs: 2,693 | Total session rows: 3,311 | Countries seen: 137
Code: Select all
# | CC | IPs | % | Sessions | ASNs
---+----+-----+--------+----------+-----
1 | BR | 400 | 14.85% | 401 | 279
2 | US | 337 | 12.51% | 481 | 69
3 | GB | 153 | 5.68% | 162 | 28
4 | FR | 152 | 5.64% | 152 | 6
5 | ES | 146 | 5.42% | 146 | 27
6 | CA | 138 | 5.12% | 141 | 30
7 | DE | 126 | 4.68% | 129 | 17
8 | AR | 108 | 4.01% | 108 | 58
9 | IT | 107 | 3.97% | 108 | 19
10 | IN | 95 | 3.53% | 95 | 37
11 | RU | 66 | 2.45% | 67 | 42
12 | TR | 59 | 2.19% | 63 | 13
13 | UA | 49 | 1.82% | 50 | 44
14 | MX | 47 | 1.75% | 49 | 23
15 | PK | 45 | 1.67% | 45 | 16
16 | VE | 32 | 1.19% | 32 | 14
17 | ZA | 28 | 1.04% | 28 | 20
18 | BD | 28 | 1.04% | 29 | 27
19 | PH | 27 | 1.00% | 27 | 15
20 | PL | 27 | 1.00% | 27 | 16
21 | CO | 25 | 0.93% | 25 | 21
22 | HK | 20 | 0.74% | 346 | 2
23 | BE | 20 | 0.74% | 20 | 3
24 | CL | 20 | 0.74% | 21 | 9
25 | UY | 19 | 0.71% | 19 | 3
26 | ID | 19 | 0.71% | 19 | 16
27 | EC | 19 | 0.71% | 19 | 16
28 | AE | 15 | 0.56% | 15 | 3
29 | EG | 13 | 0.48% | 13 | 4
30 | PT | 13 | 0.48% | 13 | 4
31 | DO | 13 | 0.48% | 13 | 9
32 | IE | 12 | 0.45% | 12 | 5
33 | NL | 12 | 0.45% | 12 | 4
34 | AT | 11 | 0.41% | 11 | 4
35 | VN | 10 | 0.37% | 10 | 2
36 | KG | 10 | 0.37% | 10 | 5
37 | BA | 9 | 0.33% | 9 | 5
38 | IQ | 8 | 0.30% | 8 | 6
39 | BG | 8 | 0.30% | 8 | 8
40 | TN | 7 | 0.26% | 7 | 3
41 | CH | 7 | 0.26% | 7 | 4
42 | TT | 7 | 0.26% | 7 | 4
43 | SE | 7 | 0.26% | 7 | 3
44 | MD | 7 | 0.26% | 7 | 5
45 | MA | 6 | 0.22% | 6 | 1
46 | OM | 6 | 0.22% | 6 | 2
47 | KZ | 6 | 0.22% | 6 | 4
48 | SK | 6 | 0.22% | 6 | 5
49 | GT | 5 | 0.19% | 5 | 2
50 | RS | 5 | 0.19% | 5 | 4
51 | LY | 5 | 0.19% | 5 | 4
52 | AL | 5 | 0.19% | 5 | 4
53 | CZ | 5 | 0.19% | 5 | 4
54 | AZ | 5 | 0.19% | 5 | 4
55 | LB | 5 | 0.19% | 5 | 5
56 | RO | 4 | 0.15% | 4 | 1
57 | BB | 4 | 0.15% | 4 | 1
58 | LV | 4 | 0.15% | 4 | 1
59 | IL | 4 | 0.15% | 24 | 2
60 | AO | 4 | 0.15% | 4 | 2
61 | MZ | 4 | 0.15% | 4 | 3
62 | TZ | 4 | 0.15% | 4 | 3
63 | KE | 4 | 0.15% | 4 | 4
64 | HN | 4 | 0.15% | 4 | 4
65 | NP | 4 | 0.15% | 4 | 4
66 | ZW | 3 | 0.11% | 3 | 2
67 | MK | 3 | 0.11% | 4 | 2
68 | GR | 3 | 0.11% | 3 | 2
69 | PR | 3 | 0.11% | 3 | 2
70 | DK | 3 | 0.11% | 3 | 2
71 | BH | 3 | 0.11% | 3 | 3
72 | PY | 3 | 0.11% | 3 | 3
73 | HU | 3 | 0.11% | 3 | 3
74 | HR | 3 | 0.11% | 3 | 3
75 | KR | 3 | 0.11% | 3 | 3
76 | JM | 3 | 0.11% | 3 | 3
77 | UG | 3 | 0.11% | 3 | 3
78 | NG | 3 | 0.11% | 3 | 3
79 | KW | 2 | 0.07% | 2 | 1
80 | PS | 2 | 0.07% | 2 | 1
81 | CV | 2 | 0.07% | 2 | 1
82 | GA | 2 | 0.07% | 2 | 1
83 | DZ | 2 | 0.07% | 2 | 2
84 | PE | 2 | 0.07% | 2 | 2
85 | FI | 2 | 0.07% | 2 | 2
86 | GE | 2 | 0.07% | 2 | 2
87 | EE | 2 | 0.07% | 2 | 2
88 | CD | 2 | 0.07% | 2 | 2
89 | CN | 2 | 0.07% | 2 | 2
90 | NA | 2 | 0.07% | 2 | 2
91 | MQ | 2 | 0.07% | 2 | 2
92 | XK | 2 | 0.07% | 2 | 2
93 | GM | 2 | 0.07% | 2 | 2
94 | VG | 1 | 0.04% | 1 | 1
95 | GH | 1 | 0.04% | 1 | 1
96 | SY | 1 | 0.04% | 1 | 1
97 | XX | 1 | 0.04% | 101 | 1
98 | IS | 1 | 0.04% | 1 | 1
99 | LU | 1 | 0.04% | 1 | 1
100| CM | 1 | 0.04% | 1 | 1
101| AM | 1 | 0.04% | 1 | 1
102| SA | 1 | 0.04% | 1 | 1
103| VC | 1 | 0.04% | 1 | 1
104| MF | 1 | 0.04% | 1 | 1
105| CY | 1 | 0.04% | 1 | 1
106| ST | 1 | 0.04% | 1 | 1
107| SX | 1 | 0.04% | 1 | 1
108| ML | 1 | 0.04% | 1 | 1
109| GY | 1 | 0.04% | 1 | 1
110| BJ | 1 | 0.04% | 1 | 1
111| BM | 1 | 0.04% | 1 | 1
112| LK | 1 | 0.04% | 1 | 1
113| AG | 1 | 0.04% | 1 | 1
114| DM | 1 | 0.04% | 1 | 1
115| SG | 1 | 0.04% | 1 | 1
116| MG | 1 | 0.04% | 1 | 1
117| GW | 1 | 0.04% | 1 | 1
118| NO | 1 | 0.04% | 1 | 1
119| MU | 1 | 0.04% | 1 | 1
120| ET | 1 | 0.04% | 1 | 1
121| JE | 1 | 0.04% | 1 | 1
122| BY | 1 | 0.04% | 1 | 1
123| SS | 1 | 0.04% | 1 | 1
124| BO | 1 | 0.04% | 1 | 1
125| CW | 1 | 0.04% | 1 | 1
126| AU | 1 | 0.04% | 1 | 1
127| PF | 1 | 0.04% | 1 | 1
128| IR | 1 | 0.04% | 1 | 1
129| FJ | 1 | 0.04% | 1 | 1
130| SI | 1 | 0.04% | 1 | 1
131| MW | 1 | 0.04% | 1 | 1
132| LR | 1 | 0.04% | 1 | 1
133| JP | 1 | 0.04% | 1 | 1
134| SZ | 1 | 0.04% | 1 | 1
135| SD | 1 | 0.04% | 1 | 1
136| CU | 1 | 0.04% | 1 | 1
137| PA | 1 | 0.04% | 1 | 1
Re: Server updates
Posted: 18 Sep 2026 13:25
by exxos
I am starting to see a picture of what happened there. Basically some IP addresses and ranges were not being banned because members have been seen in those ranges. That was part of the member protection guard. Though the problem is, it has a flaw , that there are over 500 accounts which have been deactivated by the moderators, likely for spamming etc. Those accounts got mistakenly included in the "members seen" protection logic..oops...
So currently those deactivated accounts are now being deleted properly and the scripts updated to take this scenario into account as a backup. Also any accounts which have not logged in for over two years and with zero posts will automatically get deleted as I class those accounts has abandoned.
Re: Server updates
Posted: 18 Sep 2026 23:14
by exxos
The traffic flood suddenly stopped around 8.10pm. Like seen previously, it just suddenly stops. It's a very thinly spread botnet. I did wonder I'd they were tail ends of other blocked botnets but it's hard to tell. It doesn't seem to have tripped any of my scanning scripts either. Doesn't seem to be any pattern other than it just stopped dead. So I'm building a ip list of during and after the flood to try and build a picture of what's going on.
Re: Server updates
Posted: 18 Sep 2026 23:45
by exxos
**A quick word on the "guests online" number**
A few of you have noticed the guest count creeping up to some fairly silly figures lately. Worth explaining what that number actually is, because it isn't quite what it looks like.
Every post has a permalink, the kind of link you get when you click "quote" or copy a link to a specific post. Those links point at the post itself rather than the page it's on, so when someone clicks one the forum has to work out which topic and which page that post actually lives on, then bounce the visitor straight there. That bounce takes a fraction of a second and the visitor never sees it happen.
The bug, or rather the oversight, is that the forum logs that bounce as a guest viewing a page, even though no page was ever shown. So a search engine revisiting an old indexed link, or anything else following one of these links in bulk, shows up in the guest count as though it were someone sat there reading, when really it came and went in an instant.
Had a proper look tonight and the numbers back this up. In the same hour the "guests online" figure said a few hundred, well over half of those guests had no other footprint on the board at all. No topic viewed, nothing. Just the bounce.
So if the guest count looks worryingly high, it isn't the forum being under siege, it's more a case of the till ringing every time someone walks past the shop rather than through the door. Not fixed yet, but now that it's understood properly it will be.
Edit
Found the buggers with 99.88% accuracy 8-) need to build a new script for those now :lol: :roll:
Re: Server updates
Posted: 20 Sep 2026 21:21
by exxos
Quick note on a bit of housekeeping that happened behind the scenes this week, in case anyone noticed anything odd: a tweak to how the forum decides which networks to trust, generally referred to on my end as "member protection".
There's been two separate systems doing roughly the same job for a while. One built from where forum members actually log in from, the other built from where past store orders happened to ship to. Running both made sense once, but keeping them in step has become about as useful as loading the same tape twice just to double check the first load wasn't lying to you.
When I actually compared the two properly, they agreed about 77% of the time. The other 23% mostly turned out to be old orders rather than a real gap: the odd parcel that went to Bulgaria, Latvia or Romania a couple of years back, unlikely to happen again, but still quietly reserving protection for an entire country's ISPs on the strength of one purchase.
So the store-order list is being retired. Everything now builds itself automatically from real, current forum activity instead, which is basically the same audience anyway. One list, one source of truth, and a fair bit less to go wrong behind the scenes. Nothing changes for anyone actually using the forum. If you were hoping to sneak in on the strength of a 2023 order from somewhere I've since forgotten exists, you'll have to turn up and say hello like everyone else.