Heads Up on A Pending Change

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Paul_Schatzkin
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Heads Up on A Pending Change

Post by Paul_Schatzkin »

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I don't anticipate any difficulties, but just in case:

Frank, The Coalman and I have been discussing ways to reduce the amount of junk traffic we've been seeing here of late. Most users don't see it because we catch and delete it before it appears in public,

TCM has recommended that we add a service called 'Cloudflare' as a proxy server layer (I think that's the right terminology). I use Cloudflare on the other sites I run from the same host (Knownhost) and it has been problem free, so I don't anticipate any problems when we take the last step sometime this week. That step involves rerouting the DNS through Cloudflare.

In addition to offering some useful firewall-type protections from bogus IPs, Cloudflare should also speed up page delivery.

In the unlikely event the site disappears in the next day or three, that would be the reason, and you can rest assured that all hands are on deck to restore the service.

Thank you for your time and attention.

--PS
Paul Schatzkin, aka "The Perfesser" – Founder and Host of Fusor.net
Author of The Boy Who Invented Television
"Fusion is not 20 years in the future; it is 60 years in the past and we missed it."
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Bob Reite
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Re: Heads Up on A Pending Change

Post by Bob Reite »

Cloudflare does provide good additional protection from malicious actors.
The more reactive the materials, the more spectacular the failures.
The testing isn't over until the prototype is destroyed.
thecoalman
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Re: Heads Up on A Pending Change

Post by thecoalman »

The issue is this:
Most users ever online was 2900 on Fri Jan 24, 2025 8:15 am
The reason it's so high is it's just a bunch of random IP's from bot net and very difficult to stop with server configuration alone. While the intent of this traffic is to hoover up content the side effect is low level DDOS attack. I have no idea if the site performance was impacted when that was occurring but I would be very surprised if it wasn't. Another issue is the bandwidth, persistent traffic like that could easily exceed the bandwidth allocation.

Cloudflare is one of the world's largest private networks. As such they have the data to identify this type of activity and the tools to stop it. The free plan they offer is more than adequate for this site so there is no expense involved. As an added benefit the ground work is laid in the event of real DDOS.

The only thing most people will notice is perhaps the site being a little faster because CF also provides performance enahnacements. Countries where legitimate traffic is expected from will be whitelisted and the rest of the world will occasionally get a brief "Checking your browser..." message which I'm sure most of you have seen on other sites. Small inconvenience for them but this will stop most of the bots coming from those countries.
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Paul_Schatzkin
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Re: Heads Up on A Pending Change

Post by Paul_Schatzkin »

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I changed the Name Servers for fusor.net to Cloudflare at 1:30 on Tuesday Feb 24 2025.

So far no issues...

I mean, I posted this.

--PS
Paul Schatzkin, aka "The Perfesser" – Founder and Host of Fusor.net
Author of The Boy Who Invented Television
"Fusion is not 20 years in the future; it is 60 years in the past and we missed it."
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Paul_Schatzkin
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Re: Heads Up on A Pending Change

Post by Paul_Schatzkin »

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....and....

I was able to post that because the Name Server change had yet to propagate.

Once it did... the site went offline until I changed the Name Servers back.

So we're just back to the prior status quo while we sort out what might have gone wrong.

--P
Paul Schatzkin, aka "The Perfesser" – Founder and Host of Fusor.net
Author of The Boy Who Invented Television
"Fusion is not 20 years in the future; it is 60 years in the past and we missed it."
thecoalman
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Re: Heads Up on A Pending Change

Post by thecoalman »

The only thing I asked you to do was setup the CF account. Not sure what the issue is but since the Apache module I mentioned not once but twice in PM messages was not installed and configured people would have been randomly logged out anyway. You're on your own, I'm done here.
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Richard Hull
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Re: Heads Up on A Pending Change

Post by Richard Hull »

Can't post from knowledge in this matter, but I am reminded of "letting a sleeping dog lie".

Richard Hull
Progress may have been a good thing once, but it just went on too long. - Yogi Berra
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Paul_Schatzkin
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Re: Heads Up on A Pending Change

Post by Paul_Schatzkin »

thecoalman wrote: Tue Feb 04, 2025 5:26 pm You're on your own, I'm done here.
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Scott, maybe this is pointless if you're truly 'done here,' but I did think I was following your instructions as clearly as I was able understand them.

I set up the account; Part of that setup is redirecting the Name Servers. I was clear (here, if not in our DMs) that I was going to take that step. That is all I needed to do with the other sites I put on Cloudflare like a year and a half ago, so I don't know what went haywire when I did that here.

In any event, your contribution over the past two years has been indispensable. Just migrating this site to Knownhost after the last fiasco with MediaTemple (now part of GoDaddy) has made a huge difference. Their service is outstanding and support is the best of just about any service I use on the web (and that's saying a lot).

Fusor.net has been vastly improved thanks to you help. If we have lost you over this snag then I'm genuinely sorry I missed a beat, and we're all sorry to see you go.

Thanks,

--PS
Paul Schatzkin, aka "The Perfesser" – Founder and Host of Fusor.net
Author of The Boy Who Invented Television
"Fusion is not 20 years in the future; it is 60 years in the past and we missed it."
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