Thread: Site Experiencing Flooding, Can be Slow

Sorry guys

I was on vacay last week and noticed the site slowed/stopped at times.

This is due to AI. Anyone trying to create an AI is crawling the internet for content, forums in particular are valued targets because the content is typically generated by humans. Some AI operators are polite, requesting a page every second or two, others are much more aggressive, requesting 15-20 pages fer second for hours on end. This is malicious and they know that is not abiding by the rules of the road.

I can't chase every rogue robot, my last analysis ended in me denying over 5,000 IPS. it's tedious, boring and time consuming. I can't promise solid uptime due to these factors, If the site is slow or not responding just come back later, eventually the robots go away but I don't have enough hours in the day, nor the will to fly swat these miscreants. Am i coming off the beach to stare at server logs and find patterns, no.

Thank you for all you do!!!

Thanks John

Noticed it was slow and not working properly. Can you somehow ban all the AI stuff

I wish that there was some way of autobanning anything that requests something several times per second.

Originally Posted by Cardinal TT

Thanks John

Noticed it was slow and not working properly. Can you somehow ban all the AI stuff

They mimic humans, sometimes using 1,000's of random IP addresses.

Originally Posted by Colonel

I wish that there was some way of autobanning anything that requests something several times per second.

That would ban most users, when your browser requests a page, you get the page, the images, the scripts, etc. , all are separate requests as far as the server sees.

It's always been an issue, malicious bots requiring intervention but they have greatly increased their activity.

Thank you for your taking care of things around here.

Originally Posted by John

They mimic humans, sometimes using 1,000's of random IP addresses.



That would ban most users, when your browser requests a page, you get the page, the images, the scripts, etc. , all are separate requests as far as the server sees.

It's always been an issue, malicious bots requiring intervention but they have greatly increased their activity.

Is it possible to require that guests demonstrate that they are "not robots" before letting them surf the forums? That click the box test.

Originally Posted by Colonel

Is it possible to require that guests demonstrate that they are "not robots" before letting them surf the forums? That click the box test.

I can have cloudflare reach out to you with a quotation!

I just wanted to inform you guys, I'm not looking for tech support.

Originally Posted by John

I can have cloudflare reach out to you with a quotation!

Really? It seems like such a simple thing, just a button on an entry page. It's free here :

Add a reCAPTCHA element

Originally Posted by Colonel

Really? It seems like such a simple thing, just a button on an entry page. It's free here :

Add a reCAPTCHA element

Ah, hmmm, would you like to fill out a captcha on every page view?

Please, again, I wanted to inform the forum of issues, I am not looking for tech support. As a rule I don't discuss site issues in public, now I know why.