Posted Jun 14th 2009, 7:42 AM
Top | Post #1
ADMINISTRATOR
Location: California, USA
Posts: 854

Just a quick post to tell you that we're experiencing some issues this morning resulting from a huge amount of traffic which seems to be someone attacking our network.

We've taken some steps to restore service and we're going to continue to monitor things on into the morning.



this is getting pretty fucking ridiculous. over the course of the time it's taken to "restore service" (which has been three days now) i've seen members go pvt only to get booted back out, been in pvt along with multiple other members, seen models just get sent back into open chat completely nude and had the extreme pleasure of watching one model literally break down because every time she got a private her server booted her out of the system.

i'm not sure what the consensus is across the board, but it's affecting both models and members. i know i won't be going pvt with anyone until this situation is completely resolved because i'm not going to spend ten of my 'promotional' eighteen minutes going in and out of pvt. thus making it hard on the models as well because they're probably not getting as many pvts as they could be right now. oh yea, and that also means for you all the lovely staff at flirt, you're not making as much money either. so if you're trying to save money by being skimpy on security, guess what? time to upgrade. oh, and logging on and only having it show twelve of the ninety girls that are online probably isn't helping anything either.

i understand that this is a huge website with multiple servers and huge bandwidth, but most major websites that i know of have a whole department that works on this stuff. there's statistics to show how much traffic is coming through here so you should be able to adjust accordingly. i just don't think it's feasible to blame 'traffic' when i doubt very much that thousands of extra people are all the sudden perusing the site.

it's amazing how many videos there are floating around the web from this site too, why the hell are we not taking steps to prevent this from happening? and why are the girls not given more help when they first started? if it wasn't for your veteran members talking to new members, i doubt very much half of them would even understand how to do anything other than log on, chat and go pvt. oh wait, now it makes sense.. you may not care about the individual models and members that make up this site but i do. yes, you've all done some cool stuff with member bios and such, but bottom line is: it doesn't matter how much creative stuff you add, if i can't even log on.

and while we're venting why don't we fix the vod playback as well. everyone that i try to play has to buffer every 45 seconds and then ends up jumping back the beginning at numerous points during my playback experience. but don't worry the shows that cost more money are fine (i.e. prvts).

i usually a very patient guy and am very understanding of this technical stuff, but when i see a model breaking down because of an issue your tech department should have had fixed long time ago.. that pisses me off. not once should a girl EVER be brought to tears on this site, let alone have it be because of something the damn administration is taking their sweet ass time getting fixed. i'm a bit pissed as well that i have purchased your VIP membership and get to spend half my day refreshing chat and video in the rooms. i understand that we don't know what goes on behind the scenes here and perhaps you are working on it diligently, but it's the exact same thing that keeps happening.. FIX IT.

i'm well aware that this is going to be removed about as quickly as it's posted for fear of the fact that others might support the idea that flirt isn't as pretty on the inside as they make it seem. but if it gets through to the administration and even makes them think about any of this, then mission accomplished. Quote

Ok here is my on the matter. I cannot even begin to tell you how bad I feel for the models and how this is effecting them. I too saw a model very upset because even though this is just a "relief" for many members, this is the livelihood for many of the models while they finish school or are between other jobs. I would have to believe that because when models do not wok, Flirt does not make money, that Flirt is working diligently on this issue. I wish things would have been corrected by now, but we have to realize that the "fire" was started and now it has to be put out. It is like a wild bush fire, you may have flare ups. And if it was arson, like this being an attack, then they had prior planning and Flirt is trying to catch up and extinguish the flames. We just need more firefighters or heavier equipment to ensure there are no more flare ups.

When it comes to the videos from Flirt being out on other sites... there are WAY TOO MANY of the "bad guys" out there doing this and some have deep pockets. Flirt does make sure things are removed from other sites when notified about them. The thing is that EVERYONE needs to help by alerting Flirt about these videos. Anyone who has knowledge of offenders to these crimes should alert Flirt about them and also post the names in the Time Wasters thread. Only with the help of models and members alike can Flirt make a good dent in this piracy. I do wish that Flirt would have a team actively searching and destroying these other sites, but they may already have and we do not know about it. They are not at liberty to share that information with us.

As for the VODs, i would have to think that if there is a problem like that with all of the free VODs than there would be with the VODs that you pay for also. If not, then someone has some explaining to do.

I hope this matter gets handled soon, but we can not just point a finger and say you are not doing anything, because we do not know this as a fact.
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Wow, I don't even have the patience to read that, sorry ... too long.

It's not traffic that is affect us, it is a sophisticated attack coming from numerous points around the world. It's not something where you just do things "better" or "smarter" and suddenly it subsides.

We do have an entire department (that has slept very little lately) working on the issue.

We have a plan in place to deal with it, but some of the improvements require new hardware which we are totally willing to purchase, it just takes time. You can't go down to your local Best Buy and pick up this kind of equipment.

Please be patient, we are just as frustrated and annoyed by this as you.

Brad Quote

Thank you for the information Brad. Hopefully the team can get rest soon because all will be fixed Quote

It is frustrating to all
I was in same room as gdiddy many times as this has happenned the last few days

1 model was thinking about quiting because she was booted from private and site went down many times . I think she made 5 minutes for trying to work a few hours

Good to hear that THIS Problem is actively being addressed

We know you have to try to stay a step ahead of people who are stupid that launch such attacks

I hope new updates can prevent them better in the future

Even Governments and Top 100 businesses get such attacks .
They have larger budgets and larger teams to get things fixed faster

Thank you for the update Brad
It is good to hear you are continuing to find a solution Quote

i'm glad to see things are getting worked on. just hope we decide to take steps to prevent it this next time, instead of dealing with it when it happens Quote

Read this guys and you will understand the problem more. It's easy to say fix it but such forms of attacks are a real pain to deal with sometimes and even to the point where you even have to shut off services till the people or bot nets are shut down.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denial-of-service_attack


http://www.cert.org/homeusers/ddos.html


Ways to fix it , just some info for the users i'm sure the tech department at vsmedia understand the technology involved in preventing such problems and how to ride them out.

Strategies to Protect Against Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attacks

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk59/technologies_white_paper09186a0080174a5b.shtml


Regards

Nabil Quote

Hey gdiddy,,I also got frustrated with the glitches the past couple of days,,hell, yesterday I just end up logging off and not logging back in. But,,its technology man,,just like it offers us the convience of interact with one another from the comfort of our own homes, there is always going to be some type of set back. It sucks for everyone but its life. F4F began to deal with this problem as soon as they realized it was a problem and as far as catching it before it happens, with some of them more sophisticated attacks, that is near impossible. But thank you for having the models best interest at hand!! Quote

Models I will post some information for you too soon regarding how to protect yourselves too from such things and measures you can take to not get caught out by such people.

I just need some time to write this out I did mention this in the vip general section before and never got round to it, but seems maybe time to get round to it if they are starting to target the site. They can also target performers if you do things that leave you open.


Regards

Nabil Quote

Hey Purg,

Are we, the members, at risk? I know they said email wasn't secure when I signed up.

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if you email outside of the flirt4free mail yes you are leaving yourself open to attack, due to the nature of email, it contains a header that will contain your i.p address and therefore if your system is not secured or has and open services it can be used in a bot net or you could be hijacked and your internet can be used in some illegal way. This is why flirt4free does not want members or models using outside services too, because they leave a trace to an i.p, all instant messengers and email services can be traced back to the i.p.. No matter what they tell you.. Some use encrytion to hide the i.p but look anywhere on the internet and you will find tools to reverse it back to a readable i.p.. SO rule of thumb while on flirt4free is to use the email the site provided if you don't want to give up your i.p address and risk the security of your computer.


Regards

Nabil Quote

thanks Nabil,

I didn't know all of that. But I was referring to the on-site system. When you want to write customer service, for instance, they say not to include too much information because they cannot guarantee on-site security. That's what I was referring to.

As far as off-site communication, not that I was going to recommend it, Ive checked the header in many popular email programs. It gives an IP that's located, for instance, in Mountain View CA, which is not where I live, obviously. You're saying that can be traced?

Rather frightening.

I appreciate your input. Quote

But I was referring to the on-site system. When you want to write customer service, for instance, they say not to include too much information because they cannot guarantee on-site security. That's what I was referring to.


The site systems have good security. I think they put that in because the messaging system does not do any encryption and sends pure text, so if you add things like passwords or bank details they can be intercepted over the internet, it's like any site or messaging done on the internet. So don't worry too much about that and yes if there is no lock on your browser or a message saying its encrypted best not to put bank details in or passwords and user names.



As far as off-site communication, not that I was going to recommend it, Ive checked the header in many popular email programs. It gives an IP that's located, for instance, in Mountain View CA, which is not where I live, obviously. You're saying that can be traced?

Yes it will normally show the isp details where your connection is coming from unless you are on a static i.p and filled out the details that have your address and name etc.. But remember the i.p is of your computer, it's like a unique phone number and calls back to your computer if it is static, even dynamic i.ps work the same unless you change them often by refreshing the i.p. Sometimes isp's will give a single i.p to many users ( NAT = Network address translation)and on your system on a NAT it will show a 192.168.xx.xx or 10.xx.xx.xx or 172.16.xx.xx reserved network ranges..

The problem is not a matter of tracing who you maybe but if your computer is not secure in some way a "bad person or computer system designed to look for open systems" can access your computer and use it in any way they like..

Things to do that can prevent such things is always make sure to run any operating system updates,
if windows operating system visit www.windowsupdate.com and always keep all virus, malaware, checkers upto-date and update any software that gives you the options to update them to a newer version or to add any service packs or patches. This practice will keep you more secure over time and enable any firewall in the operating system and you may even have one in your internet router or modem that should be enabled. Also when updating virus checkers and any security suite , make sure to run a full scan every week or so, remember the update may not spot a problem now but it may later on further updates when they realise the problems.

Like I said above I will do a little write up at some point that can help customers and performers on how to stay secure on the internet. As we see silly people even taget sites like this to try upset the daily running.. Question is what do they get out of it ? Read the internet about bot net attacks and denial of service attacks, some people pay these people to do such attacks on company websites.. you can read between the lines here and add the words other companies doing the same thing on the internet and paying people to disturb the competition... Who knows but in most cases there is some reward for the people doing such attacks or you will get extremists against such sites trying to shut them down too...


Regards

Nabil Quote

what i wanna know, is my bank details secure on here? or do i have to think about changing them? Quote

They are secure, they are under secured servers that are encrypted.. Quote

Noticed that vod's are taking a long time to view especially if u fast forward .... the buffering is taking a long time tonight.....tried to view my pvts and there seems to be something wrong.......in fact I emailed vs_ and actually received a reply guess what the said ? but Brads post seems to contradict that big time so wtf.....also noticed that preview for semi pvt has disappeared again.... Quote

Looks like the site is still having problems...vod's taking a long time to buffer before you view especially if you fast forward so much for view on demand.....also noticed that preview with the semi pvts rooms have disappeared.......... Quote

Don't know about the rest of your post (VODs) but I've heard that semipvt has now reverted back to the way it was when it was first introduced; that is, you cannot interact with the model unless you log in with credits.

They tried it the other way, didn't like the results, now semipvt is back to the old version. Jsyk. Quote

Don't know about the rest of your post (VODs) but I've heard that semipvt has now reverted back to the way it was when it was first introduced; that is, you cannot interact with the model unless you log in with credits.
They tried it the other way, didn't like the results, now semipvt is back to the old version. Jsyk.


well the semi-pvt stuff dont bother me as I dont use it - and the vod of yours I purchased today worked fine - no slowdown at all with regards to buffering. Quote

Don't know about the rest of your post (VODs) but I've heard that semipvt has now reverted back to the way it was when it was first introduced; that is, you cannot interact with the model unless you log in with credits.
They tried it the other way, didn't like the results, now semipvt is back to the old version. Jsyk.


If my memory serves me correct semi pvts always had a preview look just like other performers rooms...that is if you are a registered member....however you couldn't interact unless you went pvt in most cases, but that doesn't really matter now cause a lot of performers who are in regular rooms are on other sites at the same time which in the past was not allowed ...no multi broadcasting was allowed...i think the reason they developed semi pvt was to allow performers that option....the issue i have is it's been back and forth at least a few times now ....wish somebody would stop flip flopping on the idea...but I guess something happened again that vs didn't like or maybe a licensing issue with other sites...who knows anymore..cause now it makes me again go to the other site that the performer is on just to chat or view the live feed....as far as the vod issue ' Video on Demand" means exactly that and that ain't happening here right now on this site as compared to some other sites with the VOD system....anyways se la vi.....hope things get better Quote