vbulletin.com? DOWN? OFFLINE?

[kingady]

why is vbulletin.com down? its not been working for days and i need to download the latest update.

[filburt1]

It has been experiencing a DDoS attack. Unfortunately there is nothing that can be done.

[Steve Machol]

However since vbulletin.org and vbulletin.com are on the same server, this would not explain why you are able to access this site but not the other. Send your IP address to support@vbulletin.com.

[fonzerelli_79]

im trying to purchase another license for a site im starting and im having the same problem

[Steve Machol]

As has been mentioned, please send an email to support@vbulletin.com. Include your IP address and customer number.

[Enforcerman]

Hum. I can't access it either. Though i can see this site. I sent my Ip w/ no response.

[porouian]

Hum. I can't access it either. Though i can see this site. I sent my Ip w/ no response.

just thought i'd add my name to the 'same here' hat. i've just now sent an e-mail also.

[Enforcerman]

Damn that was quick. Email them and they will fix you up.

[porouian]

yeah that works! i haven't received a response yet, but that works just fine. thanks!

[Enforcerman]

yeah that works! i haven't received a response yet, but that works just fine. thanks!

I was a dork and posted that alternate URL before i read their entire email. Dont publish that URL. They want to deal with it on a one by one basis.

[porouian]

yeah, i just now received a response to the same extent. thanks for letting me know anyway tho, and thanks vbulletin for the quick work-around. :)

[Clegg]

Man being beat down like this with DDoS attacks almost weekly isnt good for business. There are solutions out there to fend attacks like this off. Almost shocking that they havent implemented any of them.

[MeMySelfNi]

What about someobdy that doesnt have a license #...whos trying to buy a license...what do we do...

[paolorulez]

vb.com is down?? i can't acess

my IP is dinamic

[BigPete]

Damn this sucks! I've been trying to access the damn site all day!!! How long has it been down for?

[Steve Machol]

Man being beat down like this with DDoS attacks almost weekly isnt good for business. There are solutions out there to fend attacks like this off. Almost shocking that they havent implemented any of them.If you have soltions that everyone else in the Internet world in unaware of, then by all means you should set up a business. You'd be rich in a matter of no time. ;)

Note: We will not be able to do anything about dynamic IPs. Sorry. You can thank the bastard who is attacking us for this.

[MindTrix]

Ohhh he said the B word :)

Also im pretty sure the vb.com staff are doing everything they can

[Gardener]

As has been mentioned, please send an email to support@vbulletin.com. Include your IP address and customer number.

Is there not some way they can keep a record of the IP addresses we submitt? I've had the same IP for almost a year now and since these attacks have started I've had to submit the same IP to VB about once a week.

As for stopping the attacks, they might want to look at a product called


"FloodGuard" (http://www.netzentry.com/products/products.php) . I don't know if it would help in this case, but it wouldn't hurt to take a look at it.

[Steve Machol]

In all honesty I doubt what you are saying. Please provide the support tickets numbers where you have submitted the same IP address 'once a week'. Once we add an IP it stays added.

[Gardener]

In all honesty I doubt what you are saying. Please provide the support tickets numbers where you have submitted the same IP address 'once a week'. Once we add an IP it stays added.



Whatever :tired:

[Steve Machol]

Yeah, that's what I thought.

I do all of these and I would have remembered any tickets coming through 'once a week' in which the same IP address was resubmitted. It hasn't happened.

[Link14716]

How long would it normally take to get access? I sent an e-mail a while ago and am still waiting for a reply.

[MindTrix]

well all in all, Keep up the good work Steve :)

[Steve Machol]

How long would it normally take to get access? I sent an e-mail a while ago and am still waiting for a reply.
There are no unanswered requests in the support system. I have responding to all of them today within a few minutes.

[Gardener]

Yeah, that's what I thought.

I do all of these and I would have remembered any tickets coming through 'once a week' in which the same IP address was resubmitted. It hasn't happened.

[SID-100014-64a33075] and [SID-72149-4cb04388] are just two of them that I still have the emails from, but your already knew this since you do all of these.

[MindTrix]

No need for the attitude mate, were all only human :)

[Gardener]

No attiitude here. I just asked a question and then get called a liar.

[Steve Machol]

[SID-100014-64a33075] and [SID-72149-4cb04388] are just two of them that I still have the emails from, but your already knew this since you do all of these.Ticket 72149 was sent over a month ago BEFORE we had the current system in place. In it I clearly stated:

I have forwarded your IP to the system admin. Hopefully he can remove this block without opening us up to further attacks. Sorry for the inconvenience.There was nothing that said your IP was added to anything - and certainly this had nothing to do with the current system which wasn't in place at that time.

There are no tickets indicating you asked us anything about this issue 'once a week'.

The second one (100014) was answered and resolved exactly 10 minutes after you sent it to us. Most people would be pretty satisfied with that level of service.

I checked the system and those are the only two tickets from you regarding this matter. The other one regarding your lost customer number and password.

[MindTrix]

Well in the end we cant see what Steve can see, in which case i expect hes telling the truth, but you can be sure he will do his best to help you.

[Steve Machol]

No attiitude here. I just asked a question and then get called a liar.
Actually what you did was make an accusation that turned out to be false.

[Wayne Luke]

"FloodGuard" (http://www.netzentry.com/products/products.php) . I don't know if it would help in this case, but it wouldn't hurt to take a look at it.
This software/hardware wouldn't provide us any benefit because it would have to be installed at the Tier-1 providers (AT&T, Sprint, MCI, Level 3, UUNET, etc...) to be of any use over what we are doing now.

[Link14716]

There are no unanswered requests in the support system. I have responding to all of them today within a few minutes.
Well, I did send an e-mail. Is there anything special that I have to put in the subject or something?

[Steve Machol]

As I said all support tickets have been answered. Did you get the automated response with the ticket number? If so, twhat's the number?

Also if you are unfortunate enough to be using AOL as a provider, you will find that they are automatically putting all emails from our server into a Spam folder. You might want to check this out.

[Link14716]

I use cable and sent it through hotmail. I didn't recieve an automated response.

I guess I'll try sending it again.

[azher]

Hello,

I, too, sent an an e-mail (two, in fact) that detailed my IP address and haven't received any response. What would be the recommended next step?

[Link14716]

Try resending it. I just resent it and got an automated response.

[azher]

Strange...I think the IP bans affect incoming e-mail as well. I sent via Hotmail instead of my own domain and it went through.

[Steve Machol]

The IP router blockage does not affect outgoing email at all. More than likely your email client or ISP (in particularly AOL) is tagging email from our server's PHP scripts as spam.

[paolorulez]

Steve i send my IP and my license number in support@vbullettin.com



thanks and happy new year

[TouchingVirus]

There was a lot of big words in there but what he says is true, it simulates attacks which eat into resources and can cause this type of problem.

*Notice how no one else is challenging Steve after Gardener :p*

I currently have no problem accessing either vbulletin.com or vbulletin.org :)

[paolorulez]

thanks Steve for fast response,now work fines

regards

[Feran]

vb.com is down?? i can't acess

my IP is dinamic
You see, a range of IPs were blocked to protect from the DDoS attacks.

[R3LEASED]

Sent my email, waits for reply. :rolleyes:

[Gary King]

Yeah just send your IP in, everything gets fixed pretty good for those unlucky souls (like me) :)

Anyways, hopefully the attacks will stop (and/or they trace them to their source and catch 'em).

[R3LEASED]

Quick reply!

[restless]

sweet.. sent email. got responce back in no time.

[azher]

Steve,

The IP router blockage does not affect outgoing email at all. More than likely your email client or ISP (in particularly AOL) is tagging email from our server's PHP scripts as spam.

Actually that was the first thing I checked. I have server-side (spamassasssin) and client-side (McAfee SpamKiller) protection and neither of them were tripped.

If you feel like looking into it further, please check to see if you received any messages from and sent subsequent automated responses to:

azher at islamica dot biz

:)

[Steve Machol]

There are no support tickets in the system from that email address. It looks liek we never received those.

[azher]

Hmm...very strange. I sent three separate e-mails to support at vbulletin dot com at 6:23PM, 7:59PM and 9:16PM (CST). I never received a bounceback so the fact that it never went through is certainly very odd behavior.

If you care to look into this further, please either private message me another email address that's @vbulletin.com you'd like for me to test or try e-mailing me at the above-listed address.

I'm an e-mail marketing professional by trade (NOT to be confused with spammers, who I absoutely loathe) so I'm curious to find out what may be causing such problems.

[Gary King]

Quick reply!
? :p

[bonnmac]

Is it down again or is it just me? I cannot access .com to order an additional license.

[Gary King]

Is it down again or is it just me? I cannot access .com to order an additional license.
Up for me.

[aliencode]

Vbulletin.com has been down for over a week from my end. I am a new license holder but I am seriously starting to doubt my purchase! Vbulletin is a great package with lots of supporters but when you cant access the main website for support that tells me a company is in serious trouble. I know there will be some of you here that may disagree with me but lets take an example:

If Walmart told you that you have to call them to make sure they were allowing shoppers and tell them what car you drive before you can park there you probably would shop elsewhere right?

Get your act together Vbulletin team this is unacceptable to your customers. I am sympathetic to your plight of DoS attacks but you are a commercial business and you need to start acting like one.

[bonnmac]

Okay, I can access using a proxy. Is it possible that to stop the ddos attack that some isp's ips have been blocked? I cannot access via my roadrunner ip, but can through a proxy, and through my backup netzero account.

[Steve Machol]

Vbulletin.com has been down for over a week from my end. I am a new license holder but I am seriously starting to doubt my purchase! Have you bothered even contacting us yet so we can help? Do you have any idea at all what a DDoS attack is and how difficult it is to stop without blocking IPs?

If you contact us and we are unable to help then I will gladly refund your pruchase.

[bonnmac]

Have you bothered even contacting us yet so we can help? Do you have any idea at all what a DDoS attack is and how difficult it is to stop without blocking IPs?

If you contact us and we are unable to help then I will gladly refund your pruchase.
Hi Steve,

I know this message wasn't to me, but what e-mail address should I mail to? I'm not looking for a refund or anything, I just want to be able to access site without having to go through a proxy. :)

[Link14716]

Hi Steve,

I know this message wasn't to me, but what e-mail address should I mail to? I'm not looking for a refund or anything, I just want to be able to access site without having to go through a proxy. :)
support@vbulletin.com

[Link14716]

Vbulletin.com has been down for over a week from my end. I am a new license holder but I am seriously starting to doubt my purchase! Vbulletin is a great package with lots of supporters but when you cant access the main website for support that tells me a company is in serious trouble. I know there will be some of you here that may disagree with me but lets take an example:

If Walmart told you that you have to call them to make sure they were allowing shoppers and tell them what car you drive before you can park there you probably would shop elsewhere right?

Get your act together Vbulletin team this is unacceptable to your customers. I am sympathetic to your plight of DoS attacks but you are a commercial business and you need to start acting like one.
So, how in the hell do you suppose they stop a dDoS attack? Seriously, I don't think it's an easy task. Just mail the support team with your IP or use a proxy. Is it that hard?

[aliencode]

Steve
1. As a customer am I supposed to contact you? You have not emailed me I had to rely on a third party website to give me information that your company should have sent out.
2. Yes I am aware of how hard DDoS attacks are to stop, and as I said before I sympathize with your companys plight. I will list below some things you could have done for your customers to keep them in the loop.
3. I love Vbulletin Steve I do not want a refund. I have always had nothing but nice things to say about your company's product.
4. By the way I find your suggestion that I dont know what a DDoS attack is, is frankly a pathetic stab. Distributed denial of service attacks are a well known COMMON problem on the internet Steve. Stopping it is nearly impossible but circumventing it is not.

Suggestions:
Temporary notification web pages here on Vbulletin.org or anywhere that you can find many Vbulletin customers, emailing every single one of your customers and telling them the situation - either of those two options would have been sufficient for a customer believe me. I am astounded that a company, who has a very lucrative and excellent product cannot notify its customers of possible support problems. Why should *I* be the one to email you to access the registration areas? You should have emailed *ME* asking for my IP address and customer number. Instead I found out that this was the problem through this wonderful Teoti.org board - thank god for them ehh?

[aliencode]

To other Vbulletin customers - I am not bashing the Vbulletin company - I simply am asking them to notify me as a paying customer if there is a problem with thier support. Think about it, you paid good money for a good product but you also paid that money for the SUPPORT.

Believe me if they wanted to they could have emailed every single one of us by now, companies do it all the time offering special products. With something as serious as temporary support outage you would think they would be CONSIDERATE enough to tell us what the problem is personally.

[bonnmac]

support@vbulletin.com
duh..... Thanks!

[Link14716]

There is no 'support' outage. Not every vB owner is blocked from the site, only ones who happen to be in an IP range where a large number of dDoS zombie machines are are blocked. Not to mention that support@vbulletin.com creates a support ticket, and I don't believe anyone is blocked from sending an e-mail there.

[aliencode]

So, how in the hell do you suppose they stop a dDoS attack? Seriously, I don't think it's an easy task. Just mail the support team with your IP or use a proxy. Is it that hard?

Wait let me get this straight. I paid THEM money for thier product and support. Now because they block ME from accessing thier support I am supposed to beg them to let me have support after I already PAID for it? No it isnt hard to send them an email, but they should have emailed US. Thats my point.

[Link14716]

Either way, would you rather them not black some of the customers and just allow the dDoS attacks to happen taking vB.com, vB.org, vBTemplates.com, and vB-Germany.com to all be down for everyone?

[aliencode]

There is no 'support' outage. Not every vB owner is blocked from the site, only ones who happen to be in an IP range where a large number of dDoS zombie machines are are blocked. Not to mention that support@vbulletin.com creates a support ticket, and I don't believe anyone is blocked from sending an e-mail there.

That still does not excuse them for NON NOTIFICATION. Look at thier license it is very strict on us, yet they dont apply the same rules to thier own support? Notification. We cant move our boards without giving them information, they should not be able to LOCK OUT ranges of ips that there are customers in without notification. Why make me out to be the bad guy :(

[aliencode]

Either way, would you rather them not black some of the customers and just allow the dDoS attacks to happen taking vB.com, vB.org, vBTemplates.com, and vB-Germany.com to all be down for everyone?

You are not LISTENING. All they had to do to make some of thier customers happy, including me, is send an email with what the heck was going on. You assume every single VB owner visits those sites you listed and would find out there.

[bonnmac]

Thanks Steve for a very quick response to my e-mail. It's much appreciated.

[aliencode]

Shouldnt there be some type of announcement on the front of Vbulletin.org about the DDoS attacks?

[Gary King]

Shouldnt there be some type of announcement on the front of Vbulletin.org about the DDoS attacks?
No one really reads those anyways :p

[Steve Machol]

Steve
1. As a customer am I supposed to contact you? If you are having a problem - then yes. That's the way it's normally done.

[bonnmac]

Just wanted to say, that I sent my e-mail to support@vbulletin.com & received a reply within 5 minutes. 10 minutes after that I could access .com again. Excellent support IMO.

[Exero]

i would send my IP but Dialup IP changes....:(
i hope the attack stops...its annoying..

[frozen]

Same problem here, just emailed them. Hopefully I will be able to access the site soon. Owning Several servers and running many sites myself, I have seen the effects DDoS can have on a business, hopefully vbulletin can put a stop to it and catch the persons responsible(easier done then said).

In the time it took to write this little reply Support has responded with a solution so I can access the site. Keep up the good work :)

[Erwin]

Funny thing is I can right now access vB.org from work, but not vB.com. Weird.

[aliencode]

If you are having a problem - then yes. That's the way it's normally done.

I am not the one with a problem, your company is refusing me support. They want my private information, its bad enough I had to give you my credit card now you want my IP address. What next?

Here let me quote your website Steve:
A leased license grants you the right to run vBulletin on one web server and one web site for each license purchased for 1 year from the date of order. Each license may power one instance of vBulletin on one domain. During the year, you will have unlimited access to the member area, where you can download updated versions of the software. At the end of the year, you must purchase another license in order to continue to run vBulletin.

You are not meeting your end of the agreement Steve. My access to your members area is LIMITED by giving you my IP address.

You are seriously missing the point... Why didnt your company email thier customers about the problems? Do you know how long I had to search to figure out what was going on? Come on as a customer you know you would be a little upset as well. I am understanding but you didnt even give any of us the courtesy of notification :( I dont want to lose faith in your company this is why I am in public with explaining this. Maybe Vbulletin can acknowledge the people that put food on your table.

[aliencode]

Same problem here, just emailed them. Hopefully I will be able to access the site soon. Owning Several servers and running many sites myself, I have seen the effects DDoS can have on a business, hopefully vbulletin can put a stop to it and catch the persons responsible(easier done then said).

In the time it took to write this little reply Support has responded with a solution so I can access the site. Keep up the good work :)
Thats funny they have yet to reply to my support requests.

[frozen]

Did you email them?

The problem is not affecting everyone, and DDoS isn't an easy clean up job, I imagine they are putting all their effort into stopping the DDoS so this does not affect anymore clients. If some IPs blocks were not blocked, no customers at all would beable to view the site.

[aliencode]

Yes I emailed support@vbulletin.com like they asked. I have a dynamic IP I suppose Im screwed ehh?

Just for reference there are ways to stop most DDoS attacks (http://www.toplayer.com/content/products/intrusion_detection/attack_mitigator.jsp)

[Kihon Kata]

Alien, Im with you on this. WTF! I need to access the site ASAP as I have some support (that I have paid for) questions.

It took me a while to find out the issue on whey I could not access the site.

Yes I emailed support@vbulletin.com like they asked. I have a dynamic IP I suppose Im screwed ehh?

Just for reference there are ways to stop most DDoS attacks (http://www.toplayer.com/content/products/intrusion_detection/attack_mitigator.jsp)

[Skyline_GT]

i can't access too...

[SaintDog]

Steve, I have e-mailed you, while my IP is not dynamic in a sense like AOL, it is dynamic in a sense that it does change every few days to a week (sometimes a month) just as that is how Charter Communitcations seems to do such.

I can sypathize with you and the rest of the vBulletin Team as I am on the hosting side of things and know that surpressing a DoS or DDoS is not an easy thing to do, especiall when you are not at the DC and have little control over your hardware and the network it is connnected to.

Guys, please understand that Steve is not located at the DC, neither is any of the vBulletin team more than likely. While software firewalls can be installed, they do not match up to hardware firewalls and that CANNOT be installed without being at the datacenter, even at that a firewall cannot block everything incoming and outgoing, regardless of how it is built or how hard it may try.

DoS and DDoS is something that any popular website, even those that do not even receive 10% of the traffic will experience them. Complaining about it in this thread or forum, even to Steve and the rest of the staff is NOT going to get you anywhere anytime soon or at all.

Do you honestly think that moaning over the site being down is going to make it magically pop back up just so you can be happy? I don't honestly think so, but you are free to keep trying until you set one off and are banned for something you should not have said (I can't control the banning, but imagine steve and others can). While this may be a forceful way to get you all to realize they can do little other than to keep in touch with the DC, it may just have to be done if they are willing to go that far.

I own a hosting company, run vBulletinTemplates.com, was a moderator here, and have experienced my share of DoS, DDoS, downtimes, problems, errors and so forth and never in my life have I seen such a problem with something that cannot be controled physically by someone who leases, rents or has otherwise sent a server into a DC for hosting.

Now this is not directed to everyone, so please understand. I may be venting off since I am a host as well and can consider the fact that there is little that can be done, but honestly, come on, get a grip.

I cannot download vBulletin either, add me to the list, but I am dealing with it. YES, I have customers and yes they download and install it as well, more than likely some are here reading this thread too as with you, but do you seem them blaming an agreement or the vBulletin staff because they cannot download the software.

Correct me if I am wrong, but unlimited is not stated ANYWHERE in the contract/agreement as being 24/7/365 days a year without any interuptions, problems, faults, or restrictions nor does it state their liability for such....want to know why it is not there? Because problems happen, things happen and people deal with them as some of you need to as well.

Maybe I will be flamed for this post, maybe not, but I feel Steve and the rest of the vBulletin team will agree and possible have said (may have mis-read) but this whining and arguing is not getting you anywhere.

[Logician]

Funny thing is I can right now access vB.org from work, but not vB.com. Weird.
Funnier thing is this is the case for me for days.. I have never had problems reaching vb.org even in very bad times. (I know it was a bad time because there was only 5-10 users online.). But I cant reach vb.com for days with my ADSL. I can access both if I connect via dial up.

To ALL:
I believe this is a syber terrorism and we should all keep calm and stop blaming Jelsoft. Our getting mad to them is what the "bad guy" is trying to achieve. So if too many customers gets mad and Jelsoft starts losing cash, he might get what he wanted from them and then he can move to find another victim site in the internet and you can be a customer of this new victim either. (Or worse victim itself, as you have a website too!)

Jelsoft refuses to do what the bad guy is asking for and this is what we should all applause. If more companies chooses the same noble path, we can get rid of this syber terrorists. If companies start paying the bad guys so as to stop such attacks, you can expect more bad guys rushing the internet as this will become a "business".

This is not a time you should ask support from Jelsoft, this is a time you should support Jelsoft.

[speedway]

You are seriously missing the point... Why didnt your company email thier customers about the problems? Do you know how long I had to search to figure out what was going on? Come on as a customer you know you would be a little upset as well. I am understanding but you didnt even give any of us the courtesy of notification :(
I have to agree with aliencode on the principle. A simple mailing script, sending notification to every registered owner would have been a starting point. THEN we would have known to contact support. Having to search the web to find this information is wrong. Are you concerned that an actual customer is doing this so you did not send out bulk emails? All in all I think this was handled badly although I will say this is the first "bad" thing that Jelsoft have done.

With that said, I will still be recommending VBulletin to a potential customer next week. I would just like to see a little better customer care next time something like this happens.

[Steve Machol]

Thats funny they have yet to reply to my support requests.
What's your support ticket number? I have been asleep - something I am forced to do at least once per day because of my weak constitution. ;)

Sorry you are disappointed in our service. I'm not sure what more I can do about this. I have many, many hours checking the support system and responding to these requests as quickly as possible. However I do need to sleep and consequently am not available 24/7.

As for the email to customers, I think that would have been a good idea. Sometimes we get so caught up in fighting the DDoS attacks and responding to support requests that we don't often think of every possible action.

[aliencode]

Do you honestly think that moaning over the site being down is going to make it magically pop back up just so you can be happy? I don't honestly think so, but you are free to keep trying until you set one off and are banned for something you should not have said (I can't control the banning, but imagine steve and others can). While this may be a forceful way to get you all to realize they can do little other than to keep in touch with the DC, it may just have to be done if they are willing to go that far.

What the heck are you talking about. I am the customer, I expect certain BASIC support. They could have sent me an email, instead they expect me to seek out the reason. What kind of company is that? Why is it MY problem they are getting attacked? Now you say that they will BAN me, well they already have they banned my range of IPs from accessing thier site. Sorry I think your points do not excuse them for what is thier responsability to thier customers.

[aliencode]

Steve: issueid 100406
My IP will change next time I reboot my computer. Will I have to continue to send you emails?

[Lore]

I see the ever popular Template Monster is down too!...Its a conspiracy I tell ya ..a conspiracy!!

[MindTrix]

Well i personally think vB have been handling this excellently. While on one hand its easy for us to sit here and moan about beeing a paying customer etc, but the simple point is, they are doing all they can and im sure you could not do better yourself. If i was Steve i would be fumming at some of the attitude he has been given on alot of these posts, when he is only human.

[aliencode]

Well i personally think vB have been handling this excellently. While on one hand its easy for us to sit here and moan about beeing a paying customer etc, but the simple point is, they are doing all they can and im sure you could not do better yourself. If i was Steve i would be fumming at some of the attitude he has been given on alot of these posts, when he is only human.

1. You are right. Excellent support = banning customers from your site without notification.
2. I dont have to 'do better myself'. That is thier job to keep thier business online has nothing to do with me.
3. This is not an attitude its called customer support. I wouldnt even have posted this here if I had access to the vbulletin.com website.
4. It is Steve's job, he gets paid to deal with customer support.
5. They could have done better with a simple mass email.

I obviously love the VB product since I bought it, so dont try and win brownie points with the VB team trying to say I dont have right to support. Too many mindless drones. We dont want VB to be overthrown by Invision do we? We need to make them step up to the plate and be an example of a fine product with great support. I think thats what they want too.

[Lore]

I agree..... just another net-fact of life. Learn to deal with it.

[aliencode]

As for the email to customers, I think that would have been a good idea. Sometimes we get so caught up in fighting the DDoS attacks and responding to support requests that we don't often think of every possible action.

I understand Steve and I wish VB team luck with dealing with those attacks. I know there are many ways(on the hardware side) to deal with it and I suggest you tell your uplink they need to provide you with protection.

I have nothing but respect and admiration for your team and your product and do not misconstrue my criticism. By getting caught up in those attacks and not keeping your customers in the loop you are letting that cyberterrorist who is DDoSing you win. Your customers should come first thats the first rule of business. Thanks for the reply today finally about my support ticket.

[MindTrix]

Well maybe they could have mass emailed all members, you are correct there. But everyone makes mistakes.

Now then you say it is their job to keep the business online, Havent you just stabbed yourself in the foot there, because that is exactly what they are doing :) If they did not resort to baning some IP's then the server would have got ddos attacked to death to the point where you would not reach any site at all.

I just think some people need to step back at times and see this through the eyes of the Staff of vb.com. Does everybody really think they are enjoying this happening? Do you think they want to mass ban IP's? Of course they dont, as you said this is their buisness and at the moment they are doing all they can to protect it.

[frozen]

I don't think it is Steve's job to support vbulletin.com customers via this vbulletin.org, or any other webiste that isn't vbulletin.com. As far as I know he is here helping on his own behalf, though he does not have to, and you think people would be more greatful for that. It his job to support users who email support@vbulletin.com. And even then it isn't his job to answer every single support query, as there is others in the position to do so as well. If I get an attitutde with someone who is here on his own time helping, I wouldn't expect a damn thing. Thats like going to your local Walmart manager's house to +++++ about customer support you got while you were at Walmart earlier in the day.

[LCandrea]

I want to purchase the vbulletin, and emailed support with what i thought was my IP, but I got the following message back:

"The IP address you have quoted is an internal network address. We need the IP address that you use to access the internet."

Would someone have a sec to tell me how to get this? I'm sorry, I just don't know, and I'm so excited about getting started with the vbulletin!

[Steve Machol]

Steve: issueid 100406
My IP will change next time I reboot my computer. Will I have to continue to send you emails?
Cary responded to your ticket 28 minutes after you sent it. You didn't provide the IP address until about 5 hours later. By that time I was asleep. I took care of this when I woke up and responded to you more that 2 hours ago. You should be set now. :)

[Revz]

I read this thread at 21:00, emailed support@vbulletin.com at 21:02 (including my IP address) and had a reply from Steve at 21:02 along with access back to vbulletin.com at the same time. That is probably the fastest reply I've ever gotten from any tech support system so many thanks to Steve. Considering the situation not only are they doing the right thing in my eyes (not giving in to blackmail as I understand it) but they are doing everything in their power to sort out the problem as quickly as possible once they know you are affected.

[Richard Tafoya]

Would a support site on a separate domain make a difference? No public HTML, just everything hidden behind a login form.

Let vbulletin.com live on as the sales site.

[John]

Would a support site on a separate domain make a difference? No public HTML, just everything hidden behind a login form.

Let vbulletin.com live on as the sales site.
It wouldn't make any difference.

It's not the domain that is targeted, it's the server. And as soon as the attacker finds any official vBulletin site that he doesn't know about, he'll find the server IP and start attacking it. DoS attacks overload a server through the sheer number of requests it receives... I'm sure the vB team are doing all they can, but there isn't much that can be done. Even banning IP addresses would only stop an inexperienced attacker. :(

[John]

I want to purchase the vbulletin, and emailed support with what i thought was my IP, but I got the following message back:

"The IP address you have quoted is an internal network address. We need the IP address that you use to access the internet."

Would someone have a sec to tell me how to get this? I'm sorry, I just don't know, and I'm so excited about getting started with the vbulletin!
Click Start and then Run

Type command.com and press enter.

Type ipconfig /all and press enter.

Now look for "IP address: x.x.x.x.", where each x is a number between 1 and 255. You've probably got more than one, look for one different to the IP you sent to support@vbulletin.com.

[Mike11212]

My IP does not end with a .1 - .255 my IP ends with a .0
So just because my IP ends with a .0 I can't have access to the site.
Thats BS

[John]

Whoops. Yeah, it can end in 0 too, probably. (Can remember anything from my ICT lesson days.)

[MindTrix]

Getting old now ay John ;)

[Mike11212]

But could this be why I can't access Vbulletin.com? Because my IP ends in .0?

[speedway]

You may want to look at this. GRC went through a DDOS attack as well.....and documented it!

http://grc.com/dos/grcdos.htm

[MindTrix]

Made an interesting read :) Some points sounded like he was writting an action film though :)

[John]

Made an interesting read :) Some points sounded like he was writting an action film though :)

What, as he entered the lair of the evil zombies? :ninja:

[*UFA*3M]

I um also unable to connect to vBulletin.com but hav access here...can somebody help me pls :)

Appreciate it.

[MindTrix]

email support@vbulletin.com stating your problem and your IP

Goodluck

[0ptima]

Why wont Vbulletin e-mail their members about this? If I did not find this thread, how would I be able to connect to vb.com?

[TouchingVirus]

I want to purchase the vbulletin, and emailed support with what i thought was my IP, but I got the following message back:

"The IP address you have quoted is an internal network address. We need the IP address that you use to access the internet."

Would someone have a sec to tell me how to get this? I'm sorry, I just don't know, and I'm so excited about getting started with the vbulletin!


You used the IP address that your network card uses (an example would be 10.0.0.1). These arn't used by the internet, so when you run "Ipconfig /all" pick the other IP that you see... (not the 255.255.255.255 one either if you see that)


You could try accessing here (http://ip-to-country.directi.com/node/view/36) and look in the left hand frame for your IP and country where your ISP is, in which your IP is obviously the number x.x.x.x :)

[TouchingVirus]

But could this be why I can't access Vbulletin.com? Because my IP ends in .0?


No. If you read the thread, it is more than likely that your WHOLE ip, is within a range of IP's that vbulletin.com has banned because also within this range are numerous computers that are attacking said website.

For Example, If you dont understand, and no offence if you do, your IP is 12.3.24.0 and vbulletin has banned 10.0.0.0 - 14.0.0.0...your ip is within that range, so your banned :)

Email them your IP and Customer number (if you have one) and you should be sorted soon :)

[TouchingVirus]

Optima, it has already been admitted by Steve that they didnt look at all the options and are sometimes too caught up in fighting the attacks that they didnt consider the best way to proceed.

Aliencode has already mentioned this point..and while i am not affected, the person under whom i have become a licensed member is (My Admin)..and as with yourself and aliencode, he hadn't a notion of what was going on, until i asked him to come to a thread and he told me vbulletin.com was down. Then i told him to email support. Without me, he would probably still be stuck thinking vb.com was gone forever.

My point is, you and aliencode arnt the only ones affected by this error in judgement, many of us are, and if you cant let a business/support team away with an error, then you need to find something better to do with your time!

[Pollo]

Well, first I'll say that Steve Machol has helped me out of a bind that I was in, and I'll never forget that. Obviously people are frustrated and confused because they can't reach the site. vBulletin needs to take that into account and be understanding of the complaints and use the suggestion to email their customers about the situation.

I found this thread, but I would have thought it was just down and out and dead if I hadn't. That's not good. I asked around. Dead for them too. Hoping people stumble upon threads like this which explain the situation and instruct users isn't good.

But I suppose that's obvious (or at least one would think so).

John posted:
Click Start and then Run
Type command.com and press enter.
Type ipconfig /all and press enter.

Just note that this is not going to find your IP under all circumstances. It may only find your network IP. My suggestion is to go to this URL (not mine) and look at the IP it displays in the box (it displays your IP to you only, no one else can see it, someone else going to that URL will see their IP). That is the IP you send to vB. I could put something like this on my site, but I don't want to get banned for spamming my URL, so this was the best I could find. It's quick and easy for anyone of any level to use.

http://www.danasoft.com/sig/sig1jpeg.jpg

I hope it helps, and will be emailing with my IP. Nice to know vB's not dead, but I would have preferred not having to stumble upon this thread.

[Who?]

hi, im not a vb customer, but i haven't been able to access vb.com since like the 26th and i have some sites that are most likely using vb illegaly and licence numbers of people who have sent vb to me that i need to report, but im unable to get to vb.com to get the email address to report them to, so i wanted to know would i be able to email my ip to the support@vbulletin.com even if im not a customer and would it even work for me since im unable to access the vb.com url?

[futureal]

Pollo, there are some even easier websites that one can use to get their IP address.

Such as:

http://www.whatismyip.com/
http://www.network-tools.com/

Both of those will allow you to copy the IP as text, making it easy to paste into an email or whatever else.

[codemonkey]

hi, im not a vb customer, but i haven't been able to access vb.com since like the 26th and i have some sites that are most likely using vb illegaly and licence numbers of people who have sent vb to me that i need to report, but im unable to get to vb.com to get the email address to report them to, so i wanted to know would i be able to email my ip to the support@vbulletin.com even if im not a customer and would it even work for me since im unable to access the vb.com url?

I think you can send your report to support@vbulletin.com as well.
Or you can take this formular from vBulletin-Germany.com: http://www.vbulletin-germany.com/contact/piracy.php

[TouchingVirus]

email the relevant people as has been mentioned many times before at piracy@vbulletin.com. i am sure jelsoft will be very appreicative of your co-operation

[Dean C]

Well i've emailed piracy@vbulletin.com a day or two ago and it no longer works.

[magazineforall]

Made an interesting read :) Some points sounded like he was writting an action film though :)

I know I felt like :cry: lol. Yeah being serious though it was really interesting. He's one clever guy!

[Ceuphrasie]

Notes from a not-going-to-be-a-new customer:

I must say that after not being able to access the main product site; not having any sort of direction as to where else I could view product information for this product; and reading a few attitude filled replies in the thread both to and from customer service; I will be looking for an alternative forum.

There are enough perfectly fine products available for free without the attitude that if I am going to pay for a product and support just to be ridiculed and chastised by staff. Nor will I pay for a product before I know what price it is or the features available.

It was really only because I bothered to do a search on yahoo that I could even find this site. Most people I know wouldn't even take that extra step. If you're wanting to let the DDoS kill your company; you're on your way to doing a good job. I for one am not willing to pay to be hassled.

I was really appalled by the tone inflection in your tech support responses and your flippance towards actually helping anyone. Your attitude that 'if you are having trouble, you should contact us' is perfectly fine if it's an individual problem; but when it is something that you know affects a large number of people and you do nothing about it; that is just unacceptable. I couldn't even purchase your product now if I wanted to; because there is no link whatsoever leading me to a 'purchase' page. If you think your product is god's gift to forums; and that all people everywhere will be lining up and jumping through hoops because of it; you are sadly mistaken.

Hoop jumping turns your customers into someone else's customers.

[tamarian]

While I can sympathize with vB and what they're going through with this ddos thing, I really cannot agree with what they're doing. After weeks of not being able to access, and assuming it's due to the ddos attack, I find out they're running o.k. and their server as in vB.org is up, but only blocking ips from vB.com! Can't those who are blocked ddos vb.org to bring the server down?!?!

This sounds fishy to me, technically, and especially having no attempt at explaining any of this to us blocked customers, even by email, to alert us that we need to constantly update vB support with our IP's if we need to access our accounts.

The excuse so far is that vB staff are busy handling the attack? That's a big mistake, IMHO, as throwing more staff at handling the attack doesn't help. Have the ones with network security background handle it, or hire an expert, let them do their job, and let the rest do other things, like minimal updates and communication with customers. Send a lousy email, have vb.org create a temporary forum to update us (or mirror vb.com's announcement on vb.org), etc. There are so many things the rest can do.

The way it looks so far is like a high way accedent, where all spectators want to watch the wreck and monitoring those who are doing the rescue, while stopping traffic, and no one wants do do anything else useful.

That's just my opinion, and I don't know sh*t about what they're doing and what's going on, but that's not my fault, it's vB's fault for being so silent, uncommunicative, keeping customers uninformed about the situation, so we're left to guess what is really happening, and what's being done.

Nothing can help the situation with your customers better than being open, communicative and transparent. Explain what is going on and what's being done, constant updates, etc.

[tamarian]

Update, I was able to access through a proxy, and thanks for the tip, but that's still a lousy way to find out and finally get access...

For those still unable to access, here's a quick update, RC1 is out, and from the chit-chat forums, it seems the attacker has been identified, and it's just a matter of convincing the authorities to take action.

Until then, email your IP or use a proxy if you can't access.

[Lord Les]

I have used the VB for a while and this really sucks, no access then I get a email my account is up for for the 30 dollar renew.
But can't access the site .. we have stayed with the updates and lived without a portal til they pull this together.
There are to many less expensive products out there that will give us the portal for a homepage and a message board.
They have to pull this together within the week, or we bail. I know of three other boards that started with VB due to us. And this no hacking rule .. come on ...

[John]

I have used the VB for a while and this really sucks, no access then I get a email my account is up for for the 30 dollar renew.
But can't access the site .. we have stayed with the updates and lived without a portal til they pull this together.
There are to many less expensive products out there that will give us the portal for a homepage and a message board.
They have to pull this together within the week, or we bail. I know of three other boards that started with VB due to us. And this no hacking rule .. come on ...
The "no hacking rule" doesn't apply anymore.

[Steve Machol]

Notes from a not-going-to-be-a-new customer:This is a temporary solution to a very serious and determined DDoAS attacker. Believe me we like this even less than you. However for now we have one choice - protect ourselves from the zombie machines under this attacker's control and keep service open and available for the vast majority of our customers - or let this attacker have his way and knock us completely off the net.

That's our choice right now. The latter scenario is obviously worse for our customers since NO ONE would be able access and of the vB sites.

We are currently investigating better long-term solutions but each of them requires a significant amount of money and time to set up.

[97cobracpe]

I emailed support and got a responce 5 minutes later with how to temporarily access the site.

No complaints over here. I just downloaded my copy of RC1 I'm upgrading the forums tommorrow :)

[[Rom2]Bungee]

Bungee]This is a temporary solution to a very serious and determined DDoAS attacker. Believe me we like this even less than you. However for now we have one choice - protect ourselves from the zombie machines under this attacker's control and keep service open and available for the vast majority of our customers - or let this attacker have his way and knock us completely off the net.

That's our choice right now. The latter scenario is obviously worse for our customers since NO ONE would be able access and of the vB sites.

We are currently investigating better long-term solutions but each of them requires a significant amount of money and time to set up.
Understood,

But why have you still not sent out an email to all registered users explaining the situation? Surely that could be done quickly enough?

[PixelFx]

I've read some of this how do I get access to vb.com ? ;) I'd love to download RC1 from members to get to testing.

[Hunter]

I've read some of this how do I get access to vb.com ? ;) I'd love to download RC1 from members to get to testing.

Email your IP to support@vbulletin.com and they will take care of it.

[sevendust]

Bungee']Understood,

But why have you still not sent out an email to all registered users explaining the situation? Surely that could be done quickly enough?


I don't understand that either. I thought the site was down for everyone so writing to support hadn't occurred to me. Thankfully I found this site but what about the customers who don't visit here. They don't even know they're being blocked.

[Pond]

I was just fixing to upload the new version and I sent my IP in last week. Never heard nothing back but I understand. Y'all people over at V Bulletin get your board back up first. No sense in having a bunch of stuff if you ain't got a wagon to haul it in.

[Steve Machol]

Bungee']Understood,

But why have you still not sent out an email to all registered users explaining the situation? Surely that could be done quickly enough?
There are some security issues with sending out an email like this. Frankly our attacker is undoubtedly on this list, as are his cohorts, and this would alert him to the workaround. And once he knows about it the entire system is at risk. That's all I can say about this.

[neocorteqz]

There are some security issues with sending out an email like this. Frankly our attacker is undoubtedly on this list, as are his cohorts, and this would alert him to the workaround. And once he knows about it the entire system is at risk. That's all I can say about this. Makes sense.

Yeah kinda sucks, but I appreciate what Jelsoft did to keep themselves up.


Small question, If (s)he is indeed a license holder, than what is stopping him/her from emailing for said workaround?

[Steve Machol]

Nothing at all. However it's in everyone's best interest to delay him knowing about this option for as long as possible.

[Zlaxzzor]

Great support, I recieved my answer in just some minutes.

[Alien]

Been waiting for 24 hours and still no access after e-mailing them. <cry>

[Mike11212]

It took me 2 emails.
Make sure you includ customer code and the email assosiated with it.

[Steve Machol]

Been waiting for 24 hours and still no access after e-mailing them. <cry>There are no unanswered tickets in the support system and the current average response time is 27 minutes. Did you get an automated response with a ticket number? If so, what's the number? If not, then either we never received your email or you didn't get the response. If you are using AOL you might want to check your spam folder.

[gorman]

I just wish to state that the service is incredibly quick in granting access once you request it. I was really pleasantly surprised. Hats off to vBulletin staff! :)

[TheGreatOne]

i sent them 3 emails now first telling them i cant access the site thn telling my ip address its been ova 24 hours so i sent them another email

i'm yet not a vb customer but i want to purchase the license n i cant without bein able to get on to the site...

[Pond]

Mine was unanswered but I may have misunderstood. I sent my info from a mailbox on Yahoo because I was under the impression that someone said somewhere in all this that AOL was blocked or having trouble. I did not send it from the e-mail address on file when I bought V-Bulletin for the above reasons.
The fact that mine has gone unanswered for a week now would only leave to believe that I didn't follow the right procedure.
Will someone that knows the right procedure please instruct me as to how to do it again.

[Steve Machol]

i sent them 3 emails now first telling them i cant access the site thn telling my ip address its been ova 24 hours so i sent them another email

i'm yet not a vb customer but i want to purchase the license n i cant without bein able to get on to the site...
Did you get the automated responses? If so, what are the ticket numbers? There are absolutely no unanswered tickets in the system and the average response time is currently 37 minutes.

[Pond]

Steve--could you give me the correct procedure. Thanks

[TheGreatOne]

yes Steve Machol i've got the automate respones and i can now access the site thanks alot guys.

[Pond]

great one--how did you go about doing it ?

[Steve Machol]

great one--how did you go about doing it ?
Send an email to support@vbulletin.com with your current IP address.