Block repeat downloads by IP or account?
 

We had a recent situation where a number of IPs were downloading the same attachment over and over again. While I believe some were legit (we had been referenced on a popular site), I also believe we got targeted by a DOS attempt, because the same file was being downloded in some cases by 0 post uers again, and again, and again. 27 Gigs in 2 days and we're a small forum with a 500G/mo limit.

I don't want to restrict guest attachment downloads completely - but I have for now, and am also forcing free email users to manually request access before getting permission to download attachments. But what I'd really like is a hack to restrict the amount of bandwidth a single IP and/or account can use. I'd like to restrict accounts from d/l the same attachment more than once every, oh, 5 minutes, and the same restriction on IP addresses.

Anyone know of any defensive hacks that would help with this?

Thanks much!
Chuck

This hack will be helpfull for all

Links and Downloads Manager has implemented an option to restrict the number of times a user can download an attachment. Actually, it was I who requested the developer to include that option. See my exchange with AndrewD:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...wu5#post924597

By the way, AndrewD is a very nice guy. He even PM-ed me when he first implemented that option:
"The new version of LD, 2.1.6,..., includes an optional extra to allow you to limit the number of times a document can be downloaded by a given user.

This is provided as an optional 'plugin' in the extras/limit_useraccess subdiretory of the zip. You'll need to read the instructions in that directory - it's not installed by default." (That was back in March. It might now include more options.)

I haven't got the time to try that option just yet. I don't know if it could also block repeat downloads by IP address. But I'm sure you can do it by user account.