DDoS attacks ?

[Zelious]

Im not very tech savvy. I did notice an admin stated that due to attacks the server is in the state it currently is.

What exactly is a DDoS attack? Is it the sole reason for today's more than noticeable instability?

[Aunstic]

Long, drawn out explanation: https://security.stackexchange.com/a/22816
Short: you're trying to overload a server by any method that a server attempts to accept. This isn't the best explanation, but it'll do: It's like throwing more then 2 balls to someone and expecting that person to catch every ball you throw without putting the other balls down. Nostalrius is like having 5k - 10k people trying to catch all the balls. When someone attempts a DDoS attack, balls are coming from everywhere and by the truckload. From Japan, China, Ukraine, France, US, Canada, Mexico, Greenland, and whatever other countries that have "slaves" (infected networks/computers from malware) to attack a target (Nostalrius).

The reason for doing this? Someone is probably angry because they had their account banned. Is there a permanent defense against this? No, it's a flaw in how packets are sent and received. You can mitigate it, but you can't stop it unless you assassinate the person doing this.

[Formshifter]

I'll try to explain this in mudane terms, since you've said you aren't very tech savvy.

A DDoS attack is when a madbad gets banned for hacking or exploiting. They weren't good enough to play a relatively easy game, they hacked to compensate, and then ate a ban.

As the butthurt grows and ferments like a cheap malt swill sold at convenience stores in the ghetto, an idea caresses their brain. It caresses it much like their uncle caressed them when they used to wrestle together.

That idea is to attack the server. If they can't play, no one else should be able to. What they do, is conscript a network of computers called "zombies". The people who own the zombie PCs often do not know that their machine is being used remotely for a DDoS. So now, Mr. Madbad and his network of hijacked computers are sending a packet storm towards the server. Packets are basically data sent to communicate with a server. Normally this isnt a problem, but when there are many MANY attempts to access the server every second coming from a lot of computers all at once, too much data is transferred and so it lags (or crashes) the server. Sometimes a DDoS will originate from a single machine, but it's more efficient to do from a network of them and it's much harder to trace the origin of the attack.


Think of it this way. It's black friday. As the doors to best buy are opened, hundreds of people charge it and get jammed into the doorway, none of them able to enter. You're walking up to the door but cant get through either, because there are too many people trying to access Best Buy.

[Chevejo]

Ppl doing this should be as frequently kickassed as the server is getting requests!

[bobjustice]

Sometimes a DDoS will originate from a single machine

Technically that would be DoS rather than D(istributed)DoS. But still a very nice explanation.

You can mitigate it, but you can't stop it unless you assassinate the person doing this.

So... We're hiring a hitman ?

[Aunstic]

Sometimes a DDoS will originate from a single machine

Technically that would be DoS rather than D(istributed)DoS. But still a very nice explanation.

You can mitigate it, but you can't stop it unless you assassinate the person doing this.

So... We're hiring a hitman ?

Formshifter would be correct if he means a C&C server that controls all of the slaves/zombies. His wording is still wrong though since it wasn't considered.

Well, you can hire a hitman for hire over TOR and I do have a large amount of Bitcoins...