The Recent Outage
- Thread starter Rob R
- Start date
Shelton Bay
Active Member
I haven't been here long, but that was a very long weekend indeed. Thanks for sorting it out quickly on Monday morning.
Pencarrow
Western Thunderer
I had to completely close the page. Open a new one and start WT afresh and login.
Jordan
Mid-Western Thunderer
adrian
Flying Squad
Apologies - I host those sites as well on the same server so they are probably a casualty of all my password resets. Monitoring WT it seems to have stabilised so I'll have a look at MRJ GWJ BRJ et al later in the week.
adrian
Flying Squad
Once again thank you everyone for your patience. I've not reported much back because I wanted to monitoring the server for a couple of days just to make sure everything was back on an even keel again.
As far as I can tell, but can't confirm, the system email account fs@westernthunder was hacked in that it must have had a weak password. It was not the system admin logon, nor was it the server logon account. The system has been virus scanned but nothing has been flagged up. Zen hosting security picked up the problem as the fs@westernthunder started firing out spam emails that were getting bounced so all credit to their monitoring system - we were just unfortunate that it occurred Friday evening just after the tech support team had closed for the weekend. We all got the account suspended message, which was a heart stopping moment for me at the time but it was our hosting account being suspended and not directed at individual users. That email account has been disabled and a new one created with a stronger password, all the other admin and server passwords have also been changed - just in case. My apologies if anyone was the recipient of any spam from fs@westernthunder over the last 5 days - please simply ignore and delete.
I'll be honest it was a little unsettling over the weekend as I felt I'd let people down and there was also the uncertainty not being able to access the site exactly what was the scale of the breech. It was a relief on Monday morning when I got access restored to find that content and photos were all there. Although I try to take regular, monthly, back ups I have just done a full site backup this morning.
So I have managed to spend an enjoyable evening reading the L&Y Society magazine which turned up today, savouring a couple of bottles of Titanic Plum Porter and also catching up on all the threads. To see all the messages of thanks over numerous threads really has been heart warming and makes it all worth while. I really do appreciate the various offers of beer tokens but for me the forum is a community and the reward I get is from the members contributing posting updates and photos to inspiring us to make things.
Which leads me to a quandary, with a weekend of the forum offline it seems lots of members have been highly productive at their workbench! I'm left wondering if I should shutdown the forum once a month for a couple of days? Only joking
- but seriously as much as I love this community I'm thinking for an individuals mental health then a weekend of "digital detox" might be something worth considering every now and again.
Once again humbled by everyone's understanding and messages of thanks.
All the very best and enjoy the modelling.
Adrian
As far as I can tell, but can't confirm, the system email account fs@westernthunder was hacked in that it must have had a weak password. It was not the system admin logon, nor was it the server logon account. The system has been virus scanned but nothing has been flagged up. Zen hosting security picked up the problem as the fs@westernthunder started firing out spam emails that were getting bounced so all credit to their monitoring system - we were just unfortunate that it occurred Friday evening just after the tech support team had closed for the weekend. We all got the account suspended message, which was a heart stopping moment for me at the time but it was our hosting account being suspended and not directed at individual users. That email account has been disabled and a new one created with a stronger password, all the other admin and server passwords have also been changed - just in case. My apologies if anyone was the recipient of any spam from fs@westernthunder over the last 5 days - please simply ignore and delete.
I'll be honest it was a little unsettling over the weekend as I felt I'd let people down and there was also the uncertainty not being able to access the site exactly what was the scale of the breech. It was a relief on Monday morning when I got access restored to find that content and photos were all there. Although I try to take regular, monthly, back ups I have just done a full site backup this morning.
So I have managed to spend an enjoyable evening reading the L&Y Society magazine which turned up today, savouring a couple of bottles of Titanic Plum Porter and also catching up on all the threads. To see all the messages of thanks over numerous threads really has been heart warming and makes it all worth while. I really do appreciate the various offers of beer tokens but for me the forum is a community and the reward I get is from the members contributing posting updates and photos to inspiring us to make things.
Which leads me to a quandary, with a weekend of the forum offline it seems lots of members have been highly productive at their workbench! I'm left wondering if I should shutdown the forum once a month for a couple of days? Only joking
- but seriously as much as I love this community I'm thinking for an individuals mental health then a weekend of "digital detox" might be something worth considering every now and again.Once again humbled by everyone's understanding and messages of thanks.
All the very best and enjoy the modelling.
Adrian
NHY 581
Western Thunderer
Morning Adrian and once again, thank you for all your hard work.
The idea of a digital detox is interesting. I, in solidarity with my daughter, did without my digital things when her school did a digital detox day. What a revelation ! The original intention was to mirror her "absence" throughout the school day but I ended up leaving things alone for a lot longer. Result ? I got much more done in that time ( fine line here as the Memsahib noticed the increased productivity) and even found time for a bit of modelling.
Perhaps that is exactly what's needed...............
Rob
The idea of a digital detox is interesting. I, in solidarity with my daughter, did without my digital things when her school did a digital detox day. What a revelation ! The original intention was to mirror her "absence" throughout the school day but I ended up leaving things alone for a lot longer. Result ? I got much more done in that time ( fine line here as the Memsahib noticed the increased productivity) and even found time for a bit of modelling.
Perhaps that is exactly what's needed...............
Rob
Jordan
Mid-Western Thunderer
Probably well worth reminding us all, especially members who've joined after 2013 who might not be aware, that without Adrian stepping up to the plate following the sudden & totally unexpected death of the Forum's founder Cynric Williams in Jan 2013, this Forum would have dissappeared many years ago now.
Cynric had asked a couple of us to help as Moderators before then, but never told us about the workings of the site itself, which neither of us would've understood anyway! There is a bigger moderator team now, in theory, but WT really remains a one man show, with Adrian shouldering it all. We do all really owe Adrian a debt of gratitude.
Just don't go unexpectedly AWOL on us, mate!!!
Osgood
Western Thunderer
michael080
Western Thunderer
One of the German railway forums is actually switching to read only over the Christmas holidays. PLEASE don't!Im left wondering if I should shutdown the forum once a month for a couple of days? Only joking
freelance7
Western Thunderer
Thank you Adrian
Pencarrow
Western Thunderer
I'm going to download, keep and print a copy of that for my wall....
Osgood
Western Thunderer
It'll look good against the Wills dressed stone.