On The Ropes Again

You might have noticed my Blog was shut down again last week, knocked out of commission on Thursday and Friday due to a Robot attack.

Trying to resolve the issue had me feeling like a helpless jobber on the ropes, alone in the fight, under brutal assault, totally outmatched but determined to fight on.

A Robot attack is when some malicious software keeps hitting your website over and over, multiple times per second actually, like a nasty Heel piston-pounding his ragdoll into submission.

Eventually the server crashes, unable to withstand the relentless abuse.  Before my server crashed, the Webmaster wisely disabled my site, like a ref stopping a match out of sheer pity for the victim.

But I refused to let the angle end there, with my website out cold, totally humiliated and defeated by the Robots.  No, I was determined to shore up any weakness in my defenses and demand a re-match with the nasty villains.

I saw in my Access Log that there were thousands of hits per hour on my Guestbook, where people could leave comments under my old website.  That’s what these Robots were attacking — leaving Spam in a vulnerable Guestbook like a Heel leaving bruises on the body of his victim.  So my old Guestbook has now been deleted — I didn’t really need it or use it since I began Blogging anyway.

How long has my poor Guestbook been under this assault, taking abuse while I sat back and did nothing to stop it?  I felt like a clueless ref, easily distracted and out of touch with what is happening while a bloody war is raging behind his back.  Was this Guestbook onslaught the cause of my earlier website shut-downs?

My Access Log allows me to see the IP Address of anybody who visits this website (That’s right — I can see your IP.  I may be staring at it right now…)

I discovered there were three primary IP Addresses who had unleashed their Robots on my Guestbook.  My poor site was being Triple-Teamed!  There are also sites to look up an IP Address and learn a little more about the user of that address…

My first attacker uses the IP address of 178.137.162.142.  When I looked it up, I learned the server is located in Lviv, Ukraine.  I’m not sure how to pronounce “Lviv”, but I do know a little about men from that part of the world from having watched pro wrestling all these years.

I am picturing a no-nonsense Heel as my attacker, a real Eastern European bad-ass.  Probably he has a bushy mustache, thick hair on his massive chest, and never smiles.  I’ll bet he wrestles in long black tights, maybe with a stripe down the side, and wears thick-soled black boots that could stomp a hole in a tank.

So if you are out there Mr. 178.137.162.142, I admit you hurt me early in the match, but I didn’t submit or get pinned.  In the end, I tossed you out of the ring and you haven’t been back.

My other two primary attackers are from China.  From Chongqing is the evil 142.4.110.43 and fighting out of Putian, we have 222.77.218.200.

These two foreign bastards must have formed a Tag Team, working together to bring down innocent American websites.

Being a webmaster these days sure takes some “intenstinal fortitude.”   It’s not the posting of content that makes it tough — it’s the ongoing assault by Spammers and Phishers and Robots and Worms and other assorted heels that would love to knock you out just for the sheer pleasure of making you suffer.

A webmaster has to constantly fight them off, like a gorgeous Baby-Face thrown in the ring week after week to suffer assault, abuse, and molestation by the most sadistic villains.

Technology doesn’t always cooperate either —  my old pal Bruno at “Beefcakes of Wrestling” blog has suffered a painful injury to his hard-drive — hopefully it was not career ending.   So we’re cheering for you Bruno — get back in the fight as soon as you can…  USA!  USA!  USA!!