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Cannot login to multiplayer MARCH7th

Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2012 12:43 pm
by Casaubon
Hi every time I try to login to multiplayer I got an "unknown error" prompting me with a new & changing error code number. Never seen this befor, I got like 8 multiplayer games running.

Re: Cannot login to multiplayer MARCH7th

Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2012 12:50 pm
by VPaulus
Sorry but our servers were attacked last night.
viewtopic.php?f=58&t=32608
We expect that In the next couple of hours we will have the servers back.
Sorry for the inconvenience.

Re: Cannot login to multiplayer MARCH7th

Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2012 12:54 pm
by Casaubon
No worries & thank you for telling the reason. Good luck against the raiders and bring some more 88s in position :)

Re: Cannot login to multiplayer MARCH7th

Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2012 3:56 pm
by Treebeard
Looks like the servers were down again yesterday evening (US time) and logging in to multiplayer is still not possible this morning. It also seems that many of the forum posts from yesterday are gone ...

You do need to have a better backup policy (with a failover server that can kick in when your primary server is down). The Matrix games site seems to be working without any issues so perhaps Matrix should host pbem when the slitherine servers can't cope with it?

Re: Cannot login to multiplayer MARCH7th

Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2012 4:35 pm
by VPaulus
Treebeard wrote:Looks like the servers were down again yesterday evening (US time) and logging in to multiplayer is still not possible this morning. It also seems that many of the forum posts from yesterday are gone ...

You do need to have a better backup policy (with a failover server that can kick in when your primary server is down). The Matrix games site seems to be working without any issues so perhaps Matrix should host pbem when the slitherine servers can't cope with it?
Sorry but the issue is, that we suffer another hacker attack. And backups are done daily, that's the normal backup policy.
Matrix site was not attacked, only Slithereine.
I'm sure there are being making efforts to prevent as possible these attacks. That's the problem not the backup policy. In this situation there will be no backup policy that will prevent this.
Sorry for the inconvenience, but a little understanding and patience, please. :)

Re: Cannot login to multiplayer MARCH7th

Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2012 4:38 pm
by IainMcNeil
The server are all together and its about the software running on them, not the servers themselves, so moving it across is not possible and wouldn't really help. You can be sure we're doing everythign we can to prevent it happening again - this is top priority and we've had people up through the night and all day working on this. The team are exhausted. We think we've caught the guys that did it this time though....

Re: Cannot login to multiplayer MARCH7th

Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2012 5:51 pm
by Naxor
The servers or software are still down? I got "Unknown error occured (code = 1233916) when i try to log in.

Re: Cannot login to multiplayer MARCH7th

Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2012 7:02 pm
by VPaulus
If you're having that error, that means yes.
Sometimes I still loose the forum connection.
Please be patient.
Sorry for all this.

Re: Cannot login to multiplayer MARCH7th

Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2012 9:09 pm
by El_Condoro
iainmcneil wrote:The server are all together and its about the software running on them, not the servers themselves, so moving it across is not possible and wouldn't really help. You can be sure we're doing everythign we can to prevent it happening again - this is top priority and we've had people up through the night and all day working on this. The team are exhausted. We think we've caught the guys that did it this time though....
That's great news. I'd be fascinated to know why they targeted Slitherine. Actually, I don't understand why people do this sort of thing at all but why a relatively small target? Anyway, great job and thanks to everyone who put in the hours to sort it out.

Re: Cannot login to multiplayer MARCH7th

Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2012 9:14 pm
by VPaulus
The servers should be on, now.

Re: Cannot login to multiplayer MARCH7th

Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2012 11:13 pm
by Juno
Why is a major issue like this buried in the forum. Is there no way to put this out front where it can be readily found. Slitherine needs to overhaul its forum format. For the price you charge you need to deliver a higher level of service and communication. You may be tired but so am I.

Re: Cannot login to multiplayer MARCH7th

Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2012 11:14 pm
by Treebeard
Thanks for making MP operational again.

I'd assume there were two causes that caused this (- apart from the hackers malicious attack of course):
1. The intrusion protection system (e.g. firewall) failed to prevent an outside attacker from overwhelming and bringing down the services.
2. When the services were restored, data was lost (both pbem turns and forum posts, twice in two days). The data loss is a failure of the backup and redundancy systems.