*grumble* I've heard stories about some websites being taken offline due to the sudden and unheralded arrival of hordes of visitors from Slashdot.org after that site runs an article with links to some other hapless site. I'm a regular reader at Slashdot, but I had no idea of the sheer volume that that site channels.
On Saturday, the editors at Slashdot posted an article linking to the interactive starship size comparison chart that has been mentioned here at Flare a few times. That site succumbed to the horde almost immediately, and other visitors posted alternative sources -- unfortunately, mine was one of the first in the list.
And in the space of only twelve hours, my site received nearly 10,000 visitors, and consuming over 4 gigabytes of bandwidth.
I never expected the "unlimited bandwidth" that other hosts offer, especially after Bernd's "Strato-strophe" last year. My site has never needed more than 5 GB allowance -- the monthly average for my site over the last year has hovered somewhere around 4 GB total. So I never gave my bandwidth a second thought, although I was planning to buy a different hosting plan with a larger allowance (probably 10 GB) this summer when my current account expires.
Just to demonstrate how gory this incident got, I'll show you my usage charts -- posted on Flare Upload instead of on my own site, naturally.
Unfortunately, my current host's policy does not include any allowance for one-time bandwidth overflow, and the only throttling that occurs is when the total monthly allowance is reached. Therefore, if I don't pay them any more money, my website is going to be offline for the rest of the month!
*sigh*
(A mostly jesting comment: anyone ever tried DoS'ing Slashdot in retaliation?)
Posted by Mucus (Member # 24) on :
Whoa, I actually saw that reference to your site, but I only thought "hey, I know that guy" and moved on. IIRC, the reference to your site was actually pretty far down the comments, even when sorted by "highest scores first." That just makes it that much more scarey/amusing. If it makes you feel any better, apparantly the original linked site was hosted on a home computer and went down after only about a minute.
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
Well, that person is actually lucky, because he can probably put the site back up when the attention has moved elsewhere -- assuming that his ISP isn't giving him grief.
Me, I'm going to have to either pay $16-$20 for additional bandwidth, or else wait until May 1 for my site to return.
Oh, and just to prove how ludicrous this situation is, here's a copy of my chart for the monthly average, dating back to last July:
As you can see, I beat my highest monthly total (4.3 GB, March 2003) in a SINGLE DAY (4.6 GB)!
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Uh, you know, this is a bad thing, but it is not a Bad Thing. I mean, "how dare anyone look at my site!"? Eh. The internet needs to be made better.
Posted by Cartmaniac (Member # 256) on :
Internet 2! Pesky scientists, reserving it all for themselves.
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
What was the topic your site's link listed under?
Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
They should notify the adressee a day or two before releasing articles like that, if it's to be a beneficial gesture.
You have comparison charts? Other than Bernd's? I want to see.
What was the name of that blue site with black-white ship pictures on a fine grid mesh? Sapphire-Eclipse? Does it still exist?
Posted by Cartmaniac (Member # 256) on :
quote:Originally posted by Sol System: Uh, you know, this is a bad thing, but it is not a Bad Thing. I mean, "how dare anyone look at my site!"? Eh. The internet needs to be made better.
Oh, I'm not mad that people are looking at my site! I'm just mad that SO MANY were looking at my site that now no one can look at it at all for the next 16 days... As Nim pointed out, they really should notify the webmasters of sites they're going to link to before they do it. Although in this case it wouldn't have done me any good because the link to my site was actually just in a reader response message, and those are unmoderated AFIK.
For those interested, the original /. article is here: Comparing Sci-Fi Starships.
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
quote:Originally posted by Nim: What was the name of that blue site with black-white ship pictures on a fine grid mesh? Sapphire-Eclipse? Does it still exist?
That is/was The Vorlon's site I'm guessing you are talking about.
Posted by Siegfried (Member # 29) on :
Sorry to hear about your site, MinutiaeMan. Does this mean Renaissance is down as well, or is it residing on another account?
Also, as a side note until you can get your site back up and running, I visited your site last week. I think you're still having problems with your hotlink protection script since every image on the front page was replaced by your "Access Denied" graphic.
Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
And? He is alright? I think I saw him in a thread a couple of days ago, does he have a new seite?
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
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![[Smile]](smile.gif)