DDos attack - A viable solution for PC users

I found a viable solution for Wikiloopers on PC.
I downloaded the Opera browser with a free VPN client.
After installation, it must be activated by going to the browser settings.
After activation, access to the Wikiloops server was restored.
Get the word out
Thanks by advance... 🤟

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Hey,
this might be a great temporary fix, but I'm also working on finding and fixing the underlying issue - we just can't expect everybody to switch browsers, and Opera really is not a widely used one.

One thing I can report after doing some deeper investigation is that obviously the wav conversion tool has once more been struck, wav upload tests all failed, whilst mp3 uploads went thru allright (filesize doesn't make the difference, my test mp3 was actually larger than the wav file, it is the converter...).

I'll keep checking things, got a day of work at the office left tomorrow, but hoping to be able to come up with a solution soon. 2019 is a rough server maintenance year it seems :/ thanks for your patience and help!

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... afterthought:
there is a slight chance that the "server doesn't respond" messages some of you have seen in the past days have been stored to your browsers cache ad are still showing when you revisit any wikiloops page. Please keepin mind to reload the pages with ctrl+F5 to make sure such cached pages are refreshed... I never understood why on earth such pages arecached, but some browsers seem to do that...
Regions China & Russia are still blocked from access as for now, the rest of the globe should be able to pass the firewall.
Just sharing some additional info, sorry for spamming your thread Mr.Bassman ;)

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Hi everybody :)

I can confirm that the problem, here in Milan/Italy, is the .wav format of the uploads.

Just uploaded a new remix in mp3 and everything works fine, without using any vpn client :)

Cheers :)

Using Opera's (with free VPN client) should not be a permanent solution, but just allow the impacted Wikiloopers to access Wikiloops services.
This is the only circumvention solution I found and put in place to ensure my access to the site.
For me, my default browser is Mozilla's Firefox and it will remain so. I dedicate Opera to my exchanges with you, waiting for a definitive solution to your server problems (network).
At the time I write this Post, France can be added to Russia and China because still no access without VPN connection.
On the other hand, and in response to Richard's Post in Wikiloopers this morning, your hosting provider has made the arbitrary decision to block access to your servers from certain parts of the globe.
I wonder how responsible they are in a denial of service attack targeting the network for which they are responsible.
In my opinion, they have an obligation of result in the quality of service they "sell" to you.
When I was still in operation for a large French IT group, the hosts responsible for this type of malfunction were charged penalties for non-compliance with contractual obligations binding them to their customers.
Finally, I don't see the correlation between the attack on Wikiloops and the problem of converting audio format. I could notice that both formats are MP3 and Wav.
Does this converter work in both directions? Download and Upload? Converting a Wav file to MP3 at reception, and MP3 to Wav for download by Wikiloops?
Why not, in this case, maintain ONLY the MP3 format, considered to be of lower quality than Wav because it is more compressed, but also less data intensive?
I am done with my questions and would like to thank and pay tribute to Dick, Richard, Tee Gee and all those of the team who care about preserving our community tool. Sincerely,
:W
Bassman78fr

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Thank you Phil for your tip, I put the Vpn OPERA it works, but I wonder if I will not change the OPERAteur "Free" because "Orange" works ?

I'm not as tech savvy as most, screwing in light bulbs and screwing up my own music is as good as it gets with me so I'm not really sure if this will help anyone who is still having a problem connecting to this site. After spending a very frustrating 24hrs a couple of days ago trying to self diagnose the problem and checking 'Is it down for everyone or just me' type sites I read somewhere that if all else fails just unplug the wireless router for a about 30secs then plug it back in. Low and behold it worked like magic and I'm back doing what I like best, screwing up my music :W:)
It didn't cure the problem of not being able to upload wav files but made me realize how much faster it is saving and uploading files as MP3s. The difference in sound quality for me is not noticeable enough to worry about. Thanks to all involved in keeping this global music ship afloat! <3

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Edited by bluvation on August 08 2019 16:03

...just make sure to set the MP3 on the highest setting :) And if someone needs an HD track afterwards for mixing, one can always request it - we are a friendly bunch after all :)

hey all,
the wav converter is back working by now.
It will take some more time until the at-the-moment-still-blocked IPs are being unblocked again, as we will be migrating wikiloops to another server before that happens.
Migration is scheduled for 2am Berlin time tonight, six hours ahead of the time of writing this.
Yes, we will have some expectable complete downtime as that switch is happening, but I'm in good hope the lights will go on without any need for VPN after that.
Please do keep me updated.

Now, for the more tech savy folks, a little tale of what actually happened in technical terms.
The wary server support folks of our provider didn't only cut down the allowed countries to 5 (in words: FIVE) countries (DE, CH, US, IT and one more lucky one...) via .htaccess restricton, but obviously also installed some IP-Range blocks on top of that.
I could remove the .htaccess restricitons myself, but the IP blocks are outside of my current scope of access, and actually also blocked wikiloops own wav-conversion-servers attempts to do its job... quite a bit of overkill on the defense end there.

After eight years of battling these excellent support folks several times per year (quote: "we are sorry your feel our security measures are not ideal for your project"), I guess I'm giving up the fights and moving the project to a more customizable setup at the cost of yet again more server budget.
I'm sorry this "mishap" happened, being the second major sever issue this year.
Hope to see you on a better infrastructure from tomorrow morning on and have a stable & globally reachable wikiloops back by this weekend.
all the best!

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Thank you Dick for keeping us updated :)

Thank you Dick!
Fingers crossed the migration will work smoothly! I have to say, our great community has been so patient and understanding these past 2 days, I am sure they will hang on for a while longer. Being around such cool people gives me a fuzzy feeling in my heart <3

Yes I'll do that, thanks. If the wav upload is fixed I'll always be happy to upload a HD file! :W:)

Richard, you are a big Hero!! You never know what you got until it's gone, it's a frightening thought to not get back into the loops....

So yeah man you rock big time!!!!

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