From site owner and server admin mingstar: Subject: [Bogleheads forum site access issues]
Hi folks,
The "access issues" are from me.
Over the past few days we've been having heavy service issues due to BOTs.
They're arriving in very large groups. and, while no single BOT is doing a lot, together, they're driving the load up to the point that the site is crippled.
Often, they will stay for only a few minutes, less than five minutes, then depart; only to be followed by another wave from a completely separate group of addresses.
This makes identifying the culprits difficult. By the time I can make a reasonable guess about who's causing trouble, my opponents have tagged out and a new set has entered the fray.
I've had to cast a wide net to bring the load down, sometimes by blocking entire Class B subnets.
This has the side effect of blocking some legitimate users, as well.
I'm still studying the behavior of the BOTs in the hope that I can learn to identify them rapidly. I spent most of the day looking at the problem and, while I have some ideas, I'm not sure it will be much better than what I've been doing already.
Statistics: Posted by LadyGeek — Sun Feb 16, 2025 7:19 pm