I Do Believe We've Been Invaded

[Elvellon]

Not sure if this is helpful, but dropping this here:

https://forum.vbulletin.com/forum/vb...09#post4482109

[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by Elvellon

Not sure if this is helpful, but dropping this here:

https://forum.vbulletin.com/forum/vb...09#post4482109

If accurate, this idea would seem like a good solution:

Originally Posted by The link

You can also reduce load for your registered users by increasing the value of the Minutes to Cache Content for Guests option on the same page. Guests don't need up to the second updates on content. So you can set this to 5 or even 10 minutes.

So guests (including real guests) would only get a new snapshot of the site every few minutes, while logged-in users would still get it in real-time. My limited understanding of IT systems says this ought to work - not to get rid of the bots, but to stop the 508 errors almost completely.

hS

[Huinesoron]

I don't want to jinx it, but the numbers I wrote a few posts above were all 3000+; since I stopped recording them, I've only seen one 3000+ guest count, with everything else being in the 2000s. (I think I saw a 2400 at one point!) Maaaaybe the bots are slowly winding down?

16 Aug, 09:48 GMT+1: 2874 guests.
16 Aug, 11:43 GMT+1: 2750 guests
16 Aug, 12:54 GMT+1: 2855 guests
16 Aug, 14:14 GMT+1: 2806 guests
16 Aug, 22:36 GMT+1: 2803 guests
17 Aug 14:32 GMT+1: 2755 guests
17 Aug 21:34 GMT+1: 2747 guests
17 Aug 22:47 GMT+1: 2675 guests
19 Aug 10:25 GMT+1: 2817 guests
19 Aug 13:48 GMT+1: 2949 guests
20 Aug 13:48 GMT+1: 2604 guests. Earlier today I noticed another 26xx and a 27xx.
20 Aug 14:36 GMT+1: 2651 guests

hS

[Huinesoron]

I've kept tracking guest counts occasionally, and over the past 5 days it kind of looks like there's a pattern:



The bottom of the "trough" on the 22nd is at 1pm GMT+1, which means if this pattern is real and not just a data artefact, the bots are cycling from ~2600 at GMT noon to ~3000 at GMT midnight and back.

I'm not sure that qualifies as useful information, unfortunately.

EDIT: I've also just had my daily "this website has no security certificate and is going to eat your computer" warning at 1pm GMT+1. I'm not sure if that's my computer waiting a day between sending the message, or if the Downs does something at GMT noon that could be linked to both issues.

hS