On 16 June 2014 there was a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack on Ancestry.com, which hosts the Rootsweb mailing lists.
These mailing lists are still down after a week, and there's been no information about when they will be working again.
This has affected some of the lists dealing with parts of Africa, especially the southern African ones.
Until they are working again, people who are feeling cut off are welcome to post things in the general African genealogy list, which is not hosted by Rootsweb and so is still working. After all, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape are just as much part of Africa as Tunisia, Mauretania and Somalia.
African genealogy list
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/afgen/
Group Email Addresses
Post message: afgen@yahoogroups.com
Subscribe: afgen-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Unsubscribe: afgen-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
I've posted this to some of the people who I know have recently been active in the southern African Rootsweb lists.
When the Rootsweb lists are working again, of course you can go back to posting material of purely local interest in the specialist local lists, but I hope you will continue to post material of general African interest
in the African list.
Showing posts with label DDos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DDos. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
Thursday, June 19, 2014
Ancestry.com, Mundia, Find-a-Grave, DDoS attacks & closures
Over the last few days it has been difficult to get into some genealogy sites, including Ancestry.com, Find-a-Grave, Mundia and others. Rumours and conflicting reports have abounded. One story was that there was a DDod (Distributed Denial of Service) attack on the servers. It's not clear why anyone should attack generalogy sites, but perhaps they did.
It also seems that reports that the attack had been neutralised are premature, since I've had no mail from any of the Rootsweb mailing lists since 16 June -- unless the mailing lists are one of the services that Ancestry is dropping, as described below.
Another story is that Ancestry.com are planning to retire some of their services -- see here Genea-Musings: BIG News from Ancestry.com - Announcing Retirement of Several Features and Websites:
That is rather sad. Mundia was a bit clunky, but it was a kind of "Ancestry-lite" for those who couldn't afford the full subscription to Ancestry.com.
The DDoS reports also seem to be true, as some Ancestry services, like the Rootsweb mailing lists, appear to be suffering from delays. And it had a weird spin-off for us this morning. We've started getting phone calls from people wanting the Castle Wine and Brandy Company.
Very odd, since if you go to the web site of the Castle Wine and Brandy Company, their phone number is clear, and it is not ours.
But if you search for it on Google, the top three search results are:
And other search engines (eg Bing) are not much different.
So what seems to have happened is that the extra traffic generated by the DDoS attack has pushed the old Rootsweb messages up in the search engine rankings (did any of the SEO fundis predict this?)
The bad news is that Castle Wine and Brandy may lose some business, and I may get some nuisance phone calls. Also, that responses on Rootsweb lists may be slow as the servers try to cope with the bombardment.
The good news is that some old and long-forgotten genealogy queries may float to the top of Google and other searches, and so researchers might get some responses from people who might otherwise never have seen them.
It also seems that reports that the attack had been neutralised are premature, since I've had no mail from any of the Rootsweb mailing lists since 16 June -- unless the mailing lists are one of the services that Ancestry is dropping, as described below.
Another story is that Ancestry.com are planning to retire some of their services -- see here Genea-Musings: BIG News from Ancestry.com - Announcing Retirement of Several Features and Websites:
Mundia.com Retirement:
* Mundia trees have always been part of Ancestry and are available in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Swedish.
* Members can download the family trees they've created in Mundia in their native language before 5 September 2014.
* Mundia trees can be accessed for free on Ancestry.com.
That is rather sad. Mundia was a bit clunky, but it was a kind of "Ancestry-lite" for those who couldn't afford the full subscription to Ancestry.com.
The DDoS reports also seem to be true, as some Ancestry services, like the Rootsweb mailing lists, appear to be suffering from delays. And it had a weird spin-off for us this morning. We've started getting phone calls from people wanting the Castle Wine and Brandy Company.
Very odd, since if you go to the web site of the Castle Wine and Brandy Company, their phone number is clear, and it is not ours.
But if you search for it on Google, the top three search results are:
[SOUTH-AFRICA] Castle Wine & Brandy Co. - Archiver
archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com › SOUTH-AFRICA › 2007-09From: "Steve Hayes" <> Subject: Re: [SOUTH-AFRICA] Castle Wine & Brandy Co. Date: Sun, 09 Sep 2007 18:06:44 +0200. In-Reply-To: ...[SOUTH-AFRICA] Castle Wine & Brandy Co. - Archiver
archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com › SOUTH-AFRICA › 2007-09From: "Rod Gebhardt" <> Subject: [SOUTH-AFRICA] Castle Wine & Brandy Co. Date: Sun, 9 Sep 2007 09:57:06 +0200. Good Morning to all, I am trying to find ...[SOUTH-AFRICA] Castle Wine & Brandy Co. - Archiver
archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com › SOUTH-AFRICA › 2007-09From: Andrew Rodger <> Subject: Re: [SOUTH-AFRICA] Castle Wine & Brandy Co. Date: Sun, 9 Sep 2007 23:12:45 +1000. References: ...
And other search engines (eg Bing) are not much different.
So what seems to have happened is that the extra traffic generated by the DDoS attack has pushed the old Rootsweb messages up in the search engine rankings (did any of the SEO fundis predict this?)
The bad news is that Castle Wine and Brandy may lose some business, and I may get some nuisance phone calls. Also, that responses on Rootsweb lists may be slow as the servers try to cope with the bombardment.
The good news is that some old and long-forgotten genealogy queries may float to the top of Google and other searches, and so researchers might get some responses from people who might otherwise never have seen them.
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