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When Does Website Monitoring Go Too Far?

jafiwam asks: "Recently, the IT department of the company I work for and a 3rd party monitoring and security firm got into a pissing match about how much monitoring is too much. They either got a hold of a customer list from a former employee or walked our IP space to find our web hosting customers. They then proceeded to sell them monitoring services for things such as server up-time, defacement detection, email up-time and DNS testing. While I welcome anything that lets our customers use the internet effectively, their set of monitoring servers filled an entire 18 gig partition full of web server logs (causing the server to crash on a weekend) and choked an email server with 40k some messages that could not be delivered, and they failed to properly brief the hosting customers about what would happen to their log analysis software when faced with 99% traffic from a small set of IPs. These things caused down-time, lost productivity and a damaged reputation. What is appropriate for monitoring a web site and email server? Who should be allowed to monitor? Where should the give and take lie in this situation? I am interested in finding out what admin-on-the-street has to say about this."

"Though I believe they are a reputable company, they are doing some things I do not think are good: checking for the domain names on the TLD servers once per second, downloading various files from the site once per second, and sending email to themselves once per second.

Our first response was to talk to them and explain what we needed them to do, including a list of IPs that we used for customers so they could adjust their monitoring to suit what we thought was reasonable. They chose to ignore the first discussion and continued to abuse the servers. After the email server required a half-day of cleanup, the CTO simply shut them off at the firewalls. Rather than using the contact information they had, they chose to complain to our mutual customers instead. (I should note we do significant monitoring of the servers ourselves, and typically know if something is wrong within minutes of the event.)

Is this typical behavior of monitoring service companies? I know some of them are not reputable at all (due to spamming) however these guys seem to know what they are doing, and yet managed to effectively attack our mail and web servers, as well as doing some things I would not do to the TLD servers. It is hard to feel justified to shutting off someone else's cash-flow, but at the same time we need to defend servers from over zealous monitoring."

11 of 259 comments (clear)

  1. GRASSHOPPAZ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    WERD JAW00tA lieks teh anelzzzzzz

  2. An interesting hypothesis by Bame+Flait · · Score: -1, Troll

    But when you are homosexual, does it result in increased penis size? What if you are African American and homosexual?

    GNAA! JOIN TODAY!


    Where are my GNAA homies to back me up on this?

  3. Fascinating by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Does this fascinate you?

    ()2========D

    Sup now, lewzserz.

    1. Re:Fascinating by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      O YEAS. ANELZ!!!!!!

  4. Re:How about enforcing a time-based rule? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    you forget you're on slashdot here. The open'ness comes from all corners... Only a fascist government supported monopoly like Microsoft wouldn't allow others to see its own downtime.

    Get a clue man... I mean come on...

  5. What;s up, Loser by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    YOU SUCK

    # portant Stuff: Please try to keep posts on topic. # Try to reply to other people's comments instead of starting new threads. # Read other people's messages before posting your own to avoid simply duplicating what has already been said. # Use a clear subject that describes what your message is about.

  6. NIGGER NIGGER by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Nigger, nigger; tell them lies,
    Black face and bloodshot eyes.
    Crooked toes and crooked nose,
    That's the way a nigger goes!
    (That's how he goes!)

    They're marchin' for equality.
    They'll never be as good as me.
    We won't let him integrate.
    We must always segregate.
    (Keep them in their places!)

    Nigger, nigger; tell them lies,
    Black face and bloodshot eyes.
    Crooked toes and crooked nose,
    That's the way a nigger goes!

    Ole' Martin Luther's got to go.
    That's one thing that we all know.
    We'll take him riding on a rail,
    And lock him in the county jail!

    Niggers want to change our ways,
    With taxes they won't ever pay.
    Monkey lips and kinky hair,
    Living off that ole' welfare.
    (Got their hand out!)

    They might as well give up the fight.
    No federal judge can make them white.
    The job is up to you and me,
    Let's beat the N double ACP
    (Move em' North!)

    Nigger, nigger; tell them lies,
    Black face and bloodshot eyes.
    Crooked toes and crooked nose,
    That's the way a nigger goes!
    That's the way a nigger goes!
    That's the way a nigger goes!
    That's the way a nigger goes!

  7. SHE RAN OFF WITH A NIGGER by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    She ran off with another guy,
    She didn't even say goodbye,
    She'll never find a love like mine, or bigger.
    She took the TV and the stereo,
    She wrote a check for all my dough.
    But to top it off, she ran off with a nigger.

    She ran off with a nigger;
    A six foot eight inch buck.
    He's got a pink Mark Four
    With his name on the door,
    And all I can say is, well... fu...
    Crying out loud, why'd you do me this way?
    If I had a gun I'd pull the trigger.
    She took my car, that's I'd just paid for,
    And she ran off with a nigger.

    It really came as no surprise,
    I guess I saw it in her eyes.
    I knew that it would happen, and it did.
    My pappy said, "I told you so",
    She broke my heart, and now I know,
    I never should have married that black little bitch anyway.

    She ran off with a nigger;
    A six foot eight inch buck.
    He's got a pink Mark Four
    With his name on the door,
    And all I can say is, well... fu...
    Crying out loud, why'd you do me this way?
    If I had a gun I'd pull the trigger.
    She took my car, that's I'd just paid for,
    And she ran off with a nigger.

    Ah, she broke my heart, and tore me apart,
    When she ran off with a nigger.

  8. COON SHOOTIN' BOOGIE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Well, what do you feel like doing tonight, Cooter?
    I think we should go shoot us some coons!
    Well, come on, let's go get in the truck!
    Let's go!

    Well, let's shoot them coons, yeah, one by one.
    Go to your closets and get your guns.
    They're ruining our streets and ruining our towns.
    It's so much fun to, mow them down.

    The boys are in the truck and they're ready to go,
    It's a coon shootin' boogie, don't ya know.
    The boys are in the truck and they're ready to go,
    It's a coon shootin' boogie, don't ya know.

    Well take out your bullets and load up your gun.
    Point it at their heads and let's have some fun.
    Their big fat lips and their kinky ole' hair,
    It's easy to find them, cause they're everywhere.

    The boys are in the truck and they're ready to go,
    It's a coon shootin' boogie, don't ya know.
    The boys are in the truck and they're ready to go,
    It's a coon shootin' boogie, don't ya know.

    Well they're eating their chicken and a-pickin' they're nose.
    Hanging on their stoops, with all their bro's.
    Shoot 'em up good and shoot 'em up dead.
    Put a big noose around that coon's head.

    The boys are in the truck and they're ready to go,
    It's a coon shootin' boogie, don't ya know.
    The boys are in the truck and they're ready to go,
    It's a coon shootin' boogie, don't ya know.

    Well they're smoking their coke,
    And their kids are selling crack.
    Put a big slug right in their back.
    Well tell all your neighbors and tell all your friends,
    It's coon hunting season, once again.

    The boys are in the truck and they're ready to go,
    It's a coon shootin' boogie, don't ya know.
    The boys are in the truck and they're ready to go,
    It's a coon shootin' boogie, don't ya know.

    All right now, here we go.
    Look at that fucker run...

  9. FUCK OFF, WIGGER by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    You look like a nigger.
    You dress like a nigger.
    You talk like a nigger.
    You walk just like a NIGGER!

    You're a white nigger,
    A white nigger,
    A white nigger
    Gonna pull the trigger,
    On a white nigger
    White nigger,
    JIG-A-BOO!

    You're smoking crack.
    You like that rap.
    You want to be black.
    In your tree, from your smack!

    You're a white nigger,
    White nigger,
    White nigger.
    You're a white nigger,
    White nigger.
    JIG-A-BOO!

    Destroy your race!
    Your race deserved.
    You like black girls.
    What you need is a bullet in your head!

    You're a white nigger,
    A white nigger,
    A white nigger,
    Gonna pull the trigger,
    On a white nigger,
    White nigger,
    JIG-A-BOO!

    Look like a nigger.
    Dress like a nigger.
    Talk like a nigger.
    Why do you want to be a NIGGER?

    You're a white nigger,
    White nigger,
    White nigger,
    White nigger.
    You're a white nigger,
    White nigger.
    Pull the trigger on a JIG-A-BOO!

    WHITE NIGGER!

  10. Re:This is asking Slashdot to do your job by teamhasnoi · · Score: 1, Troll
    Yes. Another AC saying "do your job".

    Ask Slashdot is about getting advice from tons of people who may have done, experienced, or researched your particular issue themselves.

    He's not asking /. to do his job, he's asking for input so *he* can do his job.

    If you've gone through life having never asked a question and forged on ahead re-inventing the wheel, please post your name and contact information. I'm sure there are a lot of people who would like to refer you to work for their competitors.

    Allow me to to *your* job.

    First Post! BSD is Dead. Natalie Portman petrified. Does it run Linux? Dear Apple. What's up with you Mac fanatics? In Soviet Russia. Steven King was found dead this morning. You Failed it. YHBT. YHL. HAND.