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AVG Backs Down From Flooding the Internet
Simon Wright writes "As a website that is featured heavily in many Google Australia search results, Whirlpool (Australia's largest technology forum) has been particularly affected by AVG's LinkScanner. We've seen a traffic increase as much as 12 hits per second from these bots. So we've actively and loudly campaigned against this move by AVG, encouraging all users of AVG 8.0 to uninstall the product. The discussion starts here. And AVG's backing down is posted here."
From that URL:"'As promised, I am letting you know that the latest update for AVG Free edition has addressed and rectified the issue that [Whirlpool] have brought to our attention. This update has now been released to users and has also been built into the latest installation package for AVG Free.' — Peter Cameron, Managing Director, AVG Australia."
I use AVG... and was watching this.
I'm sure they thought it was a good idea, and sometimes good companies make bad moves.... I got AVG because leo laporte reccomended it, and dammit, i like leo.
But things change over time... is AVG still a good free AVG prog? And I dont mean just because of this controversy, they made good on it and responded. I mean the long haul.
There's nothing Intelligent about Intelligent Design.
See: http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1007329&p=13#r256
The fix has been independently tested.
Cheers WTW
Simon has state that the server normally deals with 50 queries / second.
So 12 more / second is quite a bit of load.
Cheers WTW
Users of Zeus Technology's ZXTM could use the following TrafficScript rule to protect themselves from AVG's DDoS attacks:
if( http.getHeader("Accept-Encoding") == "" &&
http.getHeader("Referer") == "" )
{
$ua = http.getHeader("User-Agent");
if( $ua == "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1)"||
$ua == "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1;1813)"||
$ua == "User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1)"||
$ua == "User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1;1813)" )
{
connection.discard();
}
}
The single web server that powers Whirlpool is typically handling 30 to 40 non-cached template requests per second. We've got over 15 gigabytes worth of user posts online, and receive hundreds of referrals from Google every minute.
Given that it's running on a 4-year-old web server (in tandem with another 4-year-old MySQL box), I think ColdFusion is doing pretty well for itself.
Cheers
Simon Wright
Computers are useless: they can only give you answers. -- Pablo Picasso
This is what I'm switching to:
http://www.moonsecure.com/
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
You do realize that ClamWin currently does not have an on-access scanner, don't you? That means a zero detection rate unless files are manually scanned. Right now, your 'clueless users' are unprotected.
When you're dead, you don't know you're dead. It only affects the people around you. Same thing when you're stupid.
That's 40 requests per second to the web server, not the database. Actually, this custom-built application is quite efficient, because that only translates to around 50-70 queries per second.
MySQL isn't the bottleneck. It's simply running on hardware that's not even a quarter as powerful as it should be if it were commercially operated. And that's before we take into account failover resources or future proofing.
I've seen cases of PHPBB and vB installations, with better hardware than us, unable to handle even a tenth the load we get.
40 requests per second is not a small load for a single website. Whirlpool gets around 1.5 to 2 million non-spider page views per day, plus and additional half million spider hits.
PostgreSQL and Firebird are certainly more comprehensive database stacks, but I'm quite sure they wouldn't match MySQL for efficiency when dealing with these relatively uncomplicated queries. Even if they could provide a nominal improvement, the effort involved in porting the databases and every query in this custom application would be extreme overkill.
Cheers
Simon Wright
Computers are useless: they can only give you answers. -- Pablo Picasso
As the owner of Whirlpool, please moderate the parent as uninformed.
While I'm not in a position to provide an unbiased opinion of WebCentral, they do cater to a very important market -- people who need a premium quality service. If my experience with the $0 service they provide Whirlpool is any indication, WebCentral are not just technically excellent, their support system is outstanding and reactive. I can only imagine how much better they treat the customers who pay them.
Just because you only want the bargain service, doesn't mean everyone does.
And the only reason Whirlpool isn't blazing fast, is because we're running with a bunch of WebCentral's spare hardware. We're a community service, not a business.
Cheers
Simon Wright
Computers are useless: they can only give you answers. -- Pablo Picasso