hackers

If you have an image in your sig like you do, there are tons of people pulling that image everytime they open a thread that you posted in. That's probably where the traffic is coming from.

Also, search engines are probably spidering your site too. If someone "hacked" you, they would probably do damage.

Do you have a firewall? I have Norton Internet Security and it tells me when I've been "attacked" and it blocks the attack and gives me the IP address and then it traces the IP address and gives me contact numbers for the ISP to report it.....it takes some time to trace the ISP sometimes because it's not actually the ISP, but someone contracted out to run the ISP that the information is for.....

i agree with jko

Get Zone Alarm!!

If you don't have a firewall protection I highly suggest you get one. I agree with everyone here. Zone Alarm is a firewall that will protect you from hackers. I have it and it works wonders.

jko said:

If you have an image in your sig like you do, there are tons of people pulling that image everytime they open a thread that you posted in. That's probably where the traffic is coming from.

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Yup, this is the most likely explanation. Every time a file is transferred from a site, that counts as a "hit". It doesn't matter whether it's an html file, image file or whatever.

jono1, see if you have an access.log file (or some other file like it) for your site. This file should contain all individual instances of files being transferred from your site. If most of the files being transferred are your sig pics, then you'll know for sure.

jono1 said:

i'll have a look at my log files today and see there..hmm
but how can having 2kb signature pics like mine mean more hits than having a web site up?

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Because every time a file (including images) is requested from your server it counts as a "hit". It doesn't matter whether someone visits your site or not.

For example, suppose you make a post on a message board and 100 people view that message. Because you have used a signature pic in your post linked to your site, those 100 people will be downloading that picture directly from your site. And that would result in 100 "hits" to your site.

And if you're posting on fairly active message boards, it doesn't surprise me you'd run up so many hits in such a short time.

Yeah, everytime someone views a thread that you posted in, your image would get hit.... now then, consider that there are 16,000 members on here, usually 500-800 or so at a time...

It'd rack up pretty quickly.

Bah, I hate zone alarm. Kerio Personal Firewall is awesome. ;

Yes, you don't need a firewall. He is talking about his webhost, not his own connection... As for software firewalls... what a waste. Get a hardware firewall.

jko said:

Yes, you don't need a firewall. He is talking about his webhost, not his own connection... As for software firewalls... what a waste. Get a hardware firewall.

Click to expand...

ha ha.
why are software firewalls a waste, pray eludicate us?

Hacker = A person who experiments with entering the computers of other people for the fun of it without the intention of doing harm. There are actually thousand upon thousands of people that just scan the web just in order to see how many open systems they can find. Hackers are also very helpful for Microsoft, the makers of software with the most bugs and holes in the world. Microsoft actually hires hackers to find security holes in Windows. By doing this, Microsoft is attempting to catch their holes and glitches before someone takes advantage of them and uses them for destruction.


Cracker = A person often mislabled as a hacker. Crackers are the people who are truly worth fearing. Crackers are the people that make things like worms, torjan horses, and other nasty stuff we seem to be so familiar with. Crackers search for open systems intending to do them harm. Crackers are the kind of people for whom we really need to watch out.


Mac OS 10 = Without a doubt the ideal operating system. Mac OS 10 runs on a form of the UNIX kernel. The UNIX kernel was a side project of AT&T which resulted in one of the most stable and dependable kernels in the world. UNIX has been in developement for over 30 years and it is now basically perfected. It can run on any type of system, and it's what holds Mac OS 10 together. Made by Apple Computer, Mac OS 10.3 is the latest and most impressive version of the Mac OS ever. Unlike Windows XP, or soon-to-come Longhorn, Mac OS 10.3 supports both parallel processing, and 64-bit processors. Mac OS is the driving force behind Hollywood movie developement. Because the UNIX kernel partitions RAM, problems such as memory leaks and defragmentation have become a thing of the past. With it's rock-hard security, UNIX is, by far, most trusted in servers all over the world. Thanks to the quality of the UNIX kernel, UNIX servers have the ability to remain fully functional longer than the hardware on which they run. If you worry about being cracked, Mac OS 10 is ideal for you. For more information, visit Apple Computer, and find a solution to your problems with Windows!

That's a DOS attack, not entirely uncommon. Ask for the IP of the requesters, and if it's DOS then you'll see hundreds of thousands (low end estimate, most DOS attacks work on the principle of several BILLION requests per hour) of requests. Use a DOS blocker and you'll be ok.

hardware firewall, jko, on a 56k connection?

yes you can link to the photo gallery