Forum Security Update

maltrab

maltrab

Administrator
Staff member
Tony has been very busy protecting the forum/website from the endless hack attempts,as an added security level the system will now block attempts to log in to the forum from a user who uses the incorrect password three times, this will block the user at the ip address level, so you may not even be able to access the site full stop.

So it is important that you have your password written down and keep it somewhere safe, don't just rely on your web browser remembering it for you, if you do find yourself blocked then you can contact admin via the Contact Us form at the bottom of the Forum Pages, when you do give us as much information as possible, i.e your user name (Not the Password) ,email address and if possible you normal ip address, you can use this site and it will tell you your ip address http://www.whatsmyip.org/

If you are completely blocked from the site you will have to beg a friend or neighbour to access the site via their internet, so that you can get to the site first, once we receive your details we can reset your password and send you the details, we cannot see you current password,we can also unblock your ip address.

If you happen to keep in touch with other forum members via email, you can always contact them and explain you are blocked and they can make contact on your behalf , again make sure you give them all the above details.

If you are on one of the LOSW facebook pages, you can contact one of the admin via messenger and we can sort it out for you,Please do not just post it in the groups, it could get overlooked and it is not a good place to post personal info

So I ask once again please keep your password safe, it will avoid any hassle
Terry
 
You can check your IP from your windows device . In the search bar just type Command and select Command prompt desktop app which opens up a window . If you type ipconfig and press send it will show you your ip address . If someone does manage to lock themselves out most broadband suppliers offer up what is a class C private ip address space so if Tony is blocking on an individual address all may not be lost because you can change the ip address to another in the class C range manually by configuring it on your device's network adapter[wireless or hard wired].

From the same command window if you type arp -a it will show you all of the ip addresses being used by any devices on your network .

I would be happy to write a step by step guide on how to manually change your ip address or indeed you can get instructions from the net if it helps.
 
...and the advice given in last two installments here only works if your computer is attached to Internet without any NAT'ting device (Network address translation).

Internet Protocol (IP) address translation between your home network and outside world is used to separate you and your home network from the great outdoors. I assume most of Summerwine.net followers have some sort of adapter between the Internet proper (Wide Area Network -- WAN) and home network (LAN, Local area network). This adapter will change your computer's network address when connection passes through. If one uses "ipconfig /A" in Windows (or "ifconfig" in Linux etc), most of us will see the IP (Internet protocol) address that begins with "192.168...". Those are local address, not the addresses in the outside world's Internet, i.e the one that the summerwine.net will see. If you have some sort of adapter between the Internet (WAN) and your home network (LAN) I would stronly advice aginst tampering with the WAN side IP address of your adapter unless you really know what you're doing.

Using your web browser and typing "ip address" to Google search, you will most probably see your public IP address. That is the address that the Internet outside your home sees you using, and that is what summerwine.net will see, and block. That address is most probably used by ton of users depending on your Internet Service Provider (ISP).

You may be surprised that all other computers in your home network will show the same WAN side IP address when viewed through google, even though the IP address found using ipconfig is different. My advice is that you should not tamper with your computer's own IP address either, as chances are that you loose connection to your home network.

So, be careful when typing in your password, as you may block summerwine.net access of your neighbours as well :)

[sorry: most if not all was already said by Tony/Maltrab]
 
Last edited:
I agree PSi your address will be Nat'd as most ISPs / Broadband providers offer up common private addressing for use in the confines of your own home normally in the 192.168.0.0 space . The crux of the problem is if your ISP NAT's your address space , regardless of which device calls out from your home network, to the same WAN side IP address then password management is critical as you say PSi . I only have a single device attached that would communicate to the web so I cannot confirm without amending my IP address which would be a pointless exercise anyway as we all have different ISP's/Broadband providers.
 
and thats why using Terry's link http://www.whatsmyip.org/ is the easiest and best suggestion!!

Though I do keep a permanent eye (well, a software one anyway) on all that's happening, plus the new firewall I have installed on the web server will email me, message me and probably poke me in the back when an IP has tripped the triple failure, so if I see a recognised name (forum member) and the IP is definitely from the area that member is from then I will unblock it immediately.
 
Last edited:
I can't fathom why hackers would want to target our little site. Unless it is just for sh*ts and giggles on their part. :confused:
 
I wish I was able to convey just how much of a constant this problem is. I can safely state that our web server, as a whole, will have anywhere upwards of 300 hack attempts in any one 24 hour period. I'm just eternally grateful that the authors of the server software (cPanel/WHM, CentOS and ConfigServer Firewall) are on top of the job, total respect to those guys.

:03::03:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top