Computer Related > Secure connection to site	Miscellaneous
Thread Author: Rudedog	Replies: 24

Sun 5 Oct 25 09:45   Secure connection to site - Rudedog

Increasingly I can't load up a page from this site as my browser is saying 'it can't establish a secure connection to the server "www.car4play.com" I'm using Safari but I've tried Edge & Chrome with the same results. Is there something I should do at my end to make this work? Reply to this message | Report message

Sun 5 Oct 25 09:48   Secure connection to site - Zero

Me too, getting. This site can’t be reached The connection was reset. Try: Checking the connection Checking the proxy and the firewall ERR_CONNECTION_RESET Reply to this message | Report message

Sun 5 Oct 25 11:43   Secure connection to site - smokie

Not seeing a problem here at the moment, on two browsers. That's not to say there isn; tone. What are you ding immediately before the error comes up? E.g. click the New Post button? What do you do to make it not happen? Or does it just go away? If so, quickly or takes ages? EDIT: It just happened to me, as I posted this!! Will report to the tech team. Last edited by: smokie on Sun 5 Oct 25 at 11:44 Reply to this message | Report message

Sun 5 Oct 25 12:14   Secure connection to site - James Loveless

Happens to me frequently. Usually it goes away if I re-load the page. Reply to this message | Report message

Sun 5 Oct 25 16:36   Secure connection to site - Rudedog

I've tried several times now to post with most being lost to the 'site not secure' issue. This site is now blocked on my work PC due to it coming up as not secure. Reply to this message | Report message

Sun 5 Oct 25 18:44   Secure connection to site - Dave

I got it a few times when I hit the page back button, or swiped right, on Chrome browser. Reply to this message | Report message

Sun 5 Oct 25 18:45   Secure connection to site - Dave

I got it a few times when I hit the page back button, or swiped right, on Chrome browser. Also just now when I hit Post for this message. Reply to this message | Report message

Sun 5 Oct 25 19:48   Secure connection to site - smokie

Feels to me like a response time issue from our server. Maybe the denial of service attack from a couple of weeks back has resumed Reply to this message | Report message

Mon 6 Oct 25 13:19   Secure connection to site - Gibbo

I'm getting JS errors today Reply to this message | Report message

Sat 11 Oct 25 22:40   Secure connection to site - Rudedog

I thought this had gone away as the past few days have been working fine but this evening it seems to vie returned with vengeance - almost every page I've tried viewing I've had to reload several times to get past the 'insecure site' warning. Hope things are ok. Reply to this message | Report message

Sun 12 Oct 25 11:29   Secure connection to site - sooty123

Same here this morning. Reply to this message | Report message

Sun 12 Oct 25 11:39   Secure connection to site - Bromptonaut

>> Same here this morning. Seems OK again now but it was bad earlier on. Smokie is aware and had messaged Stephen Khoo. Reply to this message | Report message

Mon 13 Oct 25 09:42   Secure connection to site - Falkirk Bairn

Not really running at a usable speed just now. Was better at 6.30am today Reply to this message | Report message

Mon 13 Oct 25 20:53   Secure connection to site - Rudedog

Almost unusable for me right now. Having to reload pages maybe 5 - 6 times before they appear. Reply to this message | Report message

Mon 13 Oct 25 22:09   Secure connection to site - car4play

Sorry guys. They have been DDOSing the cycling forum all day. Poor server is at 100% since 5am. I have tweaked around with the dynamic firewall settings so it blocks by sets, which is far more efficient than individual IP addresses. It scans the logs for IPs and adds them to the list as it goes, but the trouble is the logs are very large now and there are thousands of IP address being blocked in addition to the whole ranged I blocked last month. If I controlled the DNS for the cycling forum I could send it to another place and give the server a break. Reply to this message | Report message

Mon 13 Oct 25 22:11   Secure connection to site - car4play

I have asked them to send the cycling forum to somewhere else just to give us a break Reply to this message | Report message

Mon 13 Oct 25 22:23   Secure connection to site - Kevin

Is it at HTTP layer? Reply to this message | Report message

Mon 13 Oct 25 23:07   Secure connection to site - car4play

Yes. 443 I got hold of the cycling forum DNS and sent it to 127.0.0.1 Lo and behold this server might get a break from the relentless attacks Reply to this message | Report message

Mon 13 Oct 25 23:10   Secure connection to site - car4play

It’s already much quicker -yay Reply to this message | Report message

Mon 13 Oct 25 23:18   Secure connection to site - smokie

Sorry everyone for the ongoing problems. This repeats some of what has been said above but I'm trying to summarise the whole situation esp for the benefit of those less savvy. It is still to do with a cycling forum with which we share a server being the target of a denial of service attack - causing the processor and network to be saturated. Increasing the power of the processor soon got swallowed up as it just expanded to use all available resource. The attack is coming from thousands of IP addresses so cannot easily be blocked. These likely include bots which have been installed on unsuspecting users PCs and devices - a good reason to make sure your own PC is secure!! There is a program analysing the log files for anything useful but the files are massive so it is taking a long time. The firewall has been reconfigured to try to improve it's blocking capability. And a change has been made to the cycling forum config which ought to divert the traffic, but it will take time for that change to propagate around t'internet. I was sent some performance graphs showing when the attack begins. the network and processor utilisation is barely visible long the x-axis then the second it hits both go to a fairly consistent 100% usage, meaning you get slow responses and your browser doesn't like that so times them out. So there 's the explanation for what's happening and how we're trying to address it. I hope it's successful, and that it is a lasting solution but tbh these things are an absolute nightmare to manage even for a really professional IT outfit and it's often difficult to know exactly how it will pan out in the longer term. Last edited by: smokie on Mon 13 Oct 25 at 23:43 Reply to this message | Report message

Tue 14 Oct 25 00:16   Secure connection to site - Kevin

Are they all HTTP GETs to the cycling home page, a mixture of GET and PUTs, or a selection of different pages? Reply to this message | Report message

Tue 14 Oct 25 06:03   Secure connection to site - car4play

All getting a tiny image. Edit: this morning for those who love stats - since 10pm last night 130,000 IP addresses added to the ban list - that is on top of the whole ranges of millions already blocked - 1GB of web server log for the day - and that is with the IP blocker in place Sorry it's been so lousy on here as a result Last edited by: car4play on Tue 14 Oct 25 at 09:20 Reply to this message | Report message

Tue 14 Oct 25 09:52   Secure connection to site - sherlock47

Looks good this morning. Reply to this message | Report message

Tue 14 Oct 25 15:26   Secure connection to site - James Loveless

Yes, it all seems fine. Thanks to Stephen and co. Reply to this message | Report message

Tue 14 Oct 25 18:55   Secure connection to site - car4play

Thanks. It's been whizzy now. I put the cycling forum back up and that is also whizzing. I did what I should have done right at the start - put the cycling forum behind CloudFlare. Their free-tier blocks DDoS attacks and there is nothing like having a giant defend you from the baddies. Seems to work really well. It's one to consider here if we ever get attacked in the same way. Reply to this message | Report message