Is it my computer or the liberal sites I visit? Problems....

[LiberalHeart]

On Du and Firedoglake and Emptywheel's site, I keep getting "Connection interrupted" screens when I click on links (if I can even get to the sites to begin with). All other sites work just fine. What's going on?

[liberalmuse]

1. I get that too.

Who is your ISP?

[LiberalHeart]

16. It's a local cable company. Not one of the national ones.

[ColbertWatcher]

2. Don't know. I'm getting slow connection messages too. n/t

[MichiganVote]

3. Mine is frequently doing that on DU of late too.

[d_b]

4. same here

[notadmblnd]

5. I think it's a DU problem. I keep getting it too

[Historic NY]

6. me too the keyboardists must have taken computer curses.

[DemoRabbit]

7. same problem here

[Mojambo]

8. Browser?

I've been having similar problems on a variety of sites.

Thinking there might be a hiccup with Firefox.

[flvegan]

9. What browser are you using?

[LiberalHeart]

14. Seamonkey.

[EV_Ares]

10. Same here; I think it is that First Dude guy doing something to these liberal sites.

[Egnever]

11. I would bet its a combination of things

Both a rise in legitimate traffic as well as a rise in denial of service type attacks overloading servers.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

17. DoS attacks...

Would not surprise me a bit. DU has been on and off flaky for me for a while now.

[Tallison]

26. What are DoS 'attacks'?

Something besides legitimate telecom snags?

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

31. That is where...

A huge number of page, image or other types of web browser-type requests are sent to a website, to overload the servers. It jams up the pipes coming into the site and slows down the web and database servers to a crawl or slower. Often times, these days, such attacks come from a "botnet", a network of machines all over the internet that have been comprimised with trojan bots on them. They are generally controlled from one central location, usually an obscure IRC network channel, where all the bots are logged into the channel, waiting for the botmaster to issue the commands to start what is called a "botstorm". They can also be used to attack the DNS servers of the hosting company of the site that the botmaster wishes to attack.

I remember a similar situation occurred here during the 2004 elections. From what I understand, it was thousands of requests per hour for one specific image on DU.

Don't ever doubt that this could be what is happening. Don't dismiss it out of hand.

[Tallison]

33. I see...you mean volitional

thanks for 'splainin it.

[YvonneCa]

38. Question. I have XP. On Sunday, there was an EXTRA login...

...there, next to the ones I created. It had a weird number/name next to it and a guitar picture (I think). I deleted it. When I did, I got a message saying others were logged onto my computer and they would loose data if I restarted. No one uses this computer but me. I restarted anyway.I got a message that my computer was at risk...firewall thing.

Ever since, my computer is sluggish...and DU is horrible. What do I do?

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

42. Well, what I would do...

Is save my documents, email addresses and what logins and browser thingies I can and then reinstall the OS.

Once one of those things are on there, it is the best way to proceed.

[ChiciB1]

41. Your Theory Makes Sense... But I Wonder If We Are Just Being Screwed

with in some huge way. You know all the stuff that has been out there about the Internet! I trust NOTHING!

It's not just DU, it's other places too!

[gateley]

12. Someone mentioned this a while ago --

I've only been here but have experienced a few problems.

You'd think some breaking news was hitting the wires, but I don't see any one thing that would cause such a spike in traffic.

Should we don our :tinfoilhat:?

[xyouth]

13. Me too.

Comcast is my provider

[DesertRat]

15. DU has been slow loading for me today

I use Firefox.

[LiberalHeart]

18. It's been happening for a few days for me, but tonight is really the pits.

[Dammit Ann]

19. Yes! Have a mac and charter, has been going on for about 2-3 weeks now.

Tonight, also. Assumed I was paranoid.

[elocs]

23. I have a Mac and Charter also, using Camino and I've had problems with DU. n/t

[Elwood P Dowd]

25. Same here with a Mac & Camino, but I'm using Earthlink DSL.

Only DU has the problem.

[nebenaube]

20. somehow...

I ended up on McDumbfucks and the female antichrist's campaign list. I opened an early voting registration email today, viewed the source for it and Firefox which was open at the time decided to freeze. The Firefox browser hasn't been right since. I'd reboot, but I also have a development environment open with 1602 files linked to CVS open and I don't want to wait a half hour to get everything open and resume working; I'll do that later. (yeah... I know, I need a new computer; dual 400's doesn't cut it anymore.)

[ChiciB1]

21. I Thought Comcast Was Doing It! Glad To Here I'm Not The Only One....

But it's kind of WEIRD! Paranoia & cynicism, something about those two things drive me batty!

[YvonneCa]

34. I thought it was Time Warner...

...:) But, whatever it is, it's been since Sunday evening for me. It started suddenly...when my homepage switched counties and XP added an extra login. I thought I had a virus or had been hacked into. Since then, it's been slow...and there have been connection problems. Weird.

[YvonneCa]

35. Just now, as I posted this, I disconnected three times...

...and when it did come up...My post was SUPERSIZED. What is going on??

[Oilwellian]

43. Yvonne, I'm afraid to say it, but I think you have a virus

and it's a mean one. Just after Sarah Palin was nominated, I was reading a DU thread about her, had several links in it and I clicked on one of them. The website it took me to was a progressive chat forum and within that, there was a link to a video about Sarah Palin. At the time, I was collecting videos on her and of course clicked that link to watch the video when a popup came up and said I had to upgrade RealPlayer to view it. Well, dummy me clicked that link and all hell broke loose. It completely took over my browser, created a new account and locked me out of my C Drive. I tried running it in safe mode and even then, the CDrive wasn't showing up. I was collecting info on Palin's involvement in the aerial hunting of wolves, and when I tried to go to links on the Google about that topic, it took me to hunting sites instead. I knew it was time to shut it down...that I had no control over my computer.

Fortunately my son is a computer geek and he got me back up and running the next day. He said it was a very nasty kernel virus and it took him 6 hours to get rid of the damned thing. Your computer symptoms are similar to what I experienced and suggest you have someone check it out before any further damage is done. Click start, my computer and see if your CDrive is showing. If it's not, you've been bitten by the same thing. Shut it down until you can have someone look at it. Everyone, be very careful where you go on the internet. The "Idon'thavealifesoletmeinfectpeople'scomputerswithavirus" idiots are out in force.

[YvonneCa]

45. Thank you so much for this information. I did check...

...and my c drive is showing. Right now, everything seems to be working fine...even on DU. But I think I will still have someone check things out tomorrow. It may still be a virus...maybe a different one.

Anyway, thank you for your post...it helped. :)

[pokerfan]

48. My antivirus setup

All free....

Antivirus:
AVG

Anti-malware:
Spybot S&D
Adaware

Firefox Add-ons:
McAfee SiteAdvisor (warnings of dangerous sites)
AVG Safesearch (similar to above, different list)
AdBlock Plus w/ Filterset.G (blocks annoying ads and banners)
FlashBlock (stops flash programs from auto running)
NoScript (blocks scripts unless you approve them)

[YvonneCa]

52. You were right about...

...the virus. TW contacted me, too. All has been resolved...after a day and a half of scanning. :7 Thanks again for the help.

[ThePhoenix]

22. No problems here

on my system, all web sites are loading fine for me.

My ISP Is Comcast, and the browsers I use are Opera and IE.

[ChiciB1]

40. My Comcast... Or Whatever Has Been "Blipping" Stuff That Doesn't Make

any sense. Why do I always think DICK CHENEY!! Thinking of him out of the lime light while McLoonery is playing his games isn't a cheery thought!

Even when they're GONE, I bet they won't really be far away! I saw Jebby with the other side the other day and just GROANED! I KNOW he's gonna make a run here in Florida, bet it's gonna be for Senator! Or maybe POTUS. I just KNOW he's not out of my life anyway!

[eshfemme]

46. Comcast has actually instituted a policy of capping bandwidth now.

It's mostly on the sly and not really being publicized but it is, in essence, the very policy that the Net Neutrality movement is fighting against that the companies are going ahead on their own and instituting. Comcast is one of the first companies to be doing this for certain. I don't know if it's possible but maybe switching to another ISP would be in your interest as Comcast will be imposing many more draconian practices with other ISPs looking at the reception of Comcast's covert changes.

Note that this current environment is similar to the spammers who took advantage of the legal vacuum that occurred when technology outpaced the law until various measures started to be passed to prevent their crimes. The telecommunications industry is trying to make it standard protocol for companies to control that Internet access while there is no official standard yet for Net Neutrality in the US. This is similar to making consumers get used to a substandard product so that they don't realize that there is a better product they could receive if they just worked harder for it like the car companies who have the capability of producing high efficiency cars but only sell cars that don't have nearly the amount of efficiency that they could have (like touting a 35 mpg as really good when it's actually possible to have 100 mpg).

Also, it's entirely possible that the recent problems with Internet access is because our IT infrastructure is now just as outdated as our other infrastructures. We may have been the birthplace of the Internet but we are now 15th in the world terms of our broadband access/quality because no one in the GOP dominated years re-invested in the infrastructure that had been built already (compared to our 4th place in 2001-- a lot can happen in 8 years huh?). South Korea, Japan and Finland are the top 3 and that's because they made a concerted effort in investing in technology that they knew was the future. It was a sure bet for the government to invest that money and what does the US government invest money in? War, incompetency and bad loans.

The Patriot Act is also an adverse effect on the actual establishment of infrastructure because companies are wary of establishing Internet node points, which control the flow of Internet traffic, due to the sensitive information that would need to be made accessible to the CIA and FBI under the Patriot Act, which also marks a decline in the ability of the US to combat cyber-warfare and espionage. This is a whole other topic though.

But yeah, a lot is really riding on electing Obama and this is only one of the issues.

[ChiciB1]

49. I Will Soon Be Setting Up With Verizon FIOS... We Just Got It Installed In

our area, and since my husband worked for GTE before it changed to Verizon, I'd rather have the fiber optics than what I have now. Just haven't made the switch yet.

I've had DISH for a very long time, and can't complain about them YET, but will do a complete switch and get a bundle. I have disliked Comcast since I got it, but that's all that was available in my area unless I wanted to go back to the "old" connection like Earthlink.

But after the election, it WILL get done.

And yes, I know what Comcast has been doing.

[eshfemme]

50. OK, I'm glad that you're informed.

I didn't know if you knew about Comcast's new policy. Here's to hoping you like your new Internet connection.

But frankly, our Internet connections are gonna keep sucking as more and more households get connected online with each day while the IT infrastructure necessary to support this load isn't built. Along with the counter-terrorism measures necessary for cyberspace, improving our IT environment is also arguably a necessary part of national security. This is probably a good tipping point for why McCain is so wholly unsuited for the Presidency as he obviously can't even grasp the new frontiers that the nation needs to expand upon.

[ChiciB1]

51. I'm Sure You're Much MORE Informed Than I And I'm Not Even Sure About

Verizon either. Researching some stuff doesn't make me feel all that much better, but I have been disgusted with Comcast for a VERY long time!

Keep up the GOOD work!

[Jennifer C]

24. I'm having problems too

With DU.

[Nite Owl]

27. Been gaving trouble with DU

for days but minor, tonight pages won't load or they show in a different format, pics are a problem too. Time Warner Roadrunner. Everything else seems ok.

[YvonneCa]

39. I'm Time Warner Roadrunner, too...

...now I'm getting paranoid. :)

[brook]

28. Both DU and FDL

have been a problem for me lately. I've been blaming Charter. They dropped C-Span 2 a couple of weeks
ago & gave me a line of BS when I complained. Wouldn't surprise me though if it had something to do with the 'flavor' of sites we prefer.

[unkachuck]

29. me too....n/t

[matt819]

30. Same here in New England

Wireless ISP - problems all night on DU

[wildbilln864]

32. me too...

started about 30 minutes ago here and only on DU so far.

[SeattleGirl]

36. Been getting that too.

Very frustrating.

[Stuart G]

37. My hunch is that a lot of people are adding posts....

Far more than ever before..........people really want to express themselves here.

[immoderate]

44. I'm getting it too.

Don't know why. :shrug: I'm in Florida on Comcast.

--IMM

[Alexander]

47. I have had the same problems.

Interesting.