Bitninja

[mkenuk]

I've just had another visit (my second) from Bitninja.
This time it prevented me getting on to either of the two Chi sites (Last time I was able to get onto Chihuahuapuzzle)
I tried clicking the 'I am not a robot' box this time round but nothing happened.
It seems to have gone as suddenly as it arrived and again seems to have done no damage.

It is a nuisance, though!

[Valerie]

I don't know if this has anything to do with Bitninja, but for about 15 minutes this evening, I was unable to fully load either site.  Sometimes, if it did manage to show something, the forum column and other little bitty things on the page were blank.  During this hiatus, my firewall software kept telling me the sites were "Not Secure".  And then, for no reason, after reloading several times, everything reverted to being fine again.  Not being a fan of those tappy doodads, we only ever play on our desktop, with it's 'proper' screen and keyboard.  Very strange.

[mkenuk]

Sounds very similar, Valerie.
The Bitninja message was that my IP  (number xxx xx xx xx) was 'insecure'.

[Valerie]

Uh oh!  I'm currently googling Bitninja to see if there's anything untoward being said about it.  A couple of dodgy things have popped up.  Will keep investigating.  But, of course, it may have nothing to do with Bitninja.  It may, instead, be some sort of hack.  Anyone else with continuing problems?

[Alan W]

I'm looking into the practicalities of switching to a different hosting company - one that doesn't use bitninja. (That's not the only reason. The interruption to service around the start of this month was another example of the problems with this firm under their new management. Perhaps most importantly, their technical support is terrible, and they don't seem to have even understood my concerns about bitninja, let alone done anything to help.)

MK, I'm troubled by your report of having bitninja problems at both sites. Did you actually navigate to chihuahua-puzzle.com and get a full-screen bitninja display? Or was it just in the Forum Latest box?

[mkenuk]

I have icons for both Chi sites on my favourites bar and I nearly always log on to chi.lexigame using this.
Yesterday chi.lexigame presented me with just the basic grid - no letters, no arrows etc, just the bare rectangle. No forum and a blank scoreboard with my user name, but not my password, filled in.
After waiting a short time for something to happen I used the other icon on my favourites bar to get onto chihuahuapuzzle, but with no joy. A totally blank screen.
I tried each icon again a couple of times before trying Google. That eventually resulted in a 'Page Can't Be Displayed' message.
Back to the icons and one of them - I really can't remember which one - started to display the full bitninja page complete with a warning that my ISP (True, the biggest ISP in Thailand) was a security risk.

I ticked the 'I am not a robot' box and waited for something to happen; nothing did and I eventually got a 'Time out' message.

That's when I emailed you

[Calilasseia]

If you're looking for a trouble free host, Alan, I suggest you find one that's using the Hiawatha web server software. This has a number of custom security features built in to stop cross site attacks of your website, and various other nasties. It's also immune to the Heartbleed malware, because it doesn't use OpenSSL.

Now all I need is for a full 64 bit port of Hiawatha to be completed, and I can run it on my laptop. Works great on my antique 32 bit XP box, and keeps it free of nasties.

[cmh]

cmh and Davmar were affected yesterday too