www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

If you're reading this, then well done! I'm in the process of making the website secure using HTTPS and there is some weirdness going on!

Until the domain name propagation is complete, the best way to access UKB is via: https://173.254.30.196/index.php

Will update when things return back to normal.

Cheers,

- Pete

Update ... depending on your network provider, you'll either see a more secure HTTP website, or an invalid antique valuation site that has been 'cached' by servers across the world (due to an incorrect DNS setting, for those that care). I can access UKB from my work laptop that uses a different 'route' and things are fine. All other users will have to wait for a couple of hours for the cache to clear, and probably won't see this message until it has!

Cheers,

- Pete

Well done Pete! I'm not getting the antique valuation site any more!

EDIT: I've just edited out my middle paragraph because the bug I was referring to has already been resolved.

As you know, I moved to https a couple of months ago, mainly because browsers kept telling visitors my site was unsecured. It looks much better with that reassuring, green padlock!

Guy

Thanks Guy! I've just finished fixing the last few glitches ... I know more about DNS and .htaccess files than I ever wanted to! And the images seem to be loading ok in the forums. Do let me know of any remaining errors you come across.

And thanks for taking a lead on moving to HTTPS, which provided reassurance to me in moving UKB and Dispar in that direction. You shall henceforth be known as Guy Padlock

Cheers,

- Pete

Pete Eeles wrote: ↑Sun Dec 29, 2019 6:32 pmYou shall henceforth be known as Guy Padlock

I've had much worse nicknames! I quite like that one ...

FYI, when I enter through my old bookmark to new posts (deliberately http, as I used to find pictures didn't load completely when I updated it to https) I still access the site unsecured - even when I reload the page so as not to get a cached copy - and internal links inherit this. It might be that your .htaccess redirects have yet to travel the globe, but since you asked, I thought I'd let you know.

Guy

Padfield wrote: ↑Sun Dec 29, 2019 7:10 pm FYI, when I enter through my old bookmark to new posts (deliberately http, as I used to find pictures didn't load completely when I updated it to https) I still access the site unsecured - even when I reload the page so as not to get a cached copy - and internal links inherit this. It might be that your .htaccess redirects have yet to travel the globe, but since you asked, I thought I'd let you know.

Thanks Guy - should be fixed now! There was a .htaccess file in the forums that overrode the overall site settings.

Cheers,

- Pete

Ok - I'm aware that not all images are loading correctly and am looking into this (so no need to report). Such as:

https://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/species_phenologies.php

... depending on how you're accessing the website!

Cheers,

- Pete

I'm noticing that the images do load near the top of the page but 'drop off' towards the bottom, irrespective of the web browser used.

David M wrote: ↑Mon Dec 30, 2019 10:01 pm I'm noticing that the images do load near the top of the page but 'drop off' towards the bottom, irrespective of the web browser used.

Thanks David - indeed. I'm still in the process of resolving this ... we'll get there, eventually!

Cheers,

- Pete

Oh boy - it's a good job it's not mid-summer! We now have 2 issues (both of which I'm aware of) and will be calling the hosting provider this afternoon to resolve. In fact, their own site has been down this morning:

1. max_user_connections exceeded. This is due to (what appears to be) a DDOS attack from China (again!).

2. Images not loading.

Cheers,

- Pete

You know you’ve made it in cyberspace when the Chinese try to shut you down! That said, DDoS attacks are frighteningly easy to do. One of my (Russian) students, a bit of an IT whizz, shut my site down for an hour once as proof of concept, and because he had a free period!

Courage, Pete!

Guy

I got there via the old link but have now updated my bookmark to HTTPS (whatever that means). I am sure National Security is greatly enhanced.

By the way, my home address wasn’t published as for some reason I wasn’t given a Knighthood in the New Year’s Honours.
I presume the omission was probably by the same Civil Servant who accidentally published that spreadsheet data

Jack

Just an update ...

1. The hosting provider has fixed the problems with their servers in the last 24 hours. UKB seems much more responsive to me anyway!

2. We still have lots of spam traffic from China, who are switching IP addresses (no doubt a bot) faster than I can block them ... although this isn't causing any massive hit on performance at the moment. There are solutions to this - such as Cloudflare - but, as ever in this world, this costs ££. So I'll live with this for now and see how things evolve.

3. The hosting provider is able to replicate the missing image issue, and has escalated this within their support organization.

I'll report back when I get some news!

Cheers,

- Pete

Pete Eeles wrote: ↑Fri Jan 03, 2020 3:14 pm Just an update ...

1. The hosting provider has fixed the problems with their servers in the last 24 hours. UKB seems much more responsive to me anyway!

2. We still have lots of spam traffic from China, who are switching IP addresses (no doubt a bot) faster than I can block them ... although this isn't causing any massive hit on performance at the moment. There are solutions to this - such as Cloudflare - but, as ever in this world, this costs ££. So I'll live with this for now and see how things evolve.

3. The hosting provider is able to replicate the missing image issue, and has escalated this within their support organization.

I'll report back when I get some news!

Jeez, this must be causing you some grief, Pete. Why are Chinese 'bots' taking so much interest in a UK butterflies website?

Must say the forum speed seems back to normal and images are loading normally so well done for sorting that.

I am totally naïve on computer security matters. David has just beaten me with a similar comment:
Why would hackers want to interfere with a website that caters for people with an [arguably, an oddball] interest in butterflies?
What do the hackers stand to gain by that? Or do they do it BECAUSE THEY CAN?

Jack

This is a problem around the world (based on what I've read)! There are plenty of examples where 95% of the traffic (the US is an example) is instigated by China. Who knows what they after - passwords?

Cheers,

- Pete

Aside from the Chinese (maybe we should rename the site 'Tiananmen Square Massacre' to ensure it's no longer accessible from that country) another glitch has revealed itself.

When accessing the main index page, the latest posts are not displayed due to this error:

Database Error: SQLSTATE[HY000] [1045] Access denied for user 'ukbutte1_petere3'@'localhost' (using password: YES)

Thanks David. That was very weird and I had to reset the password for the forums database ... even though I haven't changed anything in that regard!

Should be sorted now.

Cheers,

- Pete

There only seem to be 10 posts per page now, Pete. Is this to improve the speed by which images load?

Yes - this was suggested by the hosting provider (images are more likely to render with the reduced load) although I'm now convinced that the problem is with their server setup. I've sent them the information I've found on the web.

As things currently stand, if the hosting provider is unable to fix this, then we have a stark choice between a) sticking with the current setup and the issues we're seeing or b) going back to the unsecure http. In both cases, I'd suggest switching hosting provider when the current web hosting renewal comes around (August 2021).

Of course, if they fix the issue, then I'll put the number of posts per page back to 20.

Cheers,

- Pete