Yup, as of about 6:30pm Eastern, the Browclops server is back up. All user accounts are as they were. Reformat of everything and reinstall of all programs, plus hardening of the OS, file system, and firewalled. I've made PING available to respond (not common practice in a secure environment), but not much else UDP on ports 2302-2304. Running FLAdmin 1.2.9 and the MS/DA patch v1.1. But, really, all anyone cares about is NO ACCOUNT DATA LOSS, lol. I'm heading home and will be monitoring it all night.

Browclops

good work man.thx cya in space;-)

She is happening again,,,started about 1:30 am est ,,,so far about 5 restarts ....
might just be someone trying to mod that is crashing it...donno if the rest of your system is getting effected or just the game...

Well, it looks like for the second night in a row the server is experiencing instability. It was almost exactly the same as last night. Even around the same time. It's strange that the server was INCREDIBLY stable for so long and then all of a sudden trouble pops up. Thank you very much to whoever is causung it

well i dont know whos causing it, but i aint happy either. I just got the game last week and tonight was my first time trying a mp server. (after spending an hour in the forums looking around). and just when i started to get some money built up it keeps recycling or sumtin.... oh well ill try again

to those who have come before, we are rising above you know

Don't get discouraged with the server just because of what's happened the past couple nights. It is very frustrating but up until this point the server has been great and I'm sure brow will get it taken care of one way or another.

u tell em Freak!

I was on until 1:30 EST last night and didnt see any resets, not to mention the server lag issues appeared to be solved.

Brow if you figure out who is doing this (if its the same issue) can u share info so I can sick the boys on em!!

>:}

It's still not right. Must have crashed 10 times between midnight and 6am Eastern. Most of them have a corresponding new account creation right before the crash. I've disabled new account creation to test if this is an issue.

The hack, by the way, was from a well known warez group using Browclops to distribute. I'm only upset that Browclops isn't getting Scene Credit on the distributions for the time I was serving up the warez. Is my past coming back to haunt me? LOL

Browclops

lol...no propt's....that's not kewl

.....send em a bill

I think mebbe a better way to test the new account thingie is to leave it on, but with a password only you know. Then create a new account.
If that works...
Then turn the password off, and do it again a few times.
If that works...
Its probably not related to creating a new user.

I don't know man, maybe you should put a password on it and leave it there.
Anyone with an existing account will email you their account IDs to get the password, new players can do the same, create a mailing list and just send everyone the new password whenever you change it, it will give you more control and help keep the riff raff out, it will also narrow the list of suspects if you're still having problems.
It's pretty obvious that people have figured out how to get around DA's patch, and Microsoft doesn't seem to be moving on any improvements.
You run a great server, a lot of admins don't seem to give a crap about what's happening on their servers, that certainly can't be said about you and your's.

Hi Browclops:

It looks you nomad are really weak now, The best place I love your sever is there will almost 12 nomad ships wait me in unknown jump hole. That's so enjoyable, why it is gone? can you set it back. That really make game so fun.


Phinex

Hey, Browclops. I wish you the best of luck in solving the recent problems. You're running the best damn server in freelancer! And yeah, those nomads of yours are some tough muthas. I can't count the times I've limped back to Malta, barely hanging on! Rock on, my brother!

Thanks everyone for all the wonderful comments, it keeps me going.

I usually don't point fingers or accuse without real good proof, but the recent testing with new accounts disabled seems to confirm my theory. Someone is intentionally creating accounts and logging on in order to crash the Browclops server. For the 30 hours following the reformat/reinstall/etc., there were no less than 15 server crashes, some within minutes of each other and almost all of them preceded by an account creation. For the 30 hours since I disabled new account creation, the server is back to it's rock solid old self. Absolutely no other change was made. At this point I'm not sure what to do, or why a person or persons would make the Browclops server a target like this. If someone has any ideas in support or against this theory, please let me know. I'm not sure what this means for the future of this server.

Browclops