Administrative update regarding recent website issues

***Imperial*** · 07-09-2008, 11:33 PM

Dear Xbox Nation Users,

As you may well have noticed, the site has been plagued by a number of problems over the past several days. I will attempt to explain them as best I can. Due to several unknown Microsoft Server updates, the server hosting XN was crippled due to unknown error. Attempts to restart failed and no solution could be produced, even by Microsoft technicians. This could have also have been the work of an attacker attempting to disable the server and its normal operations, but this is speculation by the server's primary administrator. In order to restore the previous known safe state, an old backup was used that cleaned out the entire server's primary drive. Within this drive was Xbox Nation's most recent data as of July 7th. Because of a communication breakdown, the recent data was not backed up and instead overwritten with the old data.

A subsequent restoration of a corrupted database resulted in the numerous database errors that have been present on the site for the past few days. I did locate a backup from May 19th so this was restored. This backup was not corrupted and appears functional. The old database was from version 3.6.8 of the vBulletin software and I have run the proper upgrade to version 3.7.2, the latest version. Because of the upgrade, I will still need to re-configure all the necessary settings for the newest features.

There is some good news though! I've decided that the forum will have a new product added to it, a battle mod. Although still in a Beta state, I'm sure it will certainly be fun and entertaining to use while on the forum. In the mean time, as GoCrzy posted (on the corrupt one), posting & spamming and staying active is the best way to make up for what we have lost. Our server is now more secure, configured for automatic backups and I've learned excess amounts from this annoying ordeal. As always, any errors can be reported in the Questions / Comments / Concerns forums. Also this is a great time for any suggestions as we are on a semi-clean slate.

Let the march resume.

***Meteor*** · 07-09-2008, 11:55 PM

Wow, at least you have learned some useful things from M$ epic failure.

***Dman82*** · 07-10-2008, 03:43 AM

At least you guys brought the media button back.

So . . . WIN!!!

Nero Phoenix · 07-10-2008, 09:18 AM

It could have been worse, I'm just glad everything wasn't lost. :D

Diego · 07-10-2008, 09:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nero Phoenix

It could have been worse, I'm just glad everything wasn't lost. :D

Exactly what i said to him. At least we didnt lose the entire site, coz thatd be horrificly horrible.

***Imperial*** · 07-10-2008, 10:55 AM

I found this to be amusing given the timing:

Quote:

Dear Imperial,

Someone has tried to log into your account on Xbox Nation with an incorrect
password at least 5 times. This person has been prevented from attempting to
login to your account for the next 15 minutes.

The person trying to log into your account had the following IP address:
58.65.232.113

All the best,
Xbox Nation

According to my fellow vBulletin Admins, this IP address is linked to a Hong Kong business that pays forum owners to place malicious iframe code onto their websites. Evidently it goes around trying to login. Humorous.

GoCrzy · 07-11-2008, 04:22 PM

Ya, I am happy that the site is still intact. I wasn't able to post yesterday or the day before due to lack of internet, so I felt really bad not being able to uphold what I said before about activity

.

I tried to keep as many people updated as I could through RT, HEA, and HTFR. I am glad that it has been cleaned up for the most part.

(BATTLES :D:D:D)