My site was hosted on IPS but my contract has been terminated because my site was crippling their server. I can't afford the license so even with the backup, I don't know what to do. This is the second time my forum has gone down. Maybe it's a sign that I shouldn't do this forum. This is so frustrating. I don't even understand what's being said in the e-mail. All I know is that I'm trying not to cry. Should I save up some money and buy the license to put on another server or should I start from scratch again (which seems so daunting)?

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How big was the site?

If it was larger and active I'd certainly buy a license.

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I agree, I know you say you can't afford a license but if its big enough to cripple a server you could probably make enough money off of it to pay yourself back and then some.

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Guys, it wasn't big... it was getting D.O.S. attacks... which can cripple ANY server.

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Then how can IPS rightfully take the site down? Attacks aren't their fault, that could happen to anyone.

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you got a point there.

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I went to Vegas, and all I got was this Blister. - true story!

Regardless of whos fault it is, taking the site down will remove the problems caused and protect other people on the server, if you want a host that can protect you against DOS attacks then you will be looking at spending a lot.

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Some members of the site have offered to help me with the license. The generosity of the members is amazing. I'm going to call IPS today to see exactly what happened but I have a feeling that I won't get an answer much different than the one I got in the e-mail.

I guess at this point, I have to figure out a way to generate revenue for the site. I mean if getting a server to prevent this from happening in the future is going to cost a lot of money then I have to figure how to generate money to pay for it. Should I consider putting ads on the site in the future? It has a little over 100 members and I'm not sure how many lurkers come to the site. It's a forum for a figure skater so a lot of her fans visit the site. What do you all think?

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I don't get it, since when did a host cancel your contract due to a single DDOS attack? A DDOS attack is typically not your fault, and as somebody else said, it will cripple any server.

Using up too many resources regularly and suffering a DDOS attack are two completely different things. The first should result in cancellation, the latter should definitely not...When a site suffers a DDOS attack, the host should simply suspend that account until the attack is over - and then open it back up.

IPS is either a shady host canceling for no reason, or your forums were actually using too many resources and they canceled becaus of that (not because of the DDOS attack).

What kind of activity were your forums receiving? How many total members and posts? How many posts per day? How many members and guests online at a time? Did you offer anything resource-intensive such as an arcade or flash chat/shoutbox?

I don't need exact numbers...I'm just trying to get a feel for how "busy" your forums are.

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Before they shut it down, the forum had about 800 posts. The forum had around 110 members. There usually about 20-30 posts per day since it just started about a month ago. Usually, there were about 2-3 members (when I was on) and I'd say 5-10 guests. I'm not sure if this might have been different when I wasn't on. A lot of the members of the site are from Korea (since it's dedicated to a Korean figure skater) and thus, there might have been a lot of members on when I was sleeping. I did notice that a lot of posts were made between 2-5 am my time which I would imagine is a different time in other countries. I didn't offer an arcade or chat or anything like that which is one of the reasons why I was surprised by this.

The only thing I can think is that the forum has been "attacked" in the past by people making copies of the forum and trying to pass it off as the "real" thing in order to detract members. This happened when I was using a free forum host and phpBB, so it was easy to copy. So now, maybe these people stepped up the attack by doing this? Some of the members seem to think this but honestly, I don't know. I just called IPS and the person I spoke to said that the hosting dept was in a meeting. He took down my contact info and said as soon as the meeting was done and he could get some info, he would call me back.

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