[Chris]

OMG!

I am going to reserve all my comments with an update:

Several months ago I tried to upgrade the SVXWN to never version of software. Some new features help with this such situation. Sadly, the upgrade process failed as I quickly ran out of usable disk space. Now please... before someone just yells to drive down to Best Buy and grab a load of new drives, trust me, it would only be that simple if I ran this service on a desktop computer at my house. And when I fired up the occasional Netflix, your viewing performance would do in the toilet, or ever 6 months when Century Link clobbers my connection. Anyways, upgrade paths are being discussed and there are several paths we can take. We are looking at the advantage and disadvantage of each one and hope to move soon.

Yes, we use a jumbled image based authentication process. The problem is this... There are entities overseas that survive off just one thing.... money. And they get it two ways. One is a hotfile service where a file of high popularity is hosted on the service and gets links to it off facebook, forums, etc.. When you click the file, you have two options, download fast with a paid subscription, or download slow for free. Most choose the free option and it typically has a countdown timer of 20-60 seconds. The devious little things that take place in this short time period is a script logs into the next on the list known forum server. The script identifies if its phpbb, vbulletin, etc and uses the proper new user script to make a bogus login. When the image verification takes place, the damn site will capture the image and send it to the person wanting to download the free file. When they solve the image verification (something bots still have a hard time adapting to), the person gets their download, and we get a bogus account. I have tried to block as many of them as possible. Sites such as hotfile, hipfile, hostfile, netload, filecloud, and the like all do this. Then, when they spam, they get a few pennies for delivered ad content.

I have witnessed this watching traffic in and out of the machine and I have seen the proxy of the image authentication take place. The process of filtering this is not exactly easy. IP addresses change, patterns change, and to write a watchdog for this would be time consuming, difficult, and a resource hog (better suited for a firewall application). With that said, newer software has some additional safeguards to slow this process.

So, I am on my administrators pillow, kneeling, asking for forgiveness for the faults. I am sorry. As a preacher, I ask for faith and guidance in getting the work done and meeting expectations once again.

12 years ago I was asked if I could do this. Aredubjay had stipulations, not to walk away, don't succumb to the MSG 50 issues. Do it better than Yahoo. And don't spam the users. Well, we don't have legitimate ads (working on the spam, sorry), we are still FREEEEEE, and I still think I got the best dern uptime of any free service anywhere.

Maybe its time to have another drive of officers, moderators, and volunteers.

Good day,
Chris

(now would someone shut the front door? and calm down a spell)