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2973 |
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Date: November 28, 2013 at 19:46:53
From: mr bopp, [DNS_Address]
Subject: guess they had a fun thanksgiving... |
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Hello Ryan,
Thank you for contacting us.
I apologize for the inconvenience. We are currently experiencing a connectivity issue to the servers in our west coast datacenter. Our systems administration is working diligently to restore service to all of the affected servers. Unfortunately, we are not able to provide any ETA for resolution, but we will have service fully restored as soon as possible.
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2976 |
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Date: November 28, 2013 at 23:53:00
From: Curly Bear, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Hmmm...outage of 188 Servers on West Coast |
URL: http://www.outageanalyzer.com/ |
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Happy Thanksgiving, Ryan!
Early in the morning on November 21 I was watching
Netflix (via my AT&T internet connection). All of the
sudden Netflix went haywire. I looked at my DSL modem
and all the green lights were wither blinking or going
off. I turned off the tube and went to bed (btw both my
computers were off).
On the following day I turned on my computer and found
that a virus had locked me out of most of its
functions. I hopped onto my wife's computer and found
it was heavily infected with malware. Over the next 5
days, whenever I'd reboot I'd get reinfected by another
slew of viruses. I ran and reran virus/malware scans
and began to make some progress to restoring both
computers. I finally got back on the net and went to
http://www.outageanalyzer.com/ to find out what
happened.
They had a report posted that on Nov. 21st there was an
internet outage on the west coast and that 188 servers
were down (that's a LOT of servers!). I speculated that
AT&T's servers also went down and somehow during this
process (or before or after, dunno) a whole slew of
viruses etc made it past AT&T's compromised firewalls
and onto user's computers. I checked with AT&T and
those !@#$%^& informed me that my DSL modem was the
only model that doesn't have a firewall built into it
(thanks for nothing...grumble...!).
I finally got my computers back up and running and
fully protected. During this process I went back to
http://www.outageanalyzer.com/ to get further details
on this particular outage. And guess what? There is no
longer any record of this outage that I could find.
IMHO it took something major to knock out those 188
servers. Stuxnet worm? National security hush-hush?
Who knows. Just wanted to let you know.
~Peace~
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2978 |
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Date: November 29, 2013 at 07:39:59
From: susanna, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: Hmmm...outage of 188 Servers on West Coast |
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My computer had 48 malware infections, that my security program caught and removed. What a nuisance.
Sorry for the troubles you and others have had. Thanks for the info!
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Date: November 30, 2013 at 11:26:31
From: sheila, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: Hmmm...outage of 188 Servers on West Coast |
URL: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/ref=pe_157190_41529240_pe_button/?ASIN=B00EZPXVWU |
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Susanna, get Norton 360, it's kept me free of viruses, malware, etc., for over 2 years now. It's on sale right now for about $20 on amazon.com and well worth the price. Before I had Norton 360, I lost a computer to a virus along with hundreds of photos (fortunately, most were backed up to a DVD) and all sorts of data.
I used AVG, Avira freebies and trust me, none of these programs work!
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2989 |
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Date: December 01, 2013 at 05:53:55
From: JohnL, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: Hmmm...outage of 188 Servers on West Coast |
URL: http://www.ehow.com/how_7250488_install-norton-anti-virus.html |
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I use Norton on both my PC's. This links to an eHow article on how to install Norton (first uninstall previous antivirus programs):
http://www.ehow.com/how_7250488_install-norton-anti-virus.html
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Date: December 01, 2013 at 09:28:07
From: mr bopp, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: Hmmm...outage of 188 Servers on West Coast |
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Date: December 01, 2013 at 18:38:26
From: sheila, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: Hmmm...outage of 188 Servers on West Coast |
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wish I could afford a MAC or anything right now.
ITMT, am stuck with Windows so a girl's gotta do what she's gotta do Ryan! :)
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Date: December 21, 2013 at 14:10:33
From: BCShe, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: Hmmm...outage of 188 Servers on West Coast |
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Hi Sheila, merry christmas to you!! Just wanted to pipe up to tell you it
might be worthwhile to have a look online on Craig's list or whatever
for them, they get better and faster every year (usually come out with
new ones around November) but the trade in is not great, so I think a
lot of people buy new ones and sell 2-3 year old ones for a steal just to
upgrade and the older ones still work great.
I hold on to mine until they die, the one I have now is still super fast, I
bought it on clearance in Nov. 2009 when the new models were coming
out, it was $1200 but I got it for $900 and unless something goes in it,
I expect it to keep on keeping on for some time. They are expensive
but are very good value, especially if you can buy one used. I have no
virus software and have never had a virus and once you get used to
them they are much more pleasant to use than windoze, lol
Also, the last software upgrade took me from 2009's snow leopard
right to 2013's Lion and cost $20, plus we shared it between 3
computers!!! The last upgrade to Mavericks was FREE AND comes with
3 months of support. I love Mac, I don't think I'd use the computer very
often if I had to suffer a PC, too frustrating.
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2983 |
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Date: November 30, 2013 at 14:59:42
From: susanna, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: Hmmm...outage of 188 Servers on West Coast |
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Sheila, i'm on a borrowed computer and sure don't want to put any money into this one. Had Norton on this and it was changed to one that works better.
That's not saying much. This computer picks up anything along the way, so it seems. :(
The daily system optimizer dump is huge, in my opinion. Something is on here that still should not be. Miss my MAC.
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2979 |
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Date: November 30, 2013 at 09:33:35
From: mr bopp, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: Hmmm...outage of 188 Servers on West Coast |
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2982 |
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Date: November 30, 2013 at 14:53:16
From: susanna, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: Hmmm...outage of 188 Servers on West Coast |
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My mac is outdated and i'm borrowing a pc. blah. Need to get another Mac, for sure.
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2981 |
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Date: November 30, 2013 at 13:30:01
From: Roger Hunter, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: Hmmm...outage of 188 Servers on West Coast |
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Date: November 30, 2013 at 17:46:18
From: Skywise, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: Hmmm...outage of 188 Servers on West Coast |
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Or... maybe folks should stop putting the virus or what-have-you on their computers themselves?
Sorry if this sounds cold and blunt, but these things DO NOT just magically appear on your computer. They cannot install themselves. 99% of the time you do something that installs the virus.
A virus (or other malware) is a program. It cannot do anything unless the program is run. Do any of the programs you install on your computer run by themselves? Or do you have to initiate the process, usually by double clicking it's icon? And, before it will even do that, you have to install it. You have to initiate the process of installation.
Most of the time when people think they "didn't do anything", they did. You installed that tool bar into your browser. You clicked on that link. You opened that attachment in your email. You clicked "ok".
Many tool bars these days are just 'vectors' for malware. They may do something useful, but deep down inside the code it's doing something nefarious. Do you REALLY need that tool? Or were you just convinced by the slick marketing package that this free gizmo is the answer to all your prayers? Nothing is free.
Many people know about attachments, but the ones you need to be the MOST wary of are the ones from your friends. How do you know that their computer isn't infected and that attachment in their email isn't the virus trying to trick you into installing a copy of itself onto your computer? Sounds paranoid, but that's EXACTLY how some of them work.
Just think about what you do when you are clicking around the internet, and what potential consequences your actions may have. Only download from reputable sources. Make sure that attachment is indeed intentionally sent from your friend. Don't install a bunch of worthless garbage "add ons" that only slow your system down anyway. (I have ONE tool installed in firefox, for FTP)
Even if you only have one computer, buy a router and put it between your computer and the cable/DSL modem. This will provide another layer of protection. If you can afford it, find one that includes something called "stateful packet inspection". It's not fullproof, but helps a lot.
Only install ONE AV program. Installing 5 different programs actually causes them to interfere with each other, and just bogs down your system like molasses.
Again, what you do causes these things to happen. Think about what you are doing before doing it. Is it legit? Is it reputable? Is it needed?
hmmm... that's all I've got straight off the top of my head.
I've NEVER been infected.
Brian
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Date: November 30, 2013 at 18:32:05
From: Roger Hunter, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: Hmmm...outage of 188 Servers on West Coast |
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There's something more nefarious afoot.
Two members of my family have had instances of a creditor
withdrawing funds repeatedly, exhausting their bank
accounts and causing overdraft penalties.
Anybody else?
Roger
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Date: November 30, 2013 at 18:38:56
From: Skywise, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: Hmmm...outage of 188 Servers on West Coast |
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There's a current story in LA about the DWP (department of water and power) doing that to folks, and shutting off service. The problem is in their "new" payment processing system. Sometimes it was just guessing what to charge people because they were new customers. Other times it was repeatedly charging the same charge over and over.
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/los_angeles&id=9342447
Brian
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Date: November 30, 2013 at 20:49:38
From: Roger Hunter, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: Hmmm...outage of 188 Servers on West Coast |
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Skywise;
That's exactly what happened here in one case. The power
Co. did it and now they want a $500 deposit to restore
service.
Roger
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Date: November 30, 2013 at 21:23:28
From: Skywise, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: Hmmm...outage of 188 Servers on West Coast |
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My first thought? Call the local newspaper or TV station. Sounds like a good public interest story to me. Remind them of what's happening in LA to make the emphasis that this is a wide spread problem. Could it be spreading there?
Second is, we have a "public utilities commission" in California that's _supposed_ to be an advocate for the consumer. It usually goes the other way because it's a gov't agency, after all. But it can't hurt to try. Maybe there's something like that there?
Might be best to do the second one first. Get a formal complaint on the record even if it's useless. Then get the media involved.
Oh... another idea. If this was done through a credit or debit card, file a formal dispute with the card issuer. In fact, I'd say this is a MUST DO. It *IS* a fraudulent charge, after all, isn't it?
Brian
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Date: November 29, 2013 at 00:23:20
From: mr bopp, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: Hmmm...outage of 188 Servers on West Coast |
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thanks for the info cb...
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2974 |
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Date: November 28, 2013 at 20:08:49
From: RIG, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: guess they had a fun thanksgiving... |
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So they finished installing the updates for the Not So
Amicable* all seeing eye programs...
*... get it... see what I did there... ;)
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Date: November 28, 2013 at 21:40:46
From: mr bopp, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: guess they had a fun thanksgiving... |
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you can run but you cannot hide...
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