Dalnet - death of a thousand cuts......


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Saw this over at IRCNews.com..... http://www.ircnews.com/

looks like Dalnet has troubles from its own admin as well as script kiddies... sad...

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA -- Credible sources within the DALnet IRC network, or what's left of it, have revealed to IRCNews that the administration there is no longer acting as a team.

According to sources, ideas that are offered are immediately shot down by a dozen other administrators. It would seem that rather than trying to seek a solution to their problems, the network staff are being petty and more interested in pointing fingers.

The network has been hit by numerous denial of service (DoS) attacks - but the one thing that had always kept the network going was its extremely loyal userbase and dedicated administrators who were willing to do whatever it took to get the network through these troubled times.

DALnet users do have the patience to see the network through these tough times. And while their patience is seemingly wearing thin, they will only give up on DALnet when its staff does.

so... maybe.. when all the fingerpointing stops... and dossing from those lamers... we might get dalnet back .... :ninja:

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Wouldn't u be ****ed off if you had to run a dalnet server :unsure:

I havn't been able to connect to a dalnet server in months - i've lost all hope in connecting to dalnet

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I used to hang out on Dalnet and it got to the point where it took 5 minutes to connect and there was a netsplit every day, sometimes 5 times/day!

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hmm..

I was told by an irc friend that Microsoft used to have something called MS Chat 2.5 which had comic chat and stuff on it....

apparently their servers for that app were dossed so much too.. they closed the network... anyone here remember such a thing ?? :blink:

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hmm..

I was told by an irc friend that Microsoft used to have something called MS Chat 2.5 which had comic chat and stuff on it....

apparently their servers for that app were dossed so much too.. they closed the network... anyone here remember such a thing ?? :blink:

Yea i remember it. That was some years ago now. You could have a comic character to represent yourself in the chat room. Kinda cool.

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thanks Keldyn . .. hmm hope dalnet dont end up closed like the M$ one. :wacko:

anyway... there are some test servers working at dalnet... its kindof a weird place though... not much chatting... and full of ir.admins

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hmm..

I was told by an irc friend that Microsoft used to have something called MS Chat 2.5 which had comic chat and stuff on it....

apparently their servers for that app were dossed so much too.. they closed the network... anyone here remember such a thing ?? :blink:

I remember that too, it was good in its time, i doubt it'll be good if it existed now..anyways, does anyone remember Microsoft VChat? It was something similar to ActiveWorlds or Cybertown, where you pick a character and walk around huge environments and warp back and forth from worlds to worlds, it was really cool, but i tried searching for it on microsoft's site and google, found nothing though. :huh:

Talking about DALNet, I used to visit there before for sometime, but i started to not like it after their servers splited too often, spammers invaded, began to lag alot. But thanks to EFNet, it has made me stay on irc for years now. :yes:

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hmm..

I was told by an irc friend that Microsoft used to have something called MS Chat 2.5 which had comic chat and stuff on it....

apparently their servers for that app were dossed so much too.. they closed the network... anyone here remember such a thing ??  :blink:

Yea i remember it. That was some years ago now. You could have a comic character to represent yourself in the chat room. Kinda cool.

Man that was back when MSN was an actual network not an ISP. God MSN sucked back then.

GEnie network for ever! It's all about Battletech and Red Baron.

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Yeah I used to be on Dalnet for about 1 year, and I did have a great time there, but in the end, the experience sucked pretty bad. I probably feel sorry for the demise of DALNet, not because of its popularity, but that just means Spamers will start to freaking spread and attack other networks.

Oh well, sucks to be on DALNet. no tears no nothing.

EfNet on the other hand is real nice.... If the new IM Messenger "There" is able to create a free virtual world, that can help abit for those that love to chat on DALNet

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Rather than create another thread on this.. I read the following update at

http://www.irc-junkie.org/ on the state of Dalnet for now .... this comes from one of the server admins.. who must have her work cut out !

Well, a single day after my post that DALnet remains silent on my requests for some information, Curve, admin of tiscali.dal.net and editor of the DALnet ezine replied me with a long (and very positive) responce which I will repost in full.

It's no secret that DALnet has suffered massive attacks recently, far greater than anything we've seen before. We've been ravaged by DDoS attacksin the gbps range, attacks which are not just crippling our IRC servers, but causing disruption to the providers who host those servers. Given that fact, and the tendency for gossip in these situations, I know that some people are saying 'DALnet is dead'.

Well it's not.

At the moment most of our client servers are down, but they are by no means 'out'. It is, however, a fact that while these attacks continue it would be unwise for us to bring back all our servers and possibly cause disruption to our sponsors' networks. I know some people will find that hard to understand, or perhaps even paradoxical, but there really is more at stake here than one IRC network. I think a fair few staff from other IRC networks understand this, because we've had a lot of help from them during this time, and that we're very grateful for. Why do I say that more than DALnet is at stake? Well, because the more these people amass herds of infected computers (botnets) to attack IRC servers with, the more service providers will quickly come to the conclusion that hosting an IRC server is a liability. All ready many providers simply won't countenance hosting an IRC server and if this random vandalism continues, the harder it will be for non-profit IRC to continue in any reasonable form at all. That could jeapordise the future for *all* IRC networks, not simply DALnet.

So, what are DALnet doing right now? Well, it could be said that, in a way, these criminals have given us a golden opportunity to look at how DALnet is run and see where we can improve. Whilst our client servers are down, we've been busy brainstorming on what we can do to make our network more robust and to deliver a more pleasant user-experience in general. Contrary to what has been said on another IRC news site, these discussions have continued amicably both on the DALnet server administrators list, and with lots of fantastic input from Operators on the general staff mailing list. Some of the ideas tabled we're exploring and testing, and i'm sure that the best of them will be implemented. Whilst this is happening we are, of course, also persuing investigations into the people who are engaging in these criminal acts against our network's servers and the networks who host them.

I should expect that the biggest question on everyone's minds right now is when DALnet's service will return to normal. That is, unfortunately, not a question I have an immediate answer for since we do need to stop these continuing attacks first. I'm confident, however, that we will do that since the radius of interest in them has spread far beyond the realms of DALnet and IRC. I'm also confident that, when we are able to open our doors fully to the public again, they will return to find a refreshed and vibrant network which has returned to its roots of being an innovative and friendly network. A network that's more concerned with quality than quantity, and a network which is looking towards the future rather than resting on the laurels of the past.

Lastly, I know that the staff of DALnet have found the messages of support and thanks which have flooded in from well-wishers and users alike very heart-warming. It is this support which spurs us on and makes us determined, not only to survive this situation, but to go on to be a network they can be proud of again. To those people, we give our upmost thanks.

Emma/Curve

AA: tiscali.dal.net

ENDS.

... so... lets hope she is right... be good to see the network back... :D

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She sounds like a good admin.. lets hope whatever she said will truly be put into effects and make DALNet more robust.. and c'mon! that should have been done a long time ago..

-ThunderRiver

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Just a little update from http://www.ircnews.com/ on the current state of Dalnet ...

It also seems difficult now to connect to their "test network" which has probably suffered the same ddos attacks as the main network... :cry:

just goes to show, I suppose, that when vandals are determined... :angry:

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA -- Multiple well-placed sources within the DALnet IRC network have told IRCNews that network officials are growing annoyed with the number of leaked news tidbits to sites like this one, IRCJunkie, IFIRC, IRC101 and eyersee.

As IRCNews' inbox is becoming crammed with inquiries as to the status of DALnet, more is being done to evaluate and investigate the situation.

There is currently no indication from the staff that normal service will resume on DALnet in the coming days. However, there is every indication that this downtime is being spent in order to bring DALnet back to normalcy - one top network official emphatically told IRCNews that DALnet is not formally shut down and refusing to accept client connections, they are just unable to at this point.

There have been some whispers of involvement from the authorities to find, stop, and prosecute the attackers, but IRCNews must stress that these are not yet official, substantiated statements from the higher levels of DALnet. The closest that the DALnet community has to an official statement in this regard was DALnetizen editor curve's email to IRCJunkie which stated: Whilst this is happening we are, of course, also persuing investigations into the people who are engaging in these criminal acts against our network's servers and the networks who host them.

IRCNews has always enjoyed a good relationship with DALnet and its staff, and on behalf of the entire IRC community we thank each and every DALnet oper and admin who is working diligently to get DALnet back on track.

Whether you are a DALnet staff member, user, or just a concerned IRCer, please email any information or comments you have to lmnop@ircnews.com - as we will soon publish a special report with your thoughts and comments on this situation. As always, you may remain anonymous if you wish.

ENDS.

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