Positive Fusion

The issue preventing updates to the system has been resolved. Updates to Cpanel and related software has been completed. There was also an update to the email server software. This email server update necessitated changes to the email server configuration. Every effort has been made to keep email functionality the same; however some minor details such as blacklist filtering may need additional tuning.

If you experience difficulty in sending or receiving email and believe it to be related to this update please file a support request so it can be investigated.

Apologies for any email delays experienced this evening, this was due to errors with routine Cpanel updates. This problem has been corrected and email is functioning as normal presently. The underlying issue with Cpanel updates has not yet been corrected, there may be another speed bump or two on the way to complete resolution.

Service has been restored.

The server just suffered an Apache failure to do a massive flood attack. We are working to restore service.

A new Apache module has been installed that can be set to limit the number of connections a particular IP can make to a particular file at the same time. It is strongly felt this new module will greatly reduce the severity of comment spam attacks. The new module is currently being used in one particular location, the epicenter if you will of the recent attacks.

We had tried this methodology before; however that Apache module wasn’t well suited to the task and caused numerous false positives. The new module is much more simple, although it will provide a similar ‘503′ error when it intervenes. Again, this is not a server-wide implementation, and is currently in use only to protect against comment spam on a particular website.

This message is to address the problem we’ve had lately with these spam attacks, and to indicate one of the new methods we are using to address the issue.