[Imc-tech] Spam = DOS?

[Mike Lehman]

This is one of those good news, bad news things.

After Zach adjusted things a few days ago, my connectivity, when it 
works, has actually dramatically improved -- when it works. Adding to 
the evidence that the site is experiencing increased availability is the 
vastly increased number of poker/pharmacy spams we are being deluged 
with daily.

However, many times I'll still have a more temporary problem getting 
through, only to check back in a few minutes to find I can access again, 
as well as a whole new swarm of ad spam comments posted that I then have 
to delete, whose source does not seem to be having the same issues in 
getting through as I do. I suspect that they are bombarding the server 
to the extent that it is reaching the level of a DOS attack and the the 
lesser amount of such crap we were receiving was only because of the 
decreased connectivity we had been experiencing

I suspect that our server's increased connectivity is facilitating 
whatever means the ad spammer is using to crap on our server. While it 
is a problem that I've been dealing with for a long time, it has 
definitely worsened. There can be literally several hundred of these a 
day to delete.

When there is time -- and I realize that we've all been very, very busy 
with higher priority projects of late -- I would like to suggest that 
the extreme prejudice means that have already been authorized by 
Steering in this case be used to investigate and terminate, if possible, 
access to our server by the source of this shit.

Otherwise, we are sorely in need of some other solution, like one of 
those distorted word picture forms to determine if the poster really is 
human.
Mike Lehman