greengeeksTeleRead has moved to GreenGeeks, a wind-powered hosting service. This is in keeping with our Net-related eco concerns, not just our eagerness to improve the site. (Yes, now is the time to share your laundry lists of TeleRead’s technical glitches, such as the nonworking “Previous Page” icon.)

Perhaps tempted by the move of our domain to a new IP address, cyber-jerks have launched a denial of service attack, still happening as I write this. No anti-tree-huggers are at work here, to the best of my knowledge. The mainland Chinese, then? Who knows?

Lots of black hats understand that Web sites can be more vulnerable during moves. At any rate, if TeleRead runs slowly right now, there is a reason.

We’ve fought back at GreenGeeks’ suggestion through the use of the Brute Force Log-In Protection plugin for WordPress. It slows the number of log-in attempts that the attackers can squeeze in within a certain time. Another security measure was to dump some unused plugins and themes, possible routes for hackers.

We’re delighted to be receiving advice on these matters from the pros at GreenGeeks, especially a support guy whom I know only as “Dan.”

Special thanks  as well to Nate Hoffelder, editor in chief of The Digital Reader. Nate talked up VaultPress, a WordPress backup and migration plugin that proved to be a real lifesaver.

Like any site migration, this one has stirred up a little dust. We’ve had to repost items that have appeared since a backup made with VaultPress. The resurrections are not perfect. What’s more, we need to bring back the accompanying comments from community members.  Still, this is a small price for the improved stability and reliability of TeleRead in the long term. Now—to get a new WordPress template in place with a “Previous Page” icon that works!

 

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14 COMMENTS

  2. Hey, Nate–no mystery about the resource limit message. We’re the target of a full-strength DoS attack specifically directed at teleread.com. In the next few days, if all goes as planned, we’ll have a proxy arrangement in place to thwart or at least slow down the bad guys. The arrangement will also help address other site issues. Details to come.

    Meanwhile you can bask in glory knowing that you directed us to VaultPress to help with the migration–and received due credit in our post on the server move. As for The Links, tomorrow is another day. Just as big a fan of TDR as always. And I’m sure Chris feels the same.

    David

  7. Good news. We’ve just changed the name server for a proxy–to fix the DoS problem. Propagation will take a day or so. If that won’t do the trick, it’s on to a different host with a fresh approach. If nothing else, we could then use a Virtual Private Server plan to speed up TeleRead even when the bad guys are not attacking. David

  8. Not off the top of my head; it’s been too long.

    Anything I told you now would be based on me using my five plus years as a blogger to comb the web for a solution. And really, in this area I’m more of a doer than I am a explainer.

    And anyway, first I’d need the log files, a list of Teleread’s plugins, and other details so i could diagnose the problem.

  11. Rx will be to move TeleRead off GreenGeeks while possibly leaving less demanding sites there. Plugins that caused no problems on two other hosts are taxing GreenGeeks. I don’t doubt we’ve suffered a DoS attack, but there are additional issues that the attack brought to my attention.

    P3 (Plugin Performance Profiler) helped me get a peg on resource usage. I’ve just killed off the tab for popular posts as well as a social media plugin. I shouldn’t have had to do that.

    Anyway, TeleRead is faster now, but still not what it should be. And so let’s redirect this thread to the issue of hosting services. Nate, what are the pluses and minuses of Media Temple? And I’ll welcome thoughts from other TeleRead community members as well. I’ll also be looking for host-related opinions elsewhere. The tricky thing is that host company reviews don’t mean that much (either because most users aren’t just discerning or maybe because someone has been paid off directly or indirectly).

    Thanks,
    David

  14. Many thanks for the Pair.com rec, Andrys, and I hope that other TeleRead community members will share their own ideas.

    As for pair.com, many customers love the service, but so far, Hostwind looks like the best value for us. At PC Magazine, Hostwind is now an Editor’s Choice for Virtual Private Server hosting. I don’t always agree with PC Mag, but the specs certainly look interesting for the $36 a month I plan on spending.

    The $36 will buy TeleRead 2GB of RAM and as much diskspace as we could ever use on the solid state drive that the proposed package includes. The 2GB may be overkill, but I don’t ever again want to see TeleRead community members receiving “out of resources” messages. This doesn’t mean it won’t happen. But between the Hostwind goodies and the use of a proxy, we should be a much more robust site than we are on the moment.

    By the way let me spill the beans and say I’m so, so please to be able to use your posts again in TeleRead. I’ve been swamped by the technical challenges we’ve faced from the DoS and other nightmares. But solutions are nigh. Then I can give you a proper (re)introduction and share A Kindle World content with the TeleRead community.

    Thanks,
    David

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