The Hobbyist Machine Store was attacked last week with a Denial of Service (DOS) by one hacker at one IP address. This lead to an overload of services on the server that I share with many other websites. As you you know from previous posts this is not the first time or the first website I manage that has been attacked like this.
My service provider was forced to shut down The Hobbyist Machine Store website for the sake of the other users. Of course this makes me upset with everyone including my service provider. It’s a case of I am guilty until I do something about it.
Well, I am.
I am building a new The Hobbyist Machine Store in a cloud server with Amazon Web Service. I have obtained a stand alone virtual server from Amazon and currently have it running in test mode. I have loaded a new eCommerce store software package and am learning how to set-up my new server and the software.
It is a very complex and detailed process and I am learning as I go. It may be one to two more weeks before I can go live again. It is definitely starting over from scratch, setting up the server and software and loading the store items into the database.
The store blog also suffered loss in the attack and I will replace/restore it after I get the store on line.
It’s OK though. I was planning to update the store software and in fact have examined and tried several software packages well before this incident. I now have another professional ecommerce package I just evaluated so I think this latest will have the new store working well. I am spending my time to get a functional looking store running first, then I will work on the glamourous graphic touches <g>
The store webserver is running. It can only be reached from my home office while I work on the set-up. No items are loaded as I have to get infrastructure things like the email working properly. To all others it will look like the server is down.
This conversion is a HUGE task as there are many hundreds of variables to set up (and get right) before the store can go live. Not only am I learning a new store software package but I now have total responsibility for operating the server and ALL it’s software. Like loading a patch for for “bash” I mentioned elsewhere here in RD’s Blog.
I think I don’t pay me enough… 🙂
Definitely not enough. I going to ask the boss for a small raise. I’ll probably just get a cushion for my chair.
A small victory last night. The virtual store can now talk. I have ironed out all the kinks in the email function. The store can reliably communicate with me and the customers. I have to get SSL working (That’s the secure browser connection stuff) and then I will feel like I have created a good base infrastructure for the store.
After that is all the merchant stuff, loading product description and graphics and testing the payment and shipping functions. So much yet to do…