What exactly is DDos, and how do you prevent/fix it ?

[Deleted]

Hey everyone on MMOchampion !

I think most of us who watch streams have already seen what kind of damage a DDoS can do. It's an unfortune thing that happens, but i think the only thing we can do about it is protect ourselves against it. Now that i've started a little stream myself this is a subject that really has my interest, something i want to keep an eye on and gather more info about. I had a guy in my chat saying he was going to DDoS me.. I laughed it away and a minute later i indeed got a wow error / black screen. As far as i know Skype is the big resource for DDos'rs to get what they need .. I didn't know that person, did not have him on skype or anything so he was probably bluffing. But still... Are there any other ways he could've found out what he needs to DDoS ?

If you know more about this, have tips and/or tricks to prevent it post them here !

Don't know if there is already a topic for this.

[Firebert]

First off, it's likely that the WoW error was just a coincidence. Getting DDoSsed will just grind your internet to a halt, WoW will disconnect, and you'll feel like you're back in the 1990s.

The best way to prevent getting DDoSsed is to not give out your IP address, or route your traffic trhough a proxy.

[Clockworks]

in this case i find it unlikely that someone DDoS'd you.I think the crash was random, but i may be wrong, i only say it is unlikely.

[Boppalopigus]

Change your IP or ask your ISP to help you change it.

Basically a DDoS is a network of computers sending a large number of information requests to your computer and as such your computer cannot respond to real traffic and your internet will slow down or even crash.

[Ojjiii]

Just change your ip and you can prevent it.

[anveena]

Fire up the LOICs!

[Deleted]

basically, your computer gets spammed, your network will shut down and you won't be able to do anything really. so many people send nonsensical data to your computer that it won't be able to respond to actual traffic. or sometimes, it's actually all legit traffic, but far more than the server can handle: if a tweeter with a sufficiently large following (say a totalbiscuit or a yogscast) link a funny article or similar on small or even medium websites, the website gets inundated with people wishing to see the article, and if the website can't handle the traffic (which can sometimes be hundreds of thousands of visitors), the website just fails.

the same happens with new releases of videogames. every time a big budget title releases on steam, for example, some people can't even play offline because of that. similarly, the Diablo 3 release or even the stresstest was such a disaster to many. Even the WoW servers had issues: my login time went from 10 seconds to 100 seconds, and i don't even play D3.

Even real life has DDoS effects. no, seriously: telephone lines are known to be overloaded when a major disaster appears in a very localised area, even if the telephone lines themselves aren't affected by the incident. for example, back in August last year, a freak thunderstorm struck a very popular Belgian festival, Pukkelpop, killing half a dozen and injuring many more. the main stagetent, where everyone was sheltering from the rain, collapsed, as well as several trees. an adjacent field, where many of the visitors placed their tents, was totally wiped clean of tents. during the carnage, many people tried to contact their family to tell they're alright, or to find out if they're okay. the telephone network was overloaded with requests and couldn't handle them all, leaving people in the dark about their relatives.

the weirdest thing, however, that can be DDoS'd, however, is by far the sewer system. this might sound funny, but whenever there's a large sport event, like the Superbowl (the largest American Football match every year) or the UEFA champion's league final, many people get up during halftime to go to the toilet, which leads to incredibly high amounts of simultaneous flushing (the superbowl is watched by more than 100 million viewers annually), sometimes leading to short-term water losses or sewer floodings.

[Deleted]

how do I change my IP?

[v3rtz]

how do I change my IP?

Call up your ISP.

[Ssith]

how do I change my IP?

odds are that your ISP has you on DHCP, which means your address is assigned to you at random. unplug your moden for like 15 minutes, reconnect and you'll have a new IP.

if, however, you have a static IP from your ISP, you'll have to call them and have it changed.

[Snorkle]

Since people have already explained more or less what a DDoS attack is, I think you should start focusing on the fact that such an attack would -> NEVER <- cause a wow error/black screen. It could cause latency, it could cause disconnections, but never an error. Those are usually either memory leaks, driver issues or GPU resets.

If you are so interested in security, you should learn the basic rule: Know what each attack causes and IF you should protect against it. Answer is, in this case, no. You gave us no proof that you are even being DDoSed, and frankly, what kind of an internet idiot would aim a DDoS attack at an individual and not a company? Ridiculous. He'd have to have the network of bot computers at his disposal and use them in a totally pointless way.

[Zigen]

Keep yourself out of your streams chat. He can get your IP like that if you don't have him on skype. Your best bet would be to turn off your router for 15 mins and let it change your IP. Other than that, pay for a VPN. A VPN can limit your streaming, though.