DR KOH KHO KING

Brian has just informed me an hour ago that the SLOWness of PhotoMalaysia is due to SSH attack, some people were sending multiple access request via SSH to PhotoMalaysia server, making our server busy and slow in responding to the normal request in the site from members.

We have no prove of who is attacking us, but we wonder who want to attack PhotoMalaysia?!

We will be stronger and stronger each day…will not give up to those that envy us and wanna bring us down.

Below is what Brian posted (attack/requests in less than one second):

Invalid user test from ::ffff:64.46.67.248
input_userauth_request: invalid user test
Failed password for invalid user test from ::ffff:64.46.67.248 port
45239 ssh2
Failed password for invalid user test from ::ffff:64.46.67.248 port
45239 ssh2
Invalid user test from ::ffff:64.46.67.248
input_userauth_request: invalid user test
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How much is the actual server cost of PhotoMalaysia’s server?

For those who are interested in knowing the actual cost of the server, why US$2k and why US$1.5k, here’s the screen shot of the invoices that we have paid:

Basic server rental (hardware) = US$159 / month
Cpanel rental = US$25 / month

Total = US$178 / month (for the first two months that we have paid).

US$178 x 12 = US$2136 / year

Later we found out that our initial contract with the server company is US$159 inclusive of Cpanel (their mistake in the contract, as Cpanel supposed to be excluded), hence we demand them to give us US$159 flat rate that include the Cpanel fee. There were some fighting between the server company and PhotoMalaysia, and if you still remembered, PM.com was down for a few days in Dec as the company suspended our account. After some negotiation, they agreed to give us US$159 for future rental.

US$159 x 12 = US$1908

If we paid the rental for ONE WHOLE YEAR, we are entitled to 20% discount. This is quite a bit of saving so I decided to pay for one whole year:

US$159 x 12 x 80% = US$1526.40

If we were to rent a 2nd server, if we pay monthly and not annually, we will need to pay US$178/month (no more US$159 as it was a mistake in the contract previously), and it will total up US$2136 / year.

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 Got quite upset over PhotoMalaysia recently…first is the slowness of the site…which I still don’t understand why it becomes slow with small number of members online (average 80 members and 100 guests), and around 9000 registered members. Even during off peak hours, the database connection seems to be slow as well.

Is the problem due to vBulletin software? Or the setting of our server or database? As having no control over the technical part…I feel frustrated. Hope to grow PhotoMalaysia and make it as good as possible, but many things are not within my control. Removing more and more information from PhotoMalaysia website to speed up the thing isn’t the solution IMO, eg. who’s online is of very interesting to me.

Currently paying PhotoMalaysia’s server already costing us US$1.5k+ (RM5~6k), I paid the money upfront but have received support from other caring PMers from time to time, and sometimes received advertisements from companies and members. If we were to get a 2nd server, it means another US$1.5k+, together with ShaShinKi’s own server (US$1k+), I need to spend US$4k (RM15k) ANNUALLY just for the servers renting. This is A LOT OF MONEY for me…and honestly I do not think I can afford this kind of spending at the moment, especially with my baby daughter coming in June…my wife will be very upset if I were to commit into such a spending.

So, what can be done? Brian is doing his best to tweak the server…but still…the fact is that PhotoMalaysia is still slow from time to time. It makes surfing less fun…and people are attacking us due to that. PhotoMalaysia is like my baby…as much as I love and care about it, I hope it can grow to be the most successful photography website in Malaysia. It is sad that we are slowed down by our hardware limit… :’(

I will think again about the server cost…to commit into such a big expenditure yearly or not…

I have created a “news” page some time ago…but did not manage it properly. Have created two online forums since then (PentaxWorld & CaptureSG), so I will leave the photography news update to these two sites, besides my PhotoMalaysia site.

So, what is this “blog” is all about? I am not really sure…that’s why I don’t know what title to put yet…and use the URL as blog under ShaShinKi. I guess I will just use this blog as my personally diary. Writing and sharing anything that I feel like writing.

Till then…see ya…