how to Shoring Up Defenses Against DDoS Attacks??

DDOS Content Sponsored by BlockDos.Net Block DOS
(The Hosting News) – A DDoS attack is defined a distributed denial of service attack. This kind of attack tries to make a computer resource unavailable to users. There are different ways in which this kind of attack can be carried out. The reasons and targets for these attacks vary, but the end result is the same, shutting down a system so users cannot access it. The point of a DDoS attack is to prevent an internet site or service from functioning normally or at all. The most targeted web sites for these kinds of attacks are banks, credit card payment gateways, e-business sites and root name servers. A common method of attack is to flood the server with external communications so that it cannot communicate with legitimate traffic, or causes the server to run so slow it is rendered in effective, causing actions to time out. A DDoS attack is carried out by either forcing the target computers to reset, or consuming resources to the point that the targeted computer or server can no longer achieve its primary function. Attacks like this will also limit or stop all communication between the user the victim. A DDoS is a crime most, it violates the Internet Architecture Boards’ internet proper use policy, and TOS of all major internet service providers.

There are different programs that can be used to perform DDoS attacks, some are actually written for benign use, but can be used for malevolent purposes. These programs are written with the intent of performing DDoS attacks while others are true packet injectors and able to perform other tasks.

Examples of the legitimate tools used are hping, socket programming, and httping. There are also underground tools available for such attacks.

Signs of an Attack

The US Computer Emergency Response Team defines symptoms of a DDoS attack as :

Unusually slow network performance, either processes or opening files.

Unavailability of a website

Inability to access a web site

Dramatic increase in spam emails, this is an email bomb.

DDoS attacks lead to issues with branches of a network being attacked. The attack over loads the network; other branches will try to compensate for the increase in traffic. This causes the whole network to slow down. A large enough attack can shut down entire regions of internet connectivity.

Types of tactics a DDoS will use

These are the most common types of DDoS Attacks:

1) Consumption of computational resources: such as bandwidth, disk space, or processor time.

2) Disruption of configuration information: such as routing information.

3) Disruption of state information: such as unsolicited resetting of TCP sessions.

4) Disruption of physical network components: Such as the actual server

5) Obstructing the communication media: between the intended users and the victim so that they can no longer communicate adequately.

The DDoS attack may also use malware to cause further damage:

* Max out the processor’s usage so no work gets done
* Cause Microcode errors in the machine
* Lock up the computer by giving the processor erroneous sequencing
* Locking up the computer through the operating system through resource starvation.
* Crashing the operating system itself.

Weapons of a DDoS: What can be used against you?

ICMP Flood: ICMP flood, also known as Ping flood or Smurf attack, is a type of Denial of Service attack that sends large amounts of (or just over-sized) ICMP packets to a machine in order to attempt to crash the TCP/IP stack on the machine and cause it to stop responding to TCP/IP requests.

Tear Drop Attacks: Use corrupted IP fragments of overlapping over sized payload to over load a target’s computer. This can cause the operating system to crash due to the TCP/IP reconfiguration reassembly code.

Peer to Peer Attacks: An attacker uses other computers to attack a victim, over loading the victim’s computer.

Permanent Denial of Service Attacks: Attacks that are so destructive they cause hardware to be reinstalled or replaced.

Application Level Floods: Floods the victim server with an overwhelming number of packets, causing the CPU to become confused and crash due to lack of resources.

Nuke: This attack is just as it sounds. The attacker sends corrupt data over and over to the victim until the computer locks up.

Distributed Attack: The attack comes from multiple fronts the attacker hides his whereabouts this way. The multiple fronts then flood band width, or take up resources causing system crashes or locking up the server.

Reflected Attack: This attack uses forced requests sent to multiple locations to flood the victims computer with response.

Degradation of Service attacks: Attackers use infected computers to degrade service of a server by flooding it intermittently. This type of attack is hard to detect because the victim has to determine if the traffic on the server is normal or not.

Unintentional Denial of Service: This is not an intentional attack, but is a result of users being directed to a smaller site from a larger site. The smaller site is typically unprepared for a jump in traffic.

Denial-of-Service Level II: This locks the network off the net, by triggering a defense protocol to block traffic to the internet. This will take the network off the net without shutting down the network itselfBlind denial of service: The attacker must be able to receive traffic from the victim, then redirect the traffic then either subvert the routing fabric, or use the attackers own IP address. This type attack the attacker can use multiple forged IP addresses to launch the attack.

DDoS Attacks: End Game
DDoS attacks can take a website down quickly and emphatically. By knowing what you are facing you can defend against them. DDoS Attacks range from brute force incursions, to surgical strikes against key components of a network. The right tools to set up your defenses and a DDoS attack can be stopped cold.
source

what are the Country-wise Domains Distribution???

Rank Country Domains
1 United States 75,449,126
2 Germany 6,434,977
3 China 4,635,894
4 United Kingdom 4,428,289
5 Canada 3,838,831
6 France 3,076,331
7 Australia 2,467,180
8 Japan 2,094,023
9 Spain 1,458,640
10 Italy 1,347,722
11 Netherlands,The 1,213,614
12 HongKong S.A.R. 1,165,992
13 Turkey 970,573
14 Korea 809,869
15 India 601,679

knowledge base web hosting guide zaftech.ca latest updates and news and reviews of web hosting

what are the Global Domain Growth Trends??

Weeks Total Domains Gain Loss Net
02/21/11 121,745,129 777,324 541,662 235,662
02/14/11 121,509,467 910,946 555,119 355,827
02/07/11 121,153,640 855,688 491,562 364,126
01/31/11 120,789,514 855,773 535,827 319,946

Content Delivery Network (CDN) Service by NEXCESS.NET

NEXCESS.NET, a provider of shared hosting, dedicated servers, colocation and server clusters, today announced the availability of content delivery network (CDN) service to its hosting customers. The CDN service is powered by EdgeCast Networks, a rich media content delivery network.

The company articulates that its CDN service is designed to significantly improve web site performance by reducing physical distance, and in turn, latency, between the server and end user. It also reduces the distance from a network topology standpoint, ensuring that content requested by end users is always served by the server that will perform best for that user. Customers of the CDN service should see improved global performance over traditional web hosting thanks to the delivery of static user content from servers in 19 points of presence, distributed between North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

It states that in addition to performance improvements seen directly in the user experience, customers of the company's content delivery network should experience a number of other advantages over traditional hosting. This includes decreased load on servers that host dynamic content, and improved rankings with search engines such as Google, which has specifically cited site performance as a factor in calculating a site's ranking.

"We feel that our customers will see significant benefits in leveraging the advantages of CDN hosting for their static content," commented Chris Wells, President & CEO of NEXCESS.NET. "As time goes on, the web is becoming less forgiving of slow web sites, and studies have repeatedly proven that end users gravitate towards content with the fastest load times."

what are the cloud computing trends in 2011?

Hosting.com surveyed nearly 600 individuals with significant IT planning and budgeting responsibilities regarding the cloud computing industry and their purchasing intentions. The survey results and analysis are published in our annual Cloud Trends and Best Practices Report.

The Report introduces compelling data regarding the adoption rates of cloud, obstacles and usage.
Key Trends for 2011

* Explosive Growth
44% of respondents indicated cloud computing was an executive priority.

* Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Are Driving Growth
BCDR services cited as top reason for investment in the cloud.

* Hybrid Solutions Will Be An Important Catalyst for Cloud Migration
Over 30% of respondents reported that their cloud services provider must provide integration with their existing services.

* Cloud Servers a Legitimate Threat to Server Sales: 80% likely to consider cloud servers to replace physical servers.

How to add a user in Dedicated Linux Web server?

for adding a user please follow these steps
To begin, SSH into your server as root. Once you’re logged in, you should see a shell prompt similar to:

root@server[~]#

The command to add a user is as below. I will be using the username as “support”.

root@server[~]# /usr/sbin/adduser support

Once the user is added you can verify by using the below command:

root@server[~]# cat /etc/passwd | grep support

Set a password for the user (support)

 Use the below command to set password for the user “support”:

root@server[~]# passwd support

ote: Make sure you pick a secure password which will consist between 
6-8 characters, and will contain letters, numbers, and punctuation 
marks.

To make sure this user account that you have created works, open another SSH window and proceed to log in with the user “support”. Once you’ve successfully verified that this account works, you may exit the session.

Verifying su’s command permissions, and ownership 

root@server [~]# ls -la /bin/su 

The output should be:

-rwsr-x---  1 root wheel 61168 Nov 18 07:17 /bin/su* 

free web hosting

100 MB web hosting
5 GB web traffic
No banner ads
Free web template
Free domain name*
Free domain transfer*
FrontPage Extensions
FTP & File manager
1 domain hosting
5 sub-domains

15 POP3 accounts
POP3 and SMTP server
Web e-mail
MySQL & phpMyAdmin
PHP, Perl & Crontab
SSI support
Raw access/error logs
Traffic/Badwidth stats
24/7 customer support
1 hour response guarantee