Serious question about a DDOS attack!

I believe you read that wrong. One of my main domains on my host was "attracting" the DDOS. Somebody was attacking the one domain (which was on 1 IP that's connected to my whole host) so it took down my whole host. The IP was connected to my main domain and the rest of the domains so everything was offline.

Ok, I'm now even more confused than before.. Btw, my answer was based on the quote from their support and I indeed read "attracting" wrong, lol, my bad..morning coffee haven't kicked in just yet.

If it's a DNS or HTTP/S attack then go with Cloudflare, that's easiest thing you can do. Upgrading to a dedicated server will only help them, not you (of course it depends on the size of the attack). Anyway, what I would do is move my stuff to a VPS (no need for $110 a month dedi really) so I could see what's exactly going on. Having Cloudflare and using VPS/dedis is quite difficult situation as well if you are trying to block DDOS attacks. Since Cloudflare sends visitor's IP address over HTTP header.. it would be quite difficult to efficiently block further attacks.

Was the attack against your IP or your domain? There's a pretty big difference actually.
 
The free plan of cloudfarewill be enought, if not, just upgrade it...easy..you don't need a dedicate..
 
Ok, I'm now even more confused than before.. Btw, my answer was based on the quote from their support and I indeed read "attracting" wrong, lol, my bad..morning coffee haven't kicked in just yet.

If it's a DNS or HTTP/S attack then go with Cloudflare, that's easiest thing you can do. Upgrading to a dedicated server will only help them, not you (of course it depends on the size of the attack). Anyway, what I would do is move my stuff to a VPS (no need for $110 a month dedi really) so I could see what's exactly going on. Having Cloudflare and using VPS/dedis is quite difficult situation as well if you are trying to block DDOS attacks. Since Cloudflare sends visitor's IP address over HTTP header.. it would be quite difficult to efficiently block further attacks.

Was the attack against your IP or your domain? There's a pretty big difference actually.

I just asked them if it's a DNS or HTTP/S attack and what size of the attack, hopefully they respond soon. I believe it was a DNS attack though? I don't have a https:// domain. It's just a http:// domain.

So I should move back to the business host at HostWinds that was DDOS'd attacked yesterday? I'm not sure if that is a smart move, unless I purchase some DDOS prevention service. Cloudflare may be alright. I just want to make sure I always have up time for my domains and strong DDOS protection of course.

I believe the attack was against one of my domains on my host. Just one of them. And the IP of that domain was shared via my whole host. Each domain on my host had the same IP so all of them were offline due to the DDOS attack.
 
I don't know how to work either the VPS or dedicated plan.

A dedicated server is beyond an overkill. It's genuinely not needed and you shouldn't pay for it.

A VPS gives you more flexibility than shared hosting. You can configure the settings of the server to handle a lot more concurrent connections etc.

I have a 4GB/2 Core CPU VPS that easily handles around 250,000 impressions a month for a couple of Wordpress sites I run.
 
I just asked them if it's a DNS or HTTP/S attack and what size of the attack, hopefully they respond soon. I believe it was a DNS attack though? I don't have a https:// domain. It's just a http:// domain.

So I should move back to the business host at HostWinds that was DDOS'd attacked yesterday? I'm not sure if that is a smart move, unless I purchase some DDOS prevention service. Cloudflare may be alright. I just want to make sure I always have up time for my domains and strong DDOS protection of course.

I believe the attack was against one of my domains on my host. Just one of them. And the IP of that domain was shared via my whole host. Each domain on my host had the same IP so all of them were offline due to the DDOS attack.

If it's a DNS attack then they need to have some major resources behind that attack because it's quite difficult to kill the server with a DNS attack. I'd rather believe it was an attack directly to the IP or domain. Shutting Apache down using HTTP requests is quite easy, but a reasonable shared host should be able to "block" most small scale attacks using a reasonable Apache configuration and using a firewall.

Ideally get yourself a cheap $10 VPS, it's not that difficult to set it up.
 
Cloudflare doesn't really mention the 'differences'. I'm also not sure what you mean by managed? I'm still very new to dedicated servers or VPS.

You're right, they dont. Its a bit vague about what sort of protection they provide with each plan as well.

I just took a look at hostwinds and yes, their dedicated servers are managed - it basically means they keep them updated and they take responsibility for the servers (and the sites) being available - you could ask them for more clarification on that, but thats how I understand the term managed server.

In that case, and in light of the income your site is generating I would stick with the dedicated server - it should mean you don't have to worry at all about the server and the site being online - and that should be of high value to you.
 
A dedicated server is beyond an overkill. It's genuinely not needed and you shouldn't pay for it.

A VPS gives you more flexibility than shared hosting. You can configure the settings of the server to handle a lot more concurrent connections etc.

I have a 4GB/2 Core CPU VPS that easily handles around 250,000 impressions a month for a couple of Wordpress sites I run.

This is one of the staff member's response to that:
"Yes, a dedicated server would be overkill and you shouldn't be concerned that we would try and upsell you one. You would have to grow x500 (bad example) in order to really do that. A VPS would be useful if you wanted to migrate everything over and have everything protected by the DDOS protection. If you feel that you would be fine on the Business plan, that is perfectly suitable as well. We don't want to make you feel like you HAVE to get into a plan that you don't feel is needed."

What I purchases yesterday was a VPS. I only know how to work the FTP via FileZilla and WP admin which is all I really need to work on. But $110/m, that may be a lot for the domain that was DDOS'd attacked which barely touches 5,000 views per month.So you would suggest I go back to the previous host I was hosted at the got DDOS attacked yesterday and connect via a CloudFlare plan?
 
You're right, they dont. Its a bit vague about what sort of protection they provide with each plan as well.

I just took a look at hostwinds and yes, their dedicated servers are managed - it basically means they keep them updated and they take responsibility for the servers (and the sites) being available - you could ask them for more clarification on that, but thats how I understand the term managed server.

In that case, and in light of the income your site is generating I would stick with the dedicated server - it should mean you don't have to worry at all about the server and the site being online - and that should be of high value to you.

Yeah, I mean I'd love to since I've been hosting with them since 2013 but $110/monthly for that due to my one domain that got DDOS attacked yesterday which barely reaches 5,000 impressions or views per month? I don't know. You would still stay with the VPS for $110/monthly - I mean that does add up to be a lot in the long run, just for my one domain (small WP blog).
 
The $20/m plan correct? The second plan is $200/m which is way more than the HostWinds dedicated server plan that I'm currently paying for which is $110/m. I paid $15 for it yesterday and the $110 recurring payment starts in 3-4 days so I have that much time to cancel it.

My WP site gets about 200-300 views per day and barely 5,000 views per month. It generates about $250 per day currently. I'm still quite indecisive on what I should do. Is cloudflare alright for you? $20 per month is quite cheap compared to the $110/m dedicated server at HostWinds.
But why would someone DDOS ur site? I haven't seen such small blog being DDOSed, are u sure it was DDOS attack?
Your hosting provider told u to upgrade doesn't make sense, bcz DDOS can't be countered by upgrading hosting and also DDOS lasts for many days
 
What I purchases yesterday was a VPS.

Are you sure it's a VPS? $110 for a managed VPS would be fairly high end.

So you would suggest I go back to the previous host I was hosted at the got DDOS attacked yesterday and connect via a CloudFlare plan?

It's ultimately what you're comfortable with. If everything works fine under the shared plan, then stick to it. Your host should have DDoS protection in place for all their hosting packages.

I recommend using Cloudfare's free plan for your DNS and as a CDN, regardless of your setup.
 
But why would someone DDOS ur site? I haven't seen such small blog being DDOSed, are u sure it was DDOS attack?

Well it's not that small. I get 300-400 views per day and about 5,000 views per month. I also have a few competitors that may want to DDOS it so they can get more traffic, I'm not sure why it was attacked. This is the first time I'm experiencing a DDOS attack on one of my domains. My WP Blog has about 15 pages of article's, so it's not that small.
 
Are you sure it's a VPS? $110 for a managed VPS would be fairly high end.

It's ultimately what you're comfortable with. If everything works fine under the shared plan, then stick to it. Your host should have DDoS protection in place for all their hosting packages.

I recommend using Cloudfare's free plan for your DNS and as a CDN, regardless of your setup.

Yes, it's a "Manage HDD Cloud 4" from HostWinds which is actually a reoccurring monthly payment of $75 plus the $15 I paid for it yesterday. I was not under a shared plan btw, it was a business hosting plan. Somewhat similar. It was all of my domains on the host though, nobody else's, I'm sure. Because the whole server/host including all of my domains were offline as they were all sharing the same IP as the domain that was targeted and DDOS'd attacked.

Alright, I'll consider thinking about it. I'm still awaiting the technicians reply regarding the DDOS attack and what they'd also suggest. I'd hate to have another day of my domains being down/offline due to another attack if I switch back to previous host. I have to do something differently whether it'd be with Cloudflare or a VPS.
 
Well it's not that small. I get 300-400 views per day and about 5,000 views per month. I also have a few competitors that may want to DDOS it so they can get more traffic, I'm not sure why it was attacked. This is the first time I'm experiencing a DDOS attack on one of my domains. My WP Blog has about 15 pages of article's, so it's not that small.
Ok No offense :)
I think this DDOS attack can be countered easily by cloudflare free plan, u just simply need to enable the option - " i am under attack mode" in cloudflare "firewall" section

https://imgur.com/a/gPjrN
 
Well it's not that small. I get 300-400 views per day and about 5,000 views per month. I also have a few competitors that may want to DDOS it so they can get more traffic, I'm not sure why it was attacked. This is the first time I'm experiencing a DDOS attack on one of my domains. My WP Blog has about 15 pages of article's, so it's not that small.

300-400 views a day for a month is ~10k+ visits per month and 15 pages is quite small site. That kind of site does NOT need $110 month server.. a simple $5 digitalocean server would work perfectly. If you are ok with that then, why not, but it's not reasonable in any way.
I personally would get a VPS, but if you are not comfortable with managing your own server..you should stick with your shared hosting and get Cloudflare, that would be cheapest and easiest "fix" you can do.
 
hey, have a look at your webserver configuartion. hostwind offer a nginx on dedicate (kb.hostwindsDOTcom/difference-shared-business-hosting/) instead of apache.
my suggestion is downgrade your hostwind account to the cheapest plan that offer the nginx and connect it to the cdn network cloudflare (free plan).
you will have success with it :)

-h

PS: otherwise, let the kids play abit with the booter in afew days the will do that to another...
 
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