DEMONOID BLOCKS TAIWAN AND CHINA AFTER DoS ATTACK
July 17, 2010 – 3:59 am
Demonoid is without doubt one of the best known BitTorrent trackers on the Internet. Unfortunately, this Internet fame makes the tracker a target for numerous DoS (Denial of Service) attacks. Following one of the latest attacks Demonoid has decided to block many Taiwanese and Chinese IP-ranges. By Ernesto of TorrentFreak.
Demonoid is one of the biggest torrent sites around. Hosted to the west of Russia in Ukraine, the site has settled outside the reach of the various anti-piracy outfits that previously tried to shutter the tracker.
Threats from the movie and music industry aside, Demonoid has also been the target for dozens of large and small DoS (Denial of Service) attacks. Usually these attacks only slow the site down a bit and, in the worst case, they result in several hours of downtime before Demonoid staff take care of the problem.
In mid-June, reports started to come in to TorrentFreak from Chinese and Taiwanese Demonoid users who complained that the site was inaccessible to them. Both the site and tracker were no longer functioning. Browsers reported a “server not found” error and torrents with a Demonoid tracker returned a “error: hostname not found” message.
For the affected users this could mean only two things. Since Demonoid was working fine in other countries, either Chinese and Taiwanese ISPs have started to block Demonoid’s website and tracker, or the people running Demonoid had decided to block IP-ranges from these countries.
To find out more about the origin of the connection issues, a TorrentFreak reader based in Taiwan decided to contact his Internet provider, who dismissed the first option after some investigating.
“We cannot access Demonoid.com either,” he was informed by his ISP. “We attempted to access the site via the other ISPs in Taiwan but all these attempts failed. We determined that there is no connection problem. The Demonoid server is rejecting all requests from Taiwanese IP-addresses.”
Despite the fact that Demonoid’s owner has never responded to our inquiries in the past, we asked for a comment on the blocking issue and got a swift response. Indeed, as we initially guessed, Demonoid is actively blocking IP-ranges in Taiwan and parts of China because that’s where the DoS attacks come from.
“There is a DoS coming mostly from there,” Demonoid’s admin told TorrentFreak in a brief reply.
We have yet to receive an answer to the question whether the block is temporary or permanent. In the meantime, affected users can bypass the restrictions by using a VPN-service. Both ItsHidden and VPNReactor offer free, but limited accounts.
Note: Visit TorrentFreak.com for more updates.
One Response to “DEMONOID BLOCKS TAIWAN AND CHINA AFTER DoS ATTACK”
There’s a huge contradiction in here: What should be given away free and what should not?
By the way, it’s normal that peoples are buying official releases. On the other hand, the Internet is an open door to all kinds of downloading links — sometimes it’s a bit confusing. Personal use is something. Making money on the back of someone while bootlegging music is, yes, shitty, crap and shabby. I’m all against that, by the way.
A fine example: Almost the totality of what I’ve recorded to this day has been pirated through the Internet — my fault entirely for some lack of vigilance. I don’t mind too much about it now and, of course, I’d never expected any “thanks” in return from the vultures. But when some of them motherfuckers are pointing their stinky accusing fingers on you, man… If you don’t laugh, you’d cry!
By Serge Zéni on Jul 27, 2010