403 is a server side error iirc

The request contained valid data and was understood by the server, but the server is refusing action. This may be due to the user not having the necessary permissions for a resource or needing an account of some sort, or attempting a prohibited action (e.g. creating a duplicate record where only one is allowed). This code is also typically used if the request provided authentication by answering the WWW-Authenticate header field challenge, but the server did not accept that authentication. The request should not be repeated.

So they need to fix it on their end.

Or you need to log in

The website still gives the 403 forbidden message and no way to log in on there either.

site?

if you are talking about Vogons, it works for me on macOS with M3 and M4

I also had a 403 this weekend on one PC (yes, on vogons), but not on another running the same software.

Http vs https?

@Dominus do you guys ever IP ban people? Have you ever? If bjwil1991's ISP just issued him a new-to-him IP address that used to belong to a banned user, that could explain this behavior.

I could be totally wrong but I'm envisioning him logging in on his phone, not on WiFi, to report the issue, or something. Idk.

Well, I did get a new modem about 3 months ago, but it worked then. I haven't checked with my Windows laptop since that's been a while when I last used it. If it works on there, it's gotta be something on the MacBook. The website works within Safari on my MacBook, but I prefer to use Edge or Chrome since Safari updates when the OS updates are present.

Here are my MacBook Air M1 and my Dell Latitude 3520 side-by-side. The Dell loads the website just fine, but the MacBook gives the error.

I‘ve reported this to Snover. We had some DOS Attack the last couple of days. Maybe this is some fallout

I have the same problem since a couple of days. Site works in Safari, but not in Chrome. I prefer Chrome because it syncs across all platforms.

Dominus wrote on 2025-06-24, 22:41:

I‘ve reported this to Snover. We had some DOS Attack the last couple of days. Maybe this is some fallout

I guess we should probably refrain from posting too much detailed info publicly about such issues and report potentially relevant observations directly to admins instead.

Yes, I think that would be the wisest course of action

As Dominus mentioned, VOGONS has been the target of several rounds of DoS and DDoS attacks in the past month or so, and a couple of the initial emergency mitigations continue to remain in place for now. Because I neither want to antagonise nor provide ammunition to the responsible party, please forgive any apparent evasiveness around this subject.

Concomitantly, there has been an uptick in traffic from what appear to be at least two different botnets masquerading as regular users from residential ISPs which some speculate are covert AI content scrapers.

In both cases, because of deliberate attempt to conceal the nature of this traffic, some legitimate traffic may be inadvertently blocked. Work is ongoing both in additional traffic analysis and in deploying less intrusive countermeasures as time permits. Apologies for the inconvenience.

I've long had a thought whether it's possible to redirect unwanted traffic to a honeypot of sorts.

Imagine you want to go to some super exclusive club.

Rather than kick you out at the door, the bouncers(firewall) simply open a different door and let you into a similar, but not the same club.

You feel like you got in, and they didn't let you.

I figure it would be useful for catching hackers or at least wasting their time, but web scrapers could work too.
Maybe in this case make it a monthly static clone of just the text instead of the full live site, which should reduce the traffic somewhat.

darry wrote on 2025-06-24, 23:33:

Dominus wrote on 2025-06-24, 22:41:

I‘ve reported this to Snover. We had some DOS Attack the last couple of days. Maybe this is some fallout

I guess we should probably refrain from posting too much detailed info publicly about such issues and report potentially relevant observations directly to admins instead.

Agreed. It'd be wise to keep it to yourself and if anyone asks, don't say anything.

myne wrote on 2025-06-25, 02:31:

I've long had a thought whether it's possible to redirect unwanted traffic to a honeypot of sorts. […]
Show full quote

I've long had a thought whether it's possible to redirect unwanted traffic to a honeypot of sorts.

Imagine you want to go to some super exclusive club.

Rather than kick you out at the door, the bouncers(firewall) simply open a different door and let you into a similar, but not the same club.

You feel like you got in, and they didn't let you.

I figure it would be useful for catching hackers or at least wasting their time, but web scrapers could work too.
Maybe in this case make it a monthly static clone of just the text instead of the full live site, which should reduce the traffic somewhat.

Interestingly, I recently came across an article on this very topic, which I saved to my read-it-later service. You might find it interesting.

https://idiallo.com/blog/zipbomb-protection

Hmm... That's more like a landmine while I'm talking about redirecting you to a nice padded cell.

Still a cool technique. Won't last forever since it will eventually be mitigated,but like those old hays modem commands, still kinda fun while it lasts.