vBulletin What's Going On?

[Fergal]

Does anyone know what's going on at http://www.vbulletin.com/ ? Their site has been down for about an hour and I'm currently seing the error message below on their homepage;

Warning: mysql_connect() [function.mysql-connect]: Lost connection to MySQL server at 'reading initial communication packet', system error: 111 in /classes/Database.php on line 107
error initializing page.

http://www.vbulletin.org has also been down and are currently displaying the message below;

Forum not available, please try later.

All a little worrying IMO!

 

[Kashike]

That is very strange.
I wonder what is going on?

 

[Kaiser.]

Not working for me either, hope they didnt get hacked...

 

[Jack01]

A little strange that both forums would be down at once. I wouldn't worry too much, if anything has gone wrong they'll have a daily backup and will be able to restore it.

 

[Kashike]

Well they are both on the same server, which is strange.

 

[Fergal]

They are still down, it doesn't inspire confidence in their software.

They've been down a few hours now, I really can't understand why they haven't got a notice on the site yet.

 

[Kaiser.]

They are still down, it doesn't inspire confidence in their software.

Exactly, now all the customers will be afraid if they got hacked, or if there are exploits in vb408

 

[Fergal]

They are back up now, but I can't find any announcement on their site about the downtime.

 

[Jack01]

They are still down, it doesn't inspire confidence in their software.

Exactly, now all the customers will be afraid if they got hacked, or if there are exploits in vb408

No, if customers have half a brain they'll quickly notice that 2 very different versions of vbulletin have been brought down for whatever reason, meaning that the chance of an exploit in both is extremely unlikely (especially with the time 3.x has been around for).

It could be any number of things, from servers being down to DDOS attacks. Hopefully they'll be able to get things back up soon (not that it's that important to me, they could get back up next month for all I care).

EDIT: Looks like everything is back online.

 

[Fergal]

They are still down, it doesn't inspire confidence in their software.

Exactly, now all the customers will be afraid if they got hacked, or if there are exploits in vb408

No, if customers have half a brain they'll quickly notice that 2 very different versions of vbulletin have been brought down for whatever reason, meaning that the chance of an exploit in both is extremely unlikely (especially with the time 3.x has been around for).....

When using paid software it's comforting to have confidence that the company producing and selling the software is efficient, secure and professional. When their site goes down for three hours, without notice that puts a dent in that confidence.

 

[Zaborg]

vB is horrible - problems...problems.......problems....
It's getting so much bad fame right now, it will lose a lot of their clients/users.

Personally I hate vB, phpBB is much better.

 

[master412160]

Its impossible sometimes to prevent this type of errors, I am not a client so I can't really say much but "its alright now".

 

[el canadiano]

vB is horrible - problems...problems.......problems....
It's getting so much bad fame right now, it will lose a lot of their clients/users.

It has already. December was when things started going downhill for them.

When using paid software it's comforting to have confidence that the company producing and selling the software is efficient, secure and professional. When their site goes down for three hours, without notice that puts a dent in that confidence.

I'm sure it's a server error and not at fault of the software. The vBulletin homepage isn't powered by its CMS or anything like how the IPS website is powered by IP.Content. Besides, if they got hacked, I'm sure the guys who hacked them really would let them know that they got hacked.

 

[Justin]

It doesn't sound like an error that came from hacking. That really does effect their credibility. They are down all the time compared to other software's sites. They need new staff in whichever department handles keeping the site running.

 

[agentmanningctu]

Any forum software is hackable. IPB isn't hack free. If your forum is hacked, it's because someone doesn't like you or your content, not because your software is vulnerable.

 

[AnAccount]

vB is horrible - problems...problems.......problems....
It's getting so much bad fame right now, it will lose a lot of their clients/users.

Personally I hate vB, phpBB is much better.

If you haven't heard this already, Vbulletin has made national and local news stations alike because of all it's security flaws. I even saw a story about this on our local news as well, which is actually a first time I've ever heard a software make our local news station.

 

[Jack01]

phpBB can't be compared to vbulletin, sorry they're in different leagues. IPB and Xenforo can be compared to vbulletin as they're also commercial scripts with 'premium' features and support.

I know it was one of the 3.8 releases that hit news everywhere for a found security flaw, a patch update was released for that the next day if I'm remembering right, it wasn't long after news of it hit everywhere though.

I make a habit of always waiting to see feedback on updates before I update myself now though. It takes me that long to update (heavily modded and styled forum) and I'd hate to have to spend days updating it again because of a security flaw.

 

[Justin]

phpBB can't be compared to vbulletin.

That's like saying I can't be compared to Kino because he is Community Team, sure he has extra permissions and such, which is crazy. Forum software is forum software... it is not like it is a special god software.

 

[Kaiser.]

phpBB can't be compared to vbulletin.

That's like saying I can't be compared to Kino because he is Community Team, sure he has extra permissions and such, which is crazy. Forum software is forum software... it is not like it is a special god software.

I agree with jack because, vBulletin is just way to good to compare to something like phpBB... MyBB is way better than phpBB and although its free I'd say its just as good as vB and IPB.. and for sure better than XenForo as its just a new software.

 

[Justin]

phpBB can't be compared to vbulletin.

That's like saying I can't be compared to Kino because he is Community Team, sure he has extra permissions and such, which is crazy. Forum software is forum software... it is not like it is a special god software.

I agree with jack because, vBulletin is just way to good to compare to something like phpBB... MyBB is way better than phpBB and although its free I'd say its just as good as vB and IPB.. and for sure better than XenForo as its just a new software.

It is still a forum software! Just because phpBB doesn't have a huge paid team, special support staff, a paid software with security holes, and a crappy website doesn't mean they can't be compared to it. It is all just code, just like phpBB.

You said it is just too good, which is an opinion and can not be tested.