Summary of Problems
For the last few days, facebook reports problem with session keys and some players are unable to login. No updates from facebook for the last 3 days... 
To add to the fun, Friday morning, our DNS provider, Register.com has been experiencing intermittent issues with DNS - Domain Name System/Server. This morning (Saturday) they officially confirmed what was speculated by many on twitter and else where, that register.com got hit with distributed denial of service attack (DDOS). Purpose of this post - more detail
At the end, players don't care what and who is to blame, at the end, everyone just want so to play the game. All we can do is stay on top of the situation as it develops.My purpose in writing this is to give you guys some more background if you are interested.
Facebook session problems
Basically facebook send us a key that says that you are you. Ie, the reason you don't need to register with an email, username and password to player Realm Of Empires, is because facebook handles the authentication.
You try to acces the game, we ask facebook who you are, and facebook authoritatively confirms your identify. This is part that is currently broken. We can't find out who you are, so we can't log you in.
DNS Issues
Domain Name System/Server is what allows you to type in 'www.RealmOfEmpires.com' in your browser address bar and access the game. The browser asks a Domain Name Server for the IP number for the name you entered, the server returns it, and your browser then makes a connection to us. Sort of like phone book - you have a name 'Bill Smith', look up his number in the phone book, then dial the number on your phone and off you go.
Our provider, the main server that all other servers ask for information is under a hacker attack. Basically, when your browsers ask 'What is the number to http://www.realmofempires.com'/, it gets a 'I don't know this name' response
It is the second time in the last 2 years that register.com was hit with a distributed denial of service attack...
What are we doing about this?There is not much we can do about the facebook session issue but hope they will fix it soon.
DNS issue we got temporarily resolved, partly... we still have issues such as images not loading, stories not posting, and stewardship account access.
This is absolutely ridiculous! First, the ability to "contact the developer" option on your facebook page is disabled and I do not want to just post on your page for fear someone will see my comment and attack me. I can get into ROE now but more that half of the screen is greyed out, I cannot see most of the options.
ReplyDeleteI usually do not mind small delays or hold ups because these things happen, but all day yesterday I could not even log in and now today I cannot see about 90% of my screen. I pay good money to play this game and all I ask is that the application works when I go to sign in. I had attack plans scheduled for this weekend and you have ruined those plans devs. Like I said, I do not mind minor setbacks but not being able to check my account for 36+ hours is inexcusable. Please fix this problem so I can at least try to salvage some of the plans you all have destroyed this weekend. I hope this does not affect the war my clan is currently in, I wonder how many more of my clanmates are having this problem. This is happening in realms 4,5,9 and 10 for me. Thanks...
Thank you Greg for being extremely transparent and open when tackling your issues.
ReplyDeleteJosh
Just an idea for the future, why not allow us to link our accounts to an openId account. This way you'll no longer depend exclusivley on facebook.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the Info. It's good to see such open communication from at least one Game's Devs.
ReplyDeleteUh, does a server overload mean the work-around just fried?
ReplyDelete