DALnetizen

Max Says

First and foremost, I'd like to mention the fact I'm not a DALnet user and have never been one for at least a somewhat significant period of time, but the DDoS attacks that DALnet now suffers from have had a great impact on me, and I'm about to explain why.

The Internet, and IRC, of course, is a wonderful invention given to us by those who've been here before us. Many of those people, not unlike us though, have put their lives into developing the Internet and its underlying technologies, while our major is to keep the darn thing working for our own sake.

Speaking of our own sake, IRC has entirely changed my whole life. Several years ago I was an ordinary systems admin in Israel, working for the Ministry of Education. It's not me who should tell you just how boring the damn job can get sometimes, so IRC was my best bet for staying awake. So I've spent three years on IRC, and never regretted it. Why? It's all like real life, but yet much easier. As a user has mentioned in your #19 Zine, "the text I type flows away to other front of the planet faster than I actually type it" - and it's wonderful. Because one day I've met my faith on IRC, and the life changed much faster than I type.

I've been an Undernet user for quite a while, and there I met my future wife. It's like you never know when it happens, or if it will happen at all, but one day I found myself completely dedicated to a woman in one of the channels. We started getting closer to each other, and however silly this might seem to an unfamiliar person, we fell in love with each other. We spent a year and a half chatting on IRC, because we had no possibility to be together physically. I lived in Israel, and she in New York - we were, like, in parallel worlds or something!

So now you imagine what a hard time it can be for someone, who's most dear human being is on the other end of the planet, keep in touch with that very special someone on an everyday basis... DDoS attacks haven't bypassed Undernet, and once we had half the servers disappear, services were gone, and it was very much like 9/11 to me when it all happened. Fortunately, her and me are a quite techie-like kind of guys, so we found a workaround for this problem. But it's been a very hard time, anyways...

There were times when I had to ask one of my friends on DALnet for a piece of advice. It was just when the last attacks were starting. I had no chance to get to DALnet, and I didn't know my friend's e-mail address or the phone, although I needed him badly. It has all nearly cost me my whole relationship with the girl I love... but it's over now.

Now that I finally moved to New York, I'm starting to completely realize what a shame it is for someone to run a DDoS attack. I bet those people who do it can imagine themselves in my or your or other users' shoes. I have a lot of means to guard myself from those attacks, but there's no way to avoid them completely. Now that we're close, I once thought about a DoS attack on the telephone system state- or nationwide. THAT would be an even greater disaster, and I fear it's really possible.

It's not DALnet's problem alone, but it's up to all of us to fight the script kiddies. I guess they're just psychologically sick people who have a lot of mental disorders, because it's not hard to figure out how much damage - and not only technical! - their actions could cause. In my situation, the attacks have almost cost me my whole way of live, my feelings, my dear one - the most precious things on earth! It's more than just bandwidth, CPU time or electricity. You can cut your fiber and wait till the attacks stop, but you can't cut your feelings and feel like a prisoner, or a hostage - whatever fits best in here.

I hope you guys are keeping up with your hard job down there. I hope it's not only you - the DALnet stuff - who're doing this job, but plenty of other people, from ISP administration to normal users, who are affiliated with you and who help you do the job. I bet most of us are with you, even other networks' users - we have all suffered the same.

I hope you kick some kiddie ass, guys. Good luck to ya'all! :D

Max 'v_' Afonov
#russia, Undernet, The Internet.
New York, United States, The Earth.
Just me, The Humanity.