Blitzed.org - New Users - Dealing With Channel Floods
What is a channel flood?
Anyone who has been on IRC for any length of time has probably witnessed a channel flood. All of a sudden many bots (IRC clients under the control of a program or script) will enter your channel and start sending a lot of text to the channel. Often this text uses rapidly alternating colour codes, bold and underline in order to confuse your IRC client more. Sometimes these bots will also rapidly join and part your channel to increase the disruption. Normal conversation or other channel use is impossible during such attacks. Some poorly written IRC clients will crash or disconnect themselves when attacked like this.
Why can't you Blitzed admins ban them for us?
We do our best to keep such people off the network, and indeed the bopm software we wrote specifically to defend against these attacks is so popular that many other IRC networks use it too. Without our efforts these attacks would be much worse.
However, it is not possible to stop 100% of these attacks, and we get them in our own channels probably more than you do, so it is important that you know how to handle them.
Note that if your channel is being attacked we would be interested to know, but the only advice or help we can offer is to point you to this document. We have to follow these exact same guidelines ourselves when our own channels are flooded.
Okay, what should I do to fix my channel?
There are a couple of things you can do to help yourself:
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Have active channel operators!
We can't run your channel for you. If you come to us for help and we find that you have a channel with no chanops in it because you are selfish about giving out ops, the main advice we will give out is probably "tell your founder to add more chanops or else start a new channel because clearly they have no idea what they are doing".
Sounds harsh? Well, most of the other things that you can do require chanops, so we will have no sympathy for channel founders who damage their own channels by being selfish with auto-op access. ChanServ allows many levels of access, which can be altered quickly and easily. There is no excuse for not allowing your trusted users to be opped so that they can help you. If you do not agree, then accept the fact that while you are not around your channel is totally unprotected against such attacks.
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Use our AutoLimit feature!
Our Services has a feature called AutoLimit which automatically and periodically sets the channel limit (the maximum amount of people that may be in the channel at once) to a few above the current number of people in the channel. The effect of this is to limit the rate at which people (or bots) can join the channel. During a real attack, this gives you more breathing space for the rest of the tips here. Without this it is quite likely that you will be too lagged to do anything.
You can turn AutoLimit on like this:
/msg ChanServ SET #channel AUTOLIMIT ONWhere #channel is the name of your channel. There are other more advanced AutoLimit options, if you are interested in them then take a look at:
/msg ChanServ HELP SET AUTOLIMIT -
Make use of the +M and +R channel modes!
+R means "no one can enter the channel unless they are identified to a registered nickname". +M means "no one can speak in the channel unless they are identified to a registered nickname".
When most channel founders are told to use these modes they reply, "eww, no! It's too much hassle, my users won't like it!". However, we don't mean that you should keep these modes set all the time. Just use them for the few minutes that you are being attacked. The attackers won't be able to enter or speak, and 90% of your users will. This is far less disruptive than locking the channel with +i (invite only) and +m (only ops/voices can speak).
The absolute worst thing you can do is MLOCK these modes off, so that ChanServ removes them everytime they are set. Some founders do this because they think, "why would I ever want those modes? I will MLOCK them off so that no dumb op does it accidentally." Don't do this! Those modes can be incredibly useful at times like these. If you can't trust your chanops to be competent, spend more time training them or get new ones!
Why do people do this to us?
It's important to understand that the majority of people who launch these attacks are kids. If you or your channel has recently upset someone with low self-esteem and/or a problem with self-image, then they may decide to get back at you by attacking you like this. Other attacks are completely random, and are perpetrated by the same type of person who is just looking to feel better about himself (yes they are almost all male) by seeing others squirm. The random ones just attack the largest channels they can find. It's a power thing.
What they want is to see you completely at their mercy. Maybe they will keep a log of your distress and show it to their equally pathetic friends the next day saying, "wow, look at how much I owned #victim, dude I rock!". The best way to get rid of them is to not give them what they want These guys are almost always in the channel watching you. Just remember:
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Don't panic!
It's what they want to see. Just be calm.
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Follow the instructions above!
When they see that their attack is not causing any distress and that you have stopped all their bots from flooding quickly and efficiently, that you are now going on with your normal channel behaviour without despair, they will realise they have totally failed. Within minutes they will quit and try to find someone who they can intimidate.
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If you're SURE of who it is, ban them from the channel!
If they can't see what is going on, they usually will stop. But be careful not to turn it into a witch hunt, because even without banning you can easily ruin their plan by following our other instructions.
I did all that you said and they stopped doing it in the channel, but now they are doing it to me and my users in privmsg, help!
Very occasionally this happens when they find they can't attack the channel anymore. It's pretty rare though because they only get to see one person panic. It's more likely to happen if you personally have upset one of these sociopaths recently.
In any case, this is actually a lot easier to deal with. Just temporarily set usermode +R:
+R means "do not accept private messages unless the person has identified to a registered nick."
Many people find it easier to keep that usermode on all the time, but if you don't then just keeping it on for the few minutes that the attack lasts will be sufficient.
I have a suggestion for this page...
adavus points out that if you use mirc and you have been attacked in privmsg, then you probably have a large number of query windows now left open. After setting usermode +R, you can use:
to close all query windows (but not channels).
If you have any more useful tips about how handle these problems, or for other help pages you would like to see, please mail them to help@lists.blitzed.org. Thanks!