Downloads on server protection?

Hey folks,

I have had several attacks from China the last 24 hours on downloads I offer on my dedicated server. It’s update patches for online computer games and several IPs have been constantly connecting to them to slow down my server. The file sizes are about 500mb and according to my support team, several IPs keep connecting and it’s causing my pages to take 1 minute to load.

What would be the best way to either limit the amount of download speed a file is given in total, how to protect against persistent connections or make them queue up for the download? I’m just wondering which is the best method to combat such annoying BS like this.

I put the IPs in the firewall but seems like they have some sort of bot to keep connecting. I don’t want to delete the downloads, how can I make it registered access only? If they already know the route of the files how can I stop that? Would it be better to move the files else where?

Thanks!

Move the files and let download them via a php file, you can then let the php file check if there is a logged in user. I think you can use the FileDownload plugin for this!

Thanks, I banned the IPs connecting to the downloads, went out for lunch and find they are using different IPs to connect. Seems like there’s nothing but hackers coming from that part of the world, wish I still lived there as these IPs originate from where I lived there... Imagine their face if I turned up at their door lol. PUNKS!

Anyway I’m looking at the filedownload plugin as this looks like what I need.

Out of interest, how do websites stop people doing this? Is there some way to stop persistent connections like that or do they have people keeping an eye for this kind of attack?