What is a Denial of Service?

We hear about it and read about them all the time. Those DOS attacks that can bring down a complete online company. While most of us think we know what that is, here is a wonderful description of how one nearly brought down a legitimate company doing business... by a company dedicated to stopping illegitimate file sharing. To say that the offending company overstepped their rights is a complete understatement. I hope they get sued out of existence and live in the streets for a few years... Good God, people.... We can't let this kind of cyber-crime go on just because they say they are one of the good guys.

Saying is one thing. They ought to do it as well. Be a good guy and no one will need to hear you proclaim your 'good guy' status.

Revision3: "On the internet, computers say hi with a special type of packet, called “SYN”. A conversation between devices typically requires just one short SYN packet exchange, before moving on to larger messages containing real data. And most of the traffic cops on the internet – routers, firewalls and load balancers – are designed to mostly handle those larger messages. So a flood of SYN packets, just like a room full of hyperactive screaming toddlers, can cause all sorts of problems.

For adults, it’s typically an inability to cope, followed either by quickly fleeing the room, or orchestrating a massive Teletubbies intervention. Since they lack both legs and a ready supply of plushies, internet devices usually just shut down."