Codero strongly opposes both the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect-IP Act (PIPA) currently under consideration.  We recognize the need to protect intellectual property online; however, reasonable and well-functioning laws protecting these rights (such as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act) are already in place.  It is our opinion, therefore, that SOPA and PIPA are unnecessary and would unreasonably infringe on the rights of United States citizens to freely publish and access information over the internet.

We encourage you to do your own research and form your own opinions about SOPA and PIPA. Here are some recent articles concerning the matter:

• CNET News – How SOPA Would Affect You FAQ
• The Washington Post – SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) Debate: Why are Google and Facebook against it?
• Mashable – SOPA Infographic
• Fox News – Will Amazon and Facebook Black Out The Net?
• Electronic Freedom Foundation – Updates

If you decide, as we have, that SOPA and PIPA are not in the best interest of the American people, please contact your United States congressman to share your concerns about SOPA and your United States senators to share your concerns about PIPA. You may also make your opinion known by signing the anti-SOPA petition at www.whitehouse.gov.

Thank you for taking the time to read.

Ryan Elledge
Chief Operating Officer

Codero Opposes Protect-IP Act (PIPA) And Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) Legislation is a post from: Codero dedicated hosting blog

When the attack began, our network engineering team immediately implemented our DDoS recovery Standard Operating Procedures (SOP).  These procedures include:

a)  investigating the nature and type of the attack;
b)  communicating with our upstream providers in an effort to thwart the attack; and
c)  implementing network routing rules and other preventative measures within our infrastructure.

We also initiated our communications SOP’s by providing updates to customers through our @CoderoNOC Twitter account.  Unfortunately, the Codero website was offline and we were therefore unable to update our network status page.  In addition, our telephony system, which sits on the same network, was also affected by the attack.  We were also unable to modify phone system greetings to assist in updating customers during the attack because the greetings server was also offline.

The volume of the DDoS attack exceeded 10 million packets per second into our core routing equipment.  This is over 25 times higher than the maximum amount of aggregate traffic we receive during peak traffic times.  While all hosting providers plan for significant traffic bursts, we simply did not have the capacity to handle a 25X increase over peak loads.  As a result, we were not able to analyze the traffic internally, and we were forced to rely on our upstream providers for information.

Unfortunately, our upstream providers were unable to identify the targeted IP.  So, our engineers redesigned our routing tables and started routing small blocks of the network one at a time in order to pinpoint the IP addresses in the range being attacked.  We were able to narrow the issue down to the particular Class C (/24) of address space affected, disabled that /24, and restore service to customers outside of that /24.   After service was restored to those customers, we were able to pinpoint the exact IP address targeted within the affected /24 and restore service to those customers that were not the focus of the attack.  The IP is administered by a long-time Codero client who operates a large DNS service out of multiple data centers.  The domain name being targeted by the attackers utilized our customer’s DNS service, and our customer experienced DDoS attacks at all 4 hosting companies hosting the DNS for the domain.  Once the website’s record was removed from the customer’s DNS servers, the attacks ceased at all four locations early that afternoon.

DDoS attacks are more common and widespread, and they have negative effects on your business, and ours.  As your hosting partner, we remain vigilant in preventing these types of incidents from occurring.  When this one occurred, our first priority was to restore service to our impacted customers, and our entire company was mobilized toward that effort.  We remain committed to clear and consistent communication with our customers, and did our best to communicate our progress through channels that were available to us.  Still, we have heard from a few customers that feel that we did not communicate well enough.  We understand your frustration, and as part of our commitment to continuous improvement, will be reviewing our policies and practices in the coming weeks and sharing our progress with our valued customers.  We also continue to cooperate with Federal law enforcement officials, and would be happy to share our key learnings with other hosting companies to prevent future outages in their facilities.

In the mean time, we will continue to talk directly with any customers that have remaining questions or comments not already shared here on our blog and on Twitter.

Update on 3/8/2011 DDoS Attack is a post from: Codero dedicated hosting blog

In 2009, more Internet-enabled phones were sold than laptops, according to a Morgan Stanley mobile Internet report. The report predicts more users may connect to the Internet via mobile devices than desktop PCs within 5 years.  Consumers are using their mobile phones to engage with retailers, shop and buy…in real-time.

Our new application will allow users to quickly access Codero accounts through iPhones and get real-time server information. From ticket and invoice management, to configurations and IP address reviews, the application is ideal for those on the go. More features for the application will be launched down the road, but this is an early chance to beta test what is currently available.

Codero is always working behind the scenes to make sure we provide customers with relevant offerings. We welcome you as a iPhone beta tester to become an important part of this process as we continue to launch the products and services most in demand by our customers.

Codero Seeks Customers On The Go. is a post from: Codero dedicated hosting blog

We are currently working with multiple electrical companies testing every component in the switching gear that failed to transfer power over to the generator as it should have.  As of yet, the exact cause has not been confirmed, though we are expecting a detailed report early next week.  After this, we will repair any faulty equipment as quickly as we can.

We appreciate your patience, and assure you we will release the incident report as soon as we complete it.

Regards,

Ryan Elledge
Chief Operating Officer

Update on March 15, 2010 Outage. is a post from: Codero dedicated hosting blog

Can ISP’s survive the FBI mandated infrastructure?
Having worked in the internet industry for the past eleven years, I have had numerous occasions where I have had to cooperate with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies on cases of child pornography, and it clearly is one of the most disgusting matters I have ever had to deal with.  I have no issues with, and wholly support, ISPs and hosting providers assisting law enforcement in tracking down those who participate in child pornography issues.  I do, however, find it troubling that the government might legislate what information must be stored and for how long the information must be kept.  The hardware and software infrastructure alone would be difficult for many ISPs to handle, not to mention the additional cost to the organizations in an industry where pricing pressure is already forcing margins to be minimal, if existent.

What data is kept?
Many questions are raised by this request, that all Americans (in our free society) should be asked:  What data will be required to be retained?  Will it merely be records of what customer had what IP address at what time, or will it expand into keeping copies of instant messages and e-mails sent?  Who will have access to this information, and truly in what instances can the government subpoena this information?

Will your future be affected?
While publicly it sounds great to say you want this data retained for child pornography investigations, it will inevitably be used for much more.  Remember those e-mails you sent where you complained about your elected official?  Well, an audit might just well be around the corner for you.  How about those perfectly legal adult sites you were visiting late at night?  Don’t be surprised if that doesn’t come up if you decide to run for a political office.

What do you think about the FBI’s request? Do you think it will change the way you browse the Web?

Big Brother is Watching. is a post from: Codero dedicated hosting blog