Many of you have noticed that our website has been loading slowly or not at all over the
past few days. The cause is an ongoing DDoS attack on ClubExpress, the platform that runs our site. ClubExpress is actively working to resolve it.
What a DDoS attack is
During a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack, ClubExpress's servers are flooded with a huge volume of fake traffic. Picture a traffic jam at the entrance:
when you try to connect, your request either gets stuck in the congestion or reaches a server that has buckled under the load.
Your information is safe
This type of attack is about overwhelming the system with traffic, not breaking into it. It does not give anyone access to member data or account information.
What we're doing
We are exploring alternatives to ClubExpress, particularly for event registration. That said, there is little we can change in the short term while the attack
is active. For now, the most reliable approach is patience.
What you can do
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Be patient. A page may take a minute or more to fully load. Avoid refreshing
your browser, as that only adds to the congestion.
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Give pages time to finish. Sometimes a page loads, but an element, such as a button, has not appeared yet. Wait a few seconds before acting.
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Click once. If you click a button and nothing happens, do not click it again. Your first click already sent the request, and your browser is waiting for a reply. Repeated clicks do not speed things up; they send duplicate
requests, further slowing the response.
Error messages you might see
If your request times out, your browser may show one of these. Here is what each one means and what to do:
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502 Bad Gateway. The site's front door is open, but the systems behind it have crashed or become overloaded and cannot respond.
Wait one to two minutes, then refresh.
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504 Gateway Timeout. Your request reached ClubExpress, but the servers were too congested to process it before the connection timed out.
Wait a few minutes and try again. Do not refresh repeatedly.
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503 Service Unavailable. The servers are temporarily turning away new requests to keep the system from crashing, or automated defenses are filtering traffic.
The service is briefly offline. Try again later.
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408 Request Timeout. The connection between your device and the site was too slow to complete sending your request before the connection closed.
Check your own internet connection or wait a couple of minutes and try again.
We know this is frustrating, especially with rides and events to register for. If you have any questions or run into trouble, reach out to us at webmaster@vbc-usa.com,
and we'll help however we can. Thank you for your patience while ClubExpress works through it. We will keep you posted as the situation changes.
Paul
VBC Webmaster