Whenever I post a new article on my blog, I post links on social media. Usually its Mastodon, X, BlueSky and Lemmy. It is hard to keep stuff up on Reddit so I don’t usually try because the moderators are often hostile towards blogs.
I’ve recently become aware of another potential source of news, SoylentNews. I figured it could be a good place to post links to my articles.
I was wrong.
It is totally their right to chose what to publish and if they don’t like my articles that is perfectly fine, I don’t take any issue with that.
I went on their IRC to inquire about my submission. That was a big mistake. The first time I did this, I left my computer and went to go have a shower. When I came back something was wrong with my Internet.
My Xbox was fine, my laptop was fine, just this desktop had issues so I assumed that something was wrong with the wifi adapter.
Then things started working again, but after 8pm EST, huge lag spikes and packet loss. This happened for days and I was going to buy a new adapter but then everything started working again. As I write this, things still continue to work perfectly.
How did the problem fix itself without doing anything on my end? Well it turns out there was a reason for massive lag spikes and packet loss…..
SoylentNews: Jan Rinok, someone who thinks it is fine to hack people.
I returned to their IRC channel once everything had returned to normal to ask about my submission. I got some help from the people there who told me about the submission queue. The article wasn’t in the queue so I resubmitted it.
The user, “janrinok”, had a huge problem with the article and deleted it from the queue and promptly kicked me out of the channel.
Here is the kicker.
My Internet packet loss and lag spikes had a real source that wasn’t my wifi adapter. It was Jan Rinok! This person had caused numerous issues with my Internet in an attempt to hack me.
A denial of service attack, which is cyber crime. And it is illegal in France, where this attack likely originated.
I did a Google search for that username and found out who they are and where they are potentially located. I will keep you all updated as this progresses. This person had signed up for a dynamic DNS service and doxxed themselves.
Hot tip: IPV6 does not have NAT. If you have IPV6 enabled you should probably put your adapter in the DROP zone. REJECT is not enough if someone is attacking your network, because your computer replies and it effects your uplink.
Pro tip: Don’t hang out in SoylentNews IRC if you don’t want Jan Rinok to try and “test your security” for you.