Server Status, Connection Issues, Denial of Service Attacks

Update 12/1/15
Our web host has resolved the DNS issues so players should have no problem connecting. Web hosting is still under high load and players may experience slow load times on the website forums for a bit.

Update 11/25/15
Our web host is experiencing DNS (Domain Name Service) issues resulting in players being unable to connect to the server. If you have connection issues simply replace login.uorenaissance.com with the servers direct IP address in razor. (162.252.55.26).

Update 6/19/15
As we move forward with our steps to mitigate the constant Denial of Service attacks directed against Renaissance there are a few situations that might give players a connection issue.

Stuck At Verifying Account
If you are stuck on verifying account for more than a few seconds, simply click the "X" button in the corner and then click the login button again. This should connect you immediately. As a side effect of the DDOS protections it is possible that your IP will be monitored and rejected if it is the first time you are accessing the server in a set period of time. This type of issue is usually present when the server is actively dealing with an attack.

Domain Name Server Issues
Should you not be able to log in at all you could be having a DNS issue. If Login.Uorenaissance.com or play.uorenaissance.com are not working for you then try to use the servers direct IP address. Instead of the server name enter 162.252.55.26 into razor.

This issue is more common in areas where domain name services are unavailable or have trouble pathing properly.

If you experience these problems or any other and are not able to connect please feel free to contact a staff member for assistance.

End Update

As you may have noticed recently we have been the target of an increasing frequency of Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attacks resulting in abnormal server stability.

These attacks are originating from a single location, and are being amplified by insecure servers on the internet before being targeted at our server.

However unlike most hosted services we use a professional business class hosting service, not a game hosting company. We pay a premium for network support, top tier customer service and for a company capable of addressing and mitigating attacks of this nature.

The downtime you are experiencing is our host trapping the traffic from the DDOS. I will not go into the steps being taken as it could potentially assist the person behind the attacks. However we are doing everything we can to minimize downtime and marginalize the traffic being directed at us.

But rest assured our host will trace down who is behind the attack. Due to the frequency of the attacks and that they are directed at a business the proper authorities have been contacted. It may not be today, maybe not next week, but this person will be found and they will pay a hefty price for such a trivial attack against a UO Free shard.

That said we are making a few changes to the server to render the downtime from these attacks trivial.

• Player corpses will now have an extended decay period. Should you lose connection to the server, perish in a dungeon and not be able to reconnect for 30 minutes your corpse will still be there.
  
  
• Players who perish during a server connectivity outage will be teleported to town, hidden, and allowed to time out during normal world logic. This will ignore any other affects of death such as stat loss, item loss or karma/fame loss.
  
  
• Players pets who are left in world due to a server connectivity outage will remain at their current location until you log back in, however should your pet die while the server is experiencing an outage the death will be ignored and your pet will be automatically stabled. There will be no pet skill loss for the death in this situation.
  
  Note: You will still need to keep your pets fed however. A fully fed pet will wait for the owner for around 8 hours, a bonded pet much longer. If your bonded pet dies before the protection kicks in the ghost will remain at that location for 24 hours until you recover it directly or with a pet summoning ball.
  
  
• From this point forward should you lose a pet that is not covered by this system, but is lost due to a complete server connectivity outage you may contact the staff for assistance. With our daily export all pet details are available for review. Just keep in mind we cannot assist you with local connectivity issues.

Thank you for being patient with us as we resolve these problems and better design the server to render their affect pointless.

I would also like to say thank you to our players who have stepped up and supported the server with new donations and subscriptions. If these attacks have shown anything is how much our players love this server and will step up to support it.

I doubt this has anything to do with any other servers, each major pvp server has had issues with these types of attacks and they have moved from server to server. DDOS attacks are about as effective as spamming at the bank for recruiting players anyway.