So, 6am this morning (Wed 29 2012), a bunch of geeks eagerly awaiting the Raspberry Pi have killed the websites of both RS Components and Farnell
Why, you ask? Because the servers were not prepared for the influx of visitors that such an announcement brings. Raspberry Pi themselves (a UK Foundation, like a Charity) were well prepared and are presently serving up a static page.
So, if you’re running an eCommerce site, like Magento or osCommerce, and are warned by one of your suppliers, or your manufacturing department that you’re launching a new product, be prepared. Raspberry Pi certainly were and provided their suppliers with the information that they would be getting a huge amount of traffic, unfortunately those suppliers didn’t listen hard enough.
This is to all intents a DDoS attack, but not an intentional attack. Well done for keeping everyone updated via twitter though @raspberrypi, we know it isn’t your fault.
If RS had got their act together this would have never happened. But there are thousands of customers who have paid their money made wait weeks, now due to issues at RS will have to wait months while all emails to RS go unanswered.
It’s unbelievable that a company can act this way. The only reason a real DDoS attack hasn’t happened yet is people still want their orders, at least the ones that haven’t cancelled already – although some are still waiting post 14 days for a refund.