[Leica] Is the gallery down?

[Brian Reid]

VPNs sometimes help clients, but rarely servers. If a server is to 
provide access to something, it must have a well-known and accessible IP 
address. Whether that address is behind a VPN or not must be transparent 
to any client wanting to access the server. Switching a server to a VPN 
will not change the behavior of its users.

On 2025-12-26 09:21, Peter Dzwig wrote:
> Is it worth considering putting both behind different VPNs (i.e.
> Different server virtual addresses)?
> 
> Peter
> 
> On 26/12/2025 02:04, Brian Reid wrote:
>> I also host the Large Format Photography site. I don’t contribute to 
>> it (the largest-format camera that I currently own and use is a Q2) 
>> but I help operate it and own its server computer. It has a vast 
>> number of huge pictures (most of them shot on 8x10 film). They often 
>> see 15,000 simultaneous connections from thirsty AI bots.
>> 
>> On 2025-12-25 16:39, Douglas Barry wrote:
>>> Well Brian, it is Happy Chaosday today and, unfortunately for all of
>>> us, probably for the remainder of our lives.
>>> That downloading by multiple bots is what we, over here anyway, call 
>>> a
>>> pain in the hole, but not really surprising, as any comforting notion
>>> of privacy these days vanishes faster than morning frost in the
>>> Sahara. What new horrors await us in 2026?
>>> Thanks for trying to defend our honour and our images against
>>> overwhelming odds. Have a happy christmas and a prosperous new year -
>>> and the same goes for all Luggers out there.
>>> 
>>> Douglas
>>> Blind busy, but sadly not in the photographic area at the moment.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On 25/12/2025 05:44, Brian Reid wrote:
>>>> Every time I turn the gallery server on again, it immediately got 
>>>> flooded with AI bots stealing images.
>>>> So I have turned it off for the night. It is currently 21:45 
>>>> California time, so it’s going to stay off until my morning. Maybe 
>>>> the pirates will turn their attention elsewhere, and maybe they 
>>>> won’t. The torrent that arrived most recently was mostly from 
>>>> Russia.
>>>> 
>>>> On 2025-12-24 15:32, Brian Reid wrote:
>>>>> There are hundreds of different IPs in use, so blocking them is 
>>>>> futile.
>>>>> I turned off the server. We shall see if it goes away. I suspect it
>>>>> will be stubborn.
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> On 2025-12-24 09:56, Christopher Crawford via LUG wrote:
>>>>>> Why don’t you block the IP that the bot is coming from, and if not
>>>>>> possible, shut the server down until it goes away, instead of 
>>>>>> letting
>>>>>> it steal LUG members’ photos?
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Christopher Crawford
>>>>>> Fort Wayne, Indiana
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> My Portfolio
>>>>>> https://chriscrawfordphoto.com
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Learn From Me
>>>>>> https://crawfordphotoschool.com
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Watchmaker Chris
>>>>>> https://watchmakerchris.com
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> On Dec 24, 2025, at 12:51 PM, Brian Reid 
>>>>>>> <reid at mejac.carlsbad.ca.us> wrote:
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Today again the gallery has a heavy load. Today there is an AI 
>>>>>>> bot in Brazil that is downloading every image, but it is being 
>>>>>>> nicer than was yesterday’s Chinese download, and is using only 20 
>>>>>>> parallel streams.
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>> 
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Leica Users Group.
>>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> Leica Users Group.
>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information