Million Dollar Homepage felled by DDoS attack
/v3-uk/news/1969237/million-dollar-homepage-felled-ddos-attack
14 Jan 2006, William Eazel , V3
The final 1,000 pixels on the Million Dollar Homepage sold for $38,100 earlier this week, netting 21 year-old UK student Alex Tew the final amount needed to meet the $1m target.
However, disaster struck early yesterday when the site was knocked off the web for an extended period of time by a DDoS attack.
The Million Dollar Homepage had been online since September last year, and is one of those 'wish I'd thought of that' ideas initially dreamed up by Tew as a way of paying his university expenses.
The idea was simple. Tew launched a website which he promised to keep online for at least five years. He then divided the homepage into a million pixels and sold each pixel for $1 as advertising space.
Many advertisers are understood to have bought pixels as a joke, but the idea soon took off. On the back of a wave of publicity Tew's site was soon receiving 500,000 unique visitors a day, with much of that traffic clicking through to advertisers.
The site's total earnings have actually netted Tew $1,037,100 which has been the catalyst for the appearance of a number of other copycat sites.
Tew may be the newest internet millionaire, but armed with only a basic web hosting package, the extra fees charged for protection against mounting DDoS attacks will soon be eating into his cash pile.
Do you agree?
Get a LIFE
Well done Alex. As for saddos attacking site, look in the mirror, take stock of what you see and GET A LIFE.
Posted by Tony, 20 Jan 2006
Why!
I have followed the MDHP and own 200 pixels on the site and I get quite a lot of hits at www.artwork-solutions.biz But why do they do these attacks, is it because they can think of a good idea so they have to punch out!!
Posted by Jacob Hill, 14 Jan 2006
Jealous buggers
It never ceases to amaze me how some poor excuses for human beings take other peoples good fortune and try to gain their own glory. Probably some geek out there who cant get a date and calls his pc his "pride and joy" is responsible. Jealous buggers!
Posted by Donavan, 16 Jan 2006
SMART IDEA????
hrmmm? i wouldn't pay for something i coudn't hold in my hands. With the promise made to keep his site online for 5 years technically broken and that magnitude of currency invested, the words law suit comes to mind. One million dollars is far pastfun and games, exspecially if you just bought 1000 pixels.
Posted by smith, 22 Jan 2006
Good
Who ever thought such a stupid idea could net so much cash. Oh well. I laugh
Posted by Justin, 16 Jan 2006