what is DOS?

What is a denial of service attack?

I know stupid question....but is it someone hacking into the web site?

sorry for the dumb question!

Here try this thread, it might help.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Denial Of Service

This is a simple attack on a webserver that overwhelms it with incoming traffic, thus locking out real users. In extreme cases, it can cripple the machine to a hard crash, requiring a reboot.

ok .....thank you!

Can it affect the users computer?
like freezing and then causing it to log off the internett?

Can a virus be sent to a user without an email address?
say for example just by visitting a web site?

Im only asking this cause last night Certain web sites could not be accessed and told me to go to your settings.
Ok that's it.sorry for the trouble!

No, it only affects network resources. but it could be used as an infection technique, don't worry though. Thats not likely to happen.

Thank you Advisor.......Your Advice was good!

Originally posted by helen670
What is a denial of service attack?
I know stupid question....but is it someone hacking into the web site?
sorry for the dumb question!

A Denial of Service (DoS (no relation with MS-Dos ) is a internet cyberattack based on a hight numbers of message or e-mail send on a server (Spaming, also called Flooding in the case of a DoS attack).
The server crash because it cant follow the hight number of require sent at the same time...

"buffer overflow"...

Or server overflooding...

Thank you Nans
helen...