Hacked Guesbook really slow to load

Hi guys.
I have followed all your advice to re-code the username and password in my hacked guestbook from HaCker Arabic and 51ac319952bfbe99 back to something more personal!
main problem is that the page is also deadly slow in loading- have the Q8See group modified another setting somewhere?
The guestbook is 2 yeas old and has 1000 entries- its at www.kett6.org/grafittiwall

Mark

Dr Mark Evans
The Kett VIth Form Centre
Norwich
UK

m.evans@kett6.net

Was it slow before the defacement or only after? Since you are using 2.3.1 I assume the defacement was a div covering the upper part of the screen. You are still susceptible to this as you are allowing HTML in posts. This means they can post ANY HTML code. So first thing to do is disable HTML.

naive of me to leave HTML on... the alternative guestbook that has survived disfacement at www.kett6.org/guestbook had it turned off!

Anyways- have now done that to my hacked version at www.kett6.org/grafittiwall

The site, prior to hacking by the Q8See group (?) was loading immediately. Since the hack, I have upgraded to version 2.3.1 and followed all the instructions on modifying passwords etc that have been so well documentated on this forum...

I have not yet edited the appearance of the page to reflect its former look etc, so currently it looks like a standard install, except there are 2 years and 2000 messages left by my students sitting in the database!

I would love to resurrect the page- I even went as far as emailing the hackers (email in the hacked page source code!) to ask for the help etc!
Presently, the main barrier is the load time- you know the patience of 16-18 year old A level students!

Thanks for your help,

Mark

Dr Mark Evans
The Kett VIth Form Centre
Norwich
UK

m.evans@kett6.net

There was no need to upgrade your guestbook from 2.2. You could of simply applied the patch. Now you have said you were on 2.2 then maybe the defacement was actually done via the admin panel. Is it only going slow since updating to 2.3.1 ?

Hmmm...

I cannot remember.
I have upgraded both guestbooks simultaneously. The hacked version (which is substantially bigger) now loads incredibly slowly, as you can see at www.kett6.org/grafittiwall and the un-hacked version is as fast as ever (www.kett6.org/guestbook)

I would happilly provide log-in details if having a look at settings etc would be insightful.

Thanks for your support, the pages chronicle 2 yeas of student life- form vitriolic argument to advice!

Mark

Dr Mark Evans
The Kett VIth Form Centre
Nrwich
UK

m.evans@kett6.net