Even before 8chan, the anonymous message board, went dark early on Monday, the scramble to keep the site online had begun.

That left 8chan vulnerable to cyberattacks that could knock it offline.

Another internet firm, Tucows, which helps companies register their web addresses, also pulled its support for 8chan on Monday, leaving the message board without a functioning web address.

To stay online, 8chan’s administrators raced to find alternatives. They went to Epik, a technology company that could help the site register its web address again. Epik’s subsidiary, BitMitigate, could also protect it from cyberattacks, an 8chan administrator said in a tweet.

El Paso mass shooting: 20 killed at Walmart store Show all 39 1 /39 El Paso mass shooting: 20 killed at Walmart store El Paso mass shooting: 20 killed at Walmart store CCTV images of the gunman identified as Patrick Crusius The 21 year old, as he entered the Cielo Vista Walmart store in El Paso. The gunman was armed with an assault rifle and opened fire on shoppers at a packed Walmart store, killing 20. KTSM 9/AFP/Getty El Paso mass shooting: 20 killed at Walmart store Law enforcement agencies respond The Texas city’s police chief said the assault on a Walmart store on Saturday, which left another 26 people wounded, was being investigated as a potential hate crime. AFP/Getty El Paso mass shooting: 20 killed at Walmart store Shoppers exit with their hands up Shoppers exit with their hands up after a mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, U.S. August 3, 2019. REUTERS/Jorge Salgado NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES. STRINGER Reuters El Paso mass shooting: 20 killed at Walmart store FBI released a picture of gunman Patrick Crusius The police officially identified the 21-year-old white male from Allen, Texas, a Dallas suburb some 650 miles east of El Paso. FBI/AP El Paso mass shooting: 20 killed at Walmart store A woman reacts after the mass shooting The attack came just minutes after a far-right manifesto appeared online. If authentic, it would make it the third mass shooting this year announced in advance on the website, which often features far-right and racist content. Reuters El Paso mass shooting: 20 killed at Walmart store Law enforcement responds to the active shooter The racist four-page document, titled “The Inconvenient Truth”, calls the Walmart attack “a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas” and expresses support for the gunman who killed 51 people at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand earlier this year. AFP/Getty El Paso mass shooting: 20 killed at Walmart store A shopper hiding with an old lady behind the return and exchanges counter as the shooting began. Aaron Castaneda/Reuters El Paso mass shooting: 20 killed at Walmart store Ambulances in the car park near the scene It is ranked as the eighth-deadliest mass shooting in modern US history, after a 1984 shooting in San Ysidro, California, that claimed 21 lives. AP El Paso mass shooting: 20 killed at Walmart store Kendall Long (left) comforts Kianna Long (right) who was in the freezer section of Walmart. EPA El Paso mass shooting: 20 killed at Walmart store epa07755367 Police stand at attention after a shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, USA, 03 August 2019. According to reports, at least one person was killed and at least 18 people injured and transported to local hospitals. One suspect is in custody. EPA/IVAN PIERRE AGUIRRE IVAN PIERRE AGUIRRE EPA El Paso mass shooting: 20 killed at Walmart store Shoppers exit with their hands up. Reuters El Paso mass shooting: 20 killed at Walmart store Shopping carts sit next to a curb after the shooting. EPA El Paso mass shooting: 20 killed at Walmart store El Paso Fire Medical personnel arrive at the scene. AP El Paso mass shooting: 20 killed at Walmart store Walmart employees react after. AP El Paso mass shooting: 20 killed at Walmart store A woman runs to police near the scene. AP El Paso mass shooting: 20 killed at Walmart store Several law enforcement agencies respond. AP El Paso mass shooting: 20 killed at Walmart store People arrive at MacArthur Elementary looking for family and friends as the school is being used a re-unification centre. AP El Paso mass shooting: 20 killed at Walmart store Residents Erica Rios, 36, and Alma Rios, 61, cry outside a reunification centre. AFP/Getty El Paso mass shooting: 20 killed at Walmart store People gather in Juarez, Mexico, in a vigil for the Mexican nationals who were killed. AP El Paso mass shooting: 20 killed at Walmart store A child takes part in a vigil in Ciudad Juarez AFP/Getty El Paso mass shooting: 20 killed at Walmart store Francisco Castaneda joins mourners taking part in a vigil at El Paso High School. Reuters El Paso mass shooting: 20 killed at Walmart store Presidential candidate and former congressman Beto O'Rourke, right, meets with mass shooting survivor, Rosemary, at University Medical Centre Beto O'Rourke Facebook via AP El Paso mass shooting: 20 killed at Walmart store From left, Melody Stout, Hannah Payan, Aaliyah Alba, Sherie Gramlich and Laura Barrios comfort each other during a vigil for victims of the shooting. AP El Paso mass shooting: 20 killed at Walmart store A sign is posted near the scene Getty Images El Paso mass shooting: 20 killed at Walmart store Police cars parked below the Walmart sign block a road outside while investigating. EPA El Paso mass shooting: 20 killed at Walmart store Sherie Gramlich reacts during a vigil. AP El Paso mass shooting: 20 killed at Walmart store A man places flowers at the site Reuters El Paso mass shooting: 20 killed at Walmart store People take part in a rally against hate a day after a mass shooting at the Walmart store Reuters El Paso mass shooting: 20 killed at Walmart store Lupe Lopez holds a picture of a victim during a vigil for victims AP El Paso mass shooting: 20 killed at Walmart store People take part in a rally against hate a day after a mass shooting at a Walmart store, in El Paso, Texas, U.S. August 4, 2019. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez JOSE LUIS GONZALEZ REUTERS El Paso mass shooting: 20 killed at Walmart store Elsa Mendoza Marquez, a Mexican schoolteacher who was married and the mother of two adult children, was one of the victims Getty El Paso mass shooting: 20 killed at Walmart store People with the Mexican flag and the US flag take part in a rally against hate a day Reuters El Paso mass shooting: 20 killed at Walmart store People raise their arms in the air during a vigil for victims AP El Paso mass shooting: 20 killed at Walmart store People react and embrace each other Getty El Paso mass shooting: 20 killed at Walmart store Women light candles at a make shift memorial at the site of a mass shooting EPA El Paso mass shooting: 20 killed at Walmart store Adria Gonzalez (centre) who is being hailed as a hero for leading some Walmart customers to safety, speaks to the crowd AFP/Getty El Paso mass shooting: 20 killed at Walmart store People hold up their phones AFP/Getty Images El Paso mass shooting: 20 killed at Walmart store Beto O'Rourke speaks to the crowd AFP El Paso mass shooting: 20 killed at Walmart store People react during a prayer and candle vigil organized by the city, after a shooting left 20 people dead at the Cielo Vista Mall WalMart in El Paso, Texas, on August 4, 2019. - A shooting at a Walmart store in Texas left multiple people dead. At least one suspect was taken into custody after the shooting in the border city of El Paso, triggering fear and panic among weekend shoppers as well as widespread condemnation. It was the second fatal shooting in less than a week at a Walmart store in the US and comes after a mass shooting in California last weekend. (Photo by Mark RALSTON / AFP)MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images MARK RALSTON AFP/Getty

After 8chan migrated to Epik and BitMitigate, the site flickered back online in some regions. But its return was brief. Voxility, a company that provides computing services to Epik, was criticised by internet executives for indirectly helping to keep 8chan on the web.

In response, Voxility severed its relationship with Epik, taking BitMitigate offline in the process — and making 8chan go down again.

The behind-the-scenes digital domino effect illustrates how websites like 8chan rely on a complex network of internet infrastructure companies that are unseen by most people but are crucial to keeping these sites around.

Dozens of these companies, which are often small and privately owned, provide web addresses, cloud computing power and other basic mechanisms that websites need to exist. Without the backing of these companies, 8chan has limited options for survival.

“Some of the biggest service providers of the internet on the planet are generally completely unknown to the average user,” said Tarah Wheeler, a cybersecurity policy fellow at New America, a public policy think tank.

She said the infrastructure companies enabled sites of all kinds to be quickly and easily accessible at a low cost.

A version of 8chan was still available on Monday afternoon on the so-called dark web, the home of many illegal websites.

Bad actors have thrived on the dark web because the technology allows website owners and visitors to obscure their location and internet address, making it harder for law enforcement to find them.

The dark web version of 8chan, which was surfaced by the intelligence firm Terbium Labs has the site’s familiar battle cry across the top: “Embrace infamy”.

The top headlines on Monday afternoon were all about the weekend shootings in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio.

But even on the dark web, companies need service providers to keep their sites up reliably. And the 8chan site was only intermittently available and slow to load, making it nearly impossible to click on the site’s links.

Ronald Watkins, an administrator for 8chan, said on Twitter on Monday afternoon that he would wait to see if BitMitigate would be able to restore its services. If not, 8chan would try to get online again anyway, he wrote. Watkins is the son of Jim Watkins, the owner of 8chan. As of 6pm, the message board remained offline.

Rob Monster, the chief executive of Epik, said in an email that he had not solicited 8chan’s business and had not decided whether to keep the site as a customer.

A visitor joins a vigil outside the Walmart in El Paso to pay their respects to those who lost their lives in Saturday's attack (AP)

“Our services fill the ever growing need for a neutral service provider that will not arbitrarily terminate accounts based on social or political pressure,” he said.

“Our philosophy is, if the customer is not breaking the law, providers of technology should apply discernment in determining whether or not to service.”

At Voxility, Maria Sirbu, the vice president of business development, said it would not work with Epik or BitMitigate again even if those companies ended their relationships with 8chan.

“We’re totally against hate speech,” she said. “We are free to terminate the service as we like.”

The internet infrastructure companies have distanced themselves from toxic websites before.

In 2017, The Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi forum, was booted off Cloudflare after the site mocked Heather Heyer, a woman who was killed during a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The Daily Stormer initially struggled to find companies that would provide the infrastructure it needed to remain online.

BitMitigate, which says its services come with “a proven commitment to liberty,” and Epik eventually stepped in to protect it.

The Daily Stormer now uses dark web services and overseas hosting providers to stay afloat. But it went offline Monday after Voxility terminated its business with Epik.

8chan is in an even more delicate position than The Daily Stormer because it appears to help mass killers by providing them with a place to air and spread their violent and often racist messages.

Over the weekend, even one of 8chan’s founders, Fredrick Brennan, disavowed the online message board, saying, “Shut the site down.”

Nick Lim, the founder of BitMitigate who left the company in May, said he expected 8chan to emerge elsewhere on the internet.

The message board could tap other infrastructure and hosting providers for services, experts have said.

“I don’t think cutting off BitMitigate and Epik is something that will remove hate from the internet, rather I think it will only push it elsewhere,” Mr Lim said in a text message.

'This will only make it stronger': El Paso residents react to shooting

But Alex Stamos, a former Facebook executive who is now the director of the Stanford Internet Observatory, which researches abuses of information technology, said 8chan could ultimately be marginalized, even when it returns online.

“We started down the path where 8chan is going to end up in the same place that spammers end up,” Mr Stamos said. “What you are seeing here is infrastructure companies treating the worst, most vile hate speech like they treat spammers.”

Infrastructure companies have long banned spam, malware and other malicious content, and providers of this content have been pushed to overseas hosts, primarily in Russia and Ukraine, or to the dark web, he said. 8chan could follow the same route.

“It will be much slower and less reliable, but they’ll still exist,” Stamos said.