2 new lines at the bottom ... ads?

[Daniel_L]

I just upgraded to 3.0.3 like recommended and now at the bottom of every page I see 2 news lines in light gray :

Global View of phpbb and further information concerning classiconunsubscribe
Secure SFTP and FTPS provided by FREE GoFTP Client

What are those and why? Can we get rid of this? Those are in english while my board is in french using the official pack from phpbb-fr.com

A search here and over there gave no result. I'm a bit surprised to be the 1st to ask. Since it's in english then I suspect it was added here, not by the translator so that's why I'm asking here.

I would have better liked to see the current version we are running instead of this...

Thanks

[Daniel_L]

I've downloaded the complete forum on my hard drive to do a string search in all files and this is what I found in \styles\prosilver\template\overall_footer.html:

Code: Select all

<!-- GoFTP Free Version Start -->
  <div
 
    style="bottom:-20px; position:relative; text-align:center;">
 
    <a style="font-size:10px; text-decoration:none; color:#CCCCCC;"
 
  href="http://www.searchallinone.com/global-view/phpbb-classiconunsubscribe.html">
 
   
      Global View of
   
    phpbb and
   
      further information concerning
    classiconunsubscribe
 
  </a><br />
 
    <a style="font-size:x-small; text-decoration:none; color:#CCCCCC;"
  href="http://www.goftp.com">
 
    Secure SFTP and FTPS provided by
 
    FREE GoFTP Client
 
  </a></div>

<!-- GoFTP Free Version End -->

Why that?????

[spearfish]

Where did you get the forum software from? I've never heard of phpBB-fr.com, but if you just got a language pack from them it shouldn't be causing this.

phpBB does not put ads in forums powered by it. It's possible that your webhost did this if you're using a free one where ads are part of the service agreement. Because, quite simply, somebody put those there - it's just a matter of who had access to the file.

[Daniel_L]

Well.. I deleted that junk and refreshed the template, it's now GONE.

I have no idea where this come from. I used the automatic update process. I then got a zip package of the modified file that I have NOT uploaded, instead I used the FTP button and entered the information needed so the upload was done by phpBB.

I took a look at the overall_footer.html file in the downloaded zip package after that because I was curious if it was there and it also had that *beep* added so even if I had uploaded all the file manually I would have got the same result.

SO?

[spearfish]

Again, where did you get this package from?

I just downloaded the automatic updater from 3.0.2 -> 3.0.3 and the ads are not there.

[Daniel_L]

From http://downloads.sourceforge.net/phpbb- ... 0.3_FR.zip

But I have an idea now... I gave GoFTP a try and uploaded the freshly unzipped install directory using it. How on earth they could have modified that file, and only that file, on the fly and be sure to add the code at this exact place??? wow... I think this deserve a serious investigation. If I had time I would do a fresh install in a temp directory and try this again if it stil happen.

Glad nothing else was modified, I could have screwed everything... I had a copy.

[spearfish]

Weird. So you were using Go FTP and it added that stuff itself?

If you need an FTP client I'd suggest WinSCP or FireFTP, both free downloads which have never let me down .

[Daniel_L]

Thanks, I will look at both. I liked CuteFTP when it was free but with so many free around and for my needs I will pass.

Now I think phpBB need to warn the community about not using GoFTP. At least that they do not recommend using it to avoid future weirdness like this.

GoFTP was looking nice with some innovative connection strategies but this addon without letting me know was a bit too much to my liking so I will stop using it and will pass the word. We don't know if there are other hidden surprises like this that we don't want at all.

[Eelke]

Sorry to be blunt, but if the message says: "Secure SFTP and FTPS provided by FREE GoFTP Client", and you've just given GoFTP a spin, is it really that hard to put two and two together? You are asking a program to read the contents of a file, and transfer it over the FTP protocol to your server. There is nothing that stops that program to add something to your files.

Part of your argument seems to be that the program seems to target phpBB specifically, with its alterations. Are you quite sure? Have you examined the other files as well?

Thanks a lot for sharing your experience, but I don't think it's phpBB's responsibility to go and make recommendations about what FTP software to use based on one misbehaving piece of software.

[Daniel_L]

Part of your argument seems to be that the program seems to target phpBB specifically, with its alterations. Are you quite sure? Have you examined the other files as well?

Yes like I said above, only the overall_footer.html file was edited. If you don't call this targeting then I don't know what is it.

FYI, I've just tested it again. But this time only with that file. I took the original overall_footer.html from the package and uploaded it using GoFTP and the code I already pasted in a previous post was added again. When you upload the compelte install directory, only that file will be modified. Seems there are some wise programmers in the GoFTP team.

You are now all informed of this fact so it's up to you to use it or not. It is now part of the KB here.

Thanks a lot for sharing your experience

You're welcome. At least this thread will remain here. If someone else come with this problem they may have a chance to find this thread and know what's going on.

[Eelke]

Yes like I said above, only the overall_footer.html file was edited. If you don't call this targeting then I don't know what is it.

Sorry, I was not thorough enough reading the thread. You're quite right, the software seems to be targetting phpBB specifically. I bet it can recognize a bunch of different installation packages (not just phpBB, but probaly also stuff like Joomla, Drupal, SMF, etc. etc.) and makes its alterations in strategic places.

Seems there are some wise programmers in the GoFTP team.

Not really (this kind of thing would not be rocket science). But if it really isn't mentioned anywhere, then they do have some unethical marketing managers. Limitations for a free version is one thing (maximum amount of bytes transferred?), making undocumented alterations to the files it's trusted with is quite another.