Installing the STK - missing something simple

[Mister_Bruce]

Hi there, I would very much appreciate some help on this matter. I'm not understanding something which is clearly very basic.

I'm attempting to help out a friend who has a phpBB 3.0.10 forum which has been disabled. The information provided by the Hosting provider is as follows:

Version 3.0.10 Located in /htdocs/forums
needs updated to Current Version 3.2.0

So my intention is to perform an upgrade to 3.2.0, however, given that the forum has been disabled, I can't access the ACP (Administrator Control Panel). So I've attempted to install the STK following the instructions found here:
https://www.phpbb.com/support/stk/index ... de=install

The instructions appear simple.

To install the Support Toolkit, upload the complete "stk" directory into your forum's root directory on your server (the one containing a file named "config.php"). Once you have uploaded the directory into the correct place, point your browser towards the toolkit to access it (http://www.example.com/phpBB/stk/). In the "contrib" folder you will find some additional installation instructions (in the MODX format) which will allow you to better integrate the STK with your phpBB installation.

I have downloaded the STK, then uploaded that package onto the server. The STK package which consists of the stk directory and the contrib directory into the forum's root directory. Check - I can see that I've done that.

However, "pointing my browser to the toolkit" does not appear to work. I don't get anything except a 404 message. Hence my very basic question to the forums.

If the format is http://www.example.com/phpBB/stk/ then I would expect the following to work: http://xxxxxxx.netsolhost.com/forums/stk/
(because the phpBB was installed in the /forums folder, and I have then placed the STK directory into the /forums/stk location). The config.php file is in the /forums folder.

However, if I enter http://xxxxxxx.netsolhost.com/forums/stk/ into my browser, instead it simply produces a 404 error. It doesn't give me the opportunity to access the STK, which I was hoping to use as a mechanism for starting the upgrade.

I feel like I'm missing something extremely basic. Can anyone offer some suggestions please? Given that I can't access the ACP, my only other recourse (as I understand it) is to use the STK.

Thanks in advance,

Bruce

[Brf]

however, given that the forum has been disabled, I can't access the ACP (Administrator Control Panel).

What exactly did your host do? Disabling your board from within phpBB does not prevent you from logging in as an administrator.

http://xxxxxxx.netsolhost.com/forums/stk/

It would be easier to help you if you gave the real address of your board.

[Mister_Bruce]

Hi Brf,

I'm grateful for the reply. I'm not exactly clear what the Webhosting provider did - this is the information that I have:

Version 3.0.10 Located in /htdocs/forums
needs updated to Current Version 3.2.0

From what I understand, the phpbb forum we use is being run an old version which makes us vulnerable to hackers. Our host server identified this and has temporarily taken us offline until we get the version updated.

The location is as follows:
[Removed]

Behind the scenes, the address is:
[Removed]

I'm using Fetch (FTP client) to navigate to the [Removed] location so I can see the files physically there.

If I should be able to run the Admin Control Panel, then it's an even more basic problem - I don't know how to start the ACP. All of the phpBB instructions and tutorials that I've seen start from the point where the ACP is open and that the user understands how to open it. If you're saying that the ACP should be accessible, how do I actually start it?

Any advice would be most welcome.

Cheers,

Bruce

[Brf]

You need to login to the phpBB board to be able to access its Admin control panel.

I do not know how your host has "taken it offline", but it needs to be online if you want to upgrade it.
Have you checked the permissions on the "forum" folder? I am getting a 404 on anything that should be there.

[Mister_Bruce]

Cheers, will look into it. If it's not the permissions I'll go back to the Service Provider to find out exactly what they did.

Much appreciated,

Bruce

[kim902]

Also tell them YOU dont want to upgrade YOU will do it when your ready or did you use one of them silly host installers ? if so your be pestered to update all the time.

/htdocs/forums are they hosting you from xampp as that uses htdocs folder apache uses var/www/html

[Mister_Bruce]

Also tell them YOU dont want to upgrade YOU will do it when your ready or did you use one of them silly host installers ? if so your be pestered to update all the time.

/htdocs/forums are they hosting you from xampp as that uses htdocs folder apache uses var/www/html

Hi Kim902, will do. I didn't set this up so I don't know whether it was a host installer or a manual install. It could have been done via host install because I can see that as an option on the site. I don't know how the site was taken offline - I need to find that out (as per brf's suggestion).

Unfortunately the person who did set this up died suddenly, and I'm trying to help his widow get this back up and running again. I'm a bit frustrated over this because I work in IT myself - I know I'm not a dummy - but there are bits of the setup that are eluding me. I feel that I'm lacking pieces of information.

I'm very grateful for the assistance. Will be back in touch with I have more info (or I've figured it out)

Cheers,

Bruce

[thecoalman]

Hi Kim902, will do. I didn't set this up so I don't know whether it was a host installer or a manual install. It could have been done via host install because I can see that as an option on the site. I don't know how the site was taken offline - I need to find that out (as per brf's suggestion).

They are simply going to use something like htacess to redirect the folder to 404, this is going to be implemented above whatever folders you have access to. You need to have them remove that to get access to the ACP. While it's their prerogative to to do this there should at least be warning and it should be redirecting to temporarily unavailable page. Spitting out a 404 is effectively telling people and bots that it's no longer available.

I've dealt with Netsol before with a client that was using them, they suck to put it bluntly. The machine was compromised and injecting code into files, after showing them exactly what was happening on the clients site and other sites hosted on the same server they kept insisting it was issue with the site. At that point the entire contents was a single file called test.html with the four letters test... <sigh>

Tell them to lift the redirect so you can upgrade the site. If they do not comply the best advice I can give you is move the site to better host. If this was client of mine I would require they move to another host.

[Mister_Bruce]

Ah, now that makes sense. It's a redirect. I'll get on that. Cheers, Bruce

[Mister_Bruce]

Yes, the hosting provider confirmed that they are redirecting to a 404 page and they won't reinstate to allow me to fix the problem. I'm apparently supposed to fix this only via FTP (i.e.: without going through the Administrator Control Panel), which I don't think is possible. Am I correct that it is impossible to perform the upgrade without having browser access to either the Administrator Control Panel or the Support Tool Kit? Or is there some magic that can be weaved via FTP to achieve the same result?

Thanks,

Bruce

[canonknipser]

So they block you from maintaining your board and force you to upgrade it? Now clue how that fits together

If you have access to the database (eg. via phpMyAdmin), take a backup, backup your files via acp, change host ...

[Mister_Bruce]

So they block you from maintaining your board and force you to upgrade it? Now clue how that fits together

If you have access to the database (eg. via phpMyAdmin), take a backup, backup your files via acp, change host ...

Cheers Frank. I do have access to the database via phpMyAdmin and I'm doing exactly that.

My plan at the moment is to back up everything again (I already have backups so that I have a restore point), wipe the site, see if the hosting provider will reinstate so that I can put it back and start the upgrade. If not.... I wonder if a fresh install would work and connect to the existing database. Don't know but it sounds risky to me.

As for changing host, that's not my call but I sense the site owner is more than a little frustrated with the provider.

[Mannix_]

The only solution if they won't give you access is to make the upgrade locally using xampp etc. and the uploading files via ftp and updated db via phpmyadmin

[janus_zonstraal]

A option could be.
Install the board on the usbwebserver http://www.usbwebserver.net/en/ (it also work on your pc) from the backups.

Upgrade the board to 3.2.1 and upload everything to your host.

A other option:
Upload a fresh 3.2.1 packet to the host (Without the config.php)
Ask to give the site free again.
go to /install/ and hope that it will work
(it will, if there are not to much changes in the old board)

[Mister_Bruce]

The only solution if they won't give you access is to make the upgrade locally using xampp etc. and the uploading files via ftp and updated db via phpmyadmin

Thanks Mannix, that's also very helpful. I had wondered if I could set up a web server locally and perform the upgrade there, but I felt that was probably even more complex. I'll see how this goes - if it doesn't work, then XAMPP would have to be the Plan B.

I really appreciate all of this help,

Cheers,

Bruce