Debug text appears and messes up logins / ACP access.

[warmweer]

The issue was already there prior to the upgrade, and was the reason for attempting the upgrade, as stated in the SRT.

Correct, I had forgotten about that

What actions did you take (updating your board; installing a MOD, style or extension; etc.) prior to this problem becoming noticeable? The issue became noticeable in the last week. I thought the upgrade may sort it

But then the question arises: from which version of phpBB was the previous update? which php version was then in use? and was the problem present before that update?
If the problem wasn't present before 3.3.2: what was changed?

[12stringbassist]

Hi.

I have upgraded PHPBB regularly, as prompted, going back many upgrade steps.
The issue started at the back end of 3.3.2, so I hoped the latest upgrade would sort it.

I have idly considered the possibility of rolling the forum back to a prior version, but I am not sure if that would even work, or if it would achieve anything. I am still waiting for plusnet to answer my support ticket.

[warmweer]

Hi.

I have upgraded PHPBB regularly, as prompted, going back many upgrade steps.
The issue started at the back end of 3.3.2, so I hoped the latest upgrade would sort it.

I have idly considered the possibility of rolling the forum back to a prior version, but I am not sure if that would even work, or if it would achieve anything. I am still waiting for plusnet to answer my support ticket.

Suggestion: install a copy of your board on your PC using a personal webserver just to see if errors appear.

[12stringbassist]

I'm not sure how to do that?
Is there a quick guide anywhere?

[warmweer]

I'm not sure how to do that?
Is there a quick guide anywhere?

Installing and Setting Up Your Own Web Server
That document uses Xampp for illustration but since this is new for you I suggest using USBwebserver v8.6.5 which is very easy to setup (see https://www.usbwebserver.net/downloads/manual.pdf)

[12stringbassist]

Thanks,
I will have a look at that tomorrow.

[12stringbassist]

There seems to be an issue for plusnet users to locate phpMyAdmin to back up the database.
It's a bit of a joke.
I am going to harrangue plusnet about this comedy.

[12stringbassist]

PlusNet are being very little use on this.
They are basically telling me that they don't provide webspace anymore.

Someone else has responded to a post I made about this on their joke of a support forum, saying that their forum is basically doing the same thing.

They have also removed myPHPadmin from users, which is no help at all.
But I can at least pull a copy of the forum and database down.
I don't know whether i need to replicate the whole structure including the cgi-bin folder, logs, etc

I've got rather disheartened about it all and haven't had the time to download the database and forum files and set up a webserver, due to other stuff I have going on at present. I will try to set a day aside to attack it next week.

I'll be back.

[12stringbassist]

I have set up a folder on my C drive called ht docs and have created subfolders to replicate the server structure.

/databases/crazeeworld_pn_ccgi_crazeeworld_plus_com

/public/slade

I have got USBwebserver v8.6.5 - rather than XAMPP, as suggested and have no idea what to do with it.
Looking at the XAMPP instruction briefly for a clue, this is about setting up a brand new forum, rather than accessing an existing one, so I am not sure what to do at all.

PlusNet are hiding under their beds and avoiding me..

[12stringbassist]

I must have pressed a wrong button when trying to get through at Plusnet.
I spoke to someone who knew what a server is and they did a server refresh.

I managed to regain access through a third admin login and reset the first two admin passwords.

The home button on the pages seems to log people out and there is occasional instances of the garbled text.
Is there a way to get rid of the 'home' button from pages and just have 'board index'?

I still have the support incident very much open with them.

I am thinking of taking the forum and database elsewhere.
I may need some advice on migrating an existing forum to a new server.

[12stringbassist]

The problem with using the HOME button on the forum is that the link doesn't contain the session id when you hover over it to reveal the link URL.

[EA117]

I spoke to someone who knew what a server is and they did a server refresh.

Has this had any effect on the original unknown htmlspecialchars() issue this server seemed to be exhibiting? The guest login doesn't seem to be valid any more, so I wasn't able to repeat the same attempt to duplicate the problem from here.

The home button on the pages seems to log people out and there is occasional instances of the garbled text.
Is there a way to get rid of the 'home' button from pages and just have 'board index'?

That certainly is one of the next issues to tackle, if you're actually going to stay with the PlusNet server for now.

phpBB is essentially designed to be "on a single domain." Your current "use an iFrame on http://www.sladeforum.co.uk/ to access the phpBB site actually on http://ccgi.crazeeworld.plus.com/slade/" approach is essentially asking for phpBB to concurrently support two separate domains.

You could technically get close to supporting to separate domains, by simply leaving the phpBB cookie domain blank. At which point, cookies would be saved "for whichever domain the user is accessing." But that's not perfect, because anyone who switches between http://ccgi.crazeeworld.plus.com/slade/ and http://www.sladeforum.co.uk/ or vice-versa will find that their previously-saved cookies are no longer in effect.

Which is in part what's happening right now when hitting that "Home" link, too. The visitor is on the http://ccgi.crazeeworld.plus.com/slade/ site and using the session ID in the URL, but when the home button takes them to http://www.sladeforum.co.uk/, now they're on a site the cookie domain is valid for, and trying to use the previously-cookied session instead. Which indeed, can make it so that now the visitor will be logged out, depending on whether the session persisted in the cookie is still valid or not.


Yes, you can get rid of the "Home" link by leaving the "Main website URL:" blank in the phpBB ACP Board Settings. Having this URL defined is what causes the "Home" link to appear, or a link with whatever name you choose using the "Main website text:" configuration on that same page.


Having multiple domains isn't uncommon, but what would be more typical is that using one of the alternate domains redirects the user to "the actual site I want all users to consistently use." Meaning indeed you could have http://www.sladeforum.co.uk/ as a DNS name, but users who attempt to access that site will get redirected to http://ccgi.crazeeworld.plus.com/slade/, rather than "keep trying to use http://www.sladeforum.co.uk/".

It seems like you intend for users to be using http://www.sladeforum.co.uk/, which is logical given that it's "the DNS name you own" versus being a plus.com-owned subdomain. Currently, it appears that the web server responding to http://www.sladeforum.co.uk/ is one hosted with names.co.uk.

If you were currently happy with your PlusNet hosting, what we would be suggesting would be for you to talk to PlusNet about whether they support you having your http://www.sladeforum.co.uk/ DNS name point directly to the PlusNet server. You can definitely make the DNS change needed at your DNS provider to make it point to the IP address of the PlusNet server. But it typically requires cooperation from PlusNet to actually configure the web server at their end to direct queries that originate using this DNS name to be directed to your hosting account's files area.

But it seems that you're not currently happy with PlusNet, and so trying to bang your head against that wall might not be the best use of time. In that case though, the http://www.sladeforum.co.uk/ site really should be set to simply redirect users to the http://ccgi.crazeeworld.plus.com/slade/ URL, change your phpBB cookie domain to be .crazeeworld.plus.com, and make everyone use the PlusNet URL until such time that you're able to successfully move away from PlusNet.

Meaning "no more iFrame", and instead literally "send" users to http://ccgi.crazeeworld.plus.com/slade/ if and when they use a link to http://www.sladeforum.co.uk/.


Since your http://www.sladeforum.co.uk/ DNS name is currently hosted on names.co.uk, maybe that's the first hosting provider for you to investigate and see whether they would support you running a phpBB application on their server, and plan to move the phpBB site to be on that server instead of PlusNet. Since you're apparently already "in business" with name.co.uk in some fashion already.

[12stringbassist]

Thanks very much for that.
I have blanked out the website URL.

The domain name doesn't really matter as people can get to it (in a brand new browser window) from www.slayed.co.uk

I have reset the guest account to UN guest / PW guest

I have had SOME garbled text, but let's see if removing that home button helps.
I have had it randomly in the UCP before - I will see if that is persisting.

[warmweer]

I have set up a folder on my C drive called ht docs and have created subfolders to replicate the server structure.

/databases/crazeeworld_pn_ccgi_crazeeworld_plus_com

/public/slade

There no point in doing that: it won't work as you need to create a virtual server, which will contain the location to put the files, and the specific location to put the database.

I have got USBwebserver v8.6.5 - rather than XAMPP, as suggested and have no idea what to do with it.
Looking at the XAMPP instruction briefly for a clue, this is about setting up a brand new forum, rather than accessing an existing one, so I am not sure what to do at all.

Yes, you'll create a new board but will fill that with the data from your old board - a perfect copy but for the cookies and server_vars.
In short
Create a directory in which you extract the Usbwebserver .zipfile keeping the directory structure e.g. c: /USBW74
That contains a /root in which you can create your "board". I suggest installing it in a subdirectory: e.g. root/test1/( so you can have a second and third copy or more)
Databases are created in /mysql/data >>> use phpMydamin to create the database. (use a name e.g. test1 so that you know which databases is used by which board, e.g. test1
Put all your phpBB files in /root/test1/
navigate to localhost/test1 and the install will start (so now you know the host name, the database name, the database user (root), the database password (usbw.). Use the same table_prefix as for your "live" board. (so that you don't have to edit the config.php when restoring your "live" board

Once your board is set up, you can restore the database backup and immediately login to your board - be sure to change the cookie settings and set force server vars to disabled).(don't use https)
It's just like any other personal webserver except for the lack of installation (it's just extracting the files). (you may have to increase max_execution time and enable some php extensions but)

Theoretically you can simulate your domain name(s) on a personal webserver but that's more specialised stuff and not worth the trouble (it's something I'ld have to look up any way) (and EA117's advice on trying to use just 1 domain name may well make it a lot easier for you).

[12stringbassist]

Ta. I will have a twiddle with that later in the week.