Playing with the test system

[dgkulick]

I'm planning on setting up a forum for my community so I'm playing with the test system and read the doc. I can't get the system to allow attachments or require Admin verification of new accounts. This is because it's a test system, right? It just doesn't accept those changes. Assuming this is the case and I end up getting a host and setting this up, can I load phpBB onto an old machine I have lying around and import the database from the hosted system and use it as a test system if I want to try out extensions and such?

I read that the test system uses my IP so I can't have other folks test it out with me, which is too bad. But it's also supposed to reset after an hour and I was quite surprised that it still has all the stuff I set up yesterday. That's really good because it does take a while to figure out how to set up forums and groups and such. I wouldn't mind saving the test database and using that to start my real one.

[Kailey]

See Knowledge Base - Installing and Setting Up Your Own Web Server

[dgkulick]

Thanks, it looks doable, but XAMPP seems to support up to Windows 8. I have a spare Win 10 machine but oddly it's only 32 bit and the downloads are for 64 bit. I can probably find a Win10 64 bit install somewhere, but is there a later version of XAMPP that would work on it? I suppose I can get a Win 8 disk from somewhere but it's not supported anymore.

What version of PHP goes with phpBB 3.3? I read that 7.2.0 is the minimum version so any of the XAMPPs on the page should work but the Win OS version is the problem. Thanks for any pointers.

[thecoalman]

That's not the Windows version it supports but the XAMPP version which is identical to the PHP version it uses.

phpBB 3.3.11 supports PHP 8.2 so you can use the newest version of XAMPP.

[dgkulick]

Quick, where's the smiley for "smacks head"? Thanks, I'll try it this weekend. It will probably choke on the 32-bit system but maybe not.

[thecoalman]

If you need a 32 bit version the minimum PHP version for phpBB is 7.2. I see there is few 32 bit versions for php 7.2 and 7.3

[dgkulick]

Thanks. I fought with the PC most of the day but managed to dig out the windows key and found that it I can use it for the pro 64 version, so I did a clean install of Win10 Pro x64. It's a 10-year-old box with some I3 processor and 4gb of RAM so I'm not expecting blazing speed but it's adequate for the task. I didn't want to struggle with any x32 compatibility issues.

Then I installed the latest XAMPP and have Apache and MySQL running. I'm used to messing with SQL Server and IIS so this shouldn't be a whole lot different. It's late though so I'll try to get phpBB 3,3 installed tomorrow and start figuring out how I want it set up.

[dgkulick]

Thanks so much folks, I installed phpBB on the new machine (in a Forum folder) and all went well. They are serious about deleting the Install folder though.

I had no problem getting to it from another PC in my house but I figured I'd open it to some friends and ran into trouble port forwarding. I'm assuming it's port 80 but didn't get that far because my Xfinity router/gateway won't let me port forward, it has to be done from the app. Hmm. Except the app won't let me do it, the option does nothing. 2 hours of chat and support calls later Comcast tells me that the router needs an update and it will be done in two days. We'll see. But the forum is working fine.

[thecoalman]

I had no problem getting to it from another PC in my house but I figured I'd open it to some friends and ran into trouble port forwarding. I'm assuming it's port 80 but didn't get that far because my Xfinity router/gateway won't let me port forward, it has to be done from the app.

AFAIK Xfinity and most ISP's are going to block port 80 and 443 unless it's commercial plan.There is also going to be something in the TOS about running a server.

Additionally XAMPP is not made for running as public server, there is lot of security issues. For example if you ever look in the access logs on server you are going to find requests for example.com/phpmyadmin/ At the very most they will get a login page and even then that is not common. It will work in your case giving them access to the database with the root account. That is one of many issues, it's built for ease of use in local environment, it's not meant for public server.

[dgkulick]

It really does need to allow people in my community to test it. Is there a way to use some port besides 80 or 443? If people add the port# to the url that used to work as long as the port forwarding was set for that port.

[dgkulick]

In a stunning and unexpected response, Comcast actually fixed the problem, and I can port forward 80 to my machine hosting phpBB. Several of my compatriots have logged on and are offering suggestions. Hopefully not too many hackers are hitting it.

[Mick]

Hackers or spammers, they’re not the same thing?

[dgkulick]

Hackers or spammers, they’re not the same thing?

Thecoalman warned about security issues in xampp so I'm a bit concerned leaving it open but hopefully they could only trash that machine and I can restore the whole thing from backup. I really do need feedback from my folks, and it is way easier dealing with a physical machine than some server somewhere. I was reading the link on another post about moving the bb from test to production so at least that seems doable.

[thecoalman]

It's probably not a matter of if but when it gets hacked. I'm assuming you never ran a public server. If you look in the access logs you'll occasionally see a long list of potentially exploitable directories and files a single IP tried to access. It's all automated and they will just try it on different domains and IP's. If the bot finds something exploitable it will exploit it. No idea of the frequency on residential IP's but I would imagine it's the same.

[dgkulick]

I turned on auditing. There are a lot of logons all the time, from System and NT Authority. Those were in the event log before i just turned on auditing, but I'll keep an eye on it. I'll shut it down at night. Thanks.