Tech help needed - hands up

[Up The Manor]

As you've probably all figured out by now, we're having a few issues with the transfer of the site over from @OldAdmin to the new Admins and mod team.

(Please don't reply to this thread unless you think you can help - "amusing" replies will be met with a 7 day ban, cheers)

So here is the situation. This site is based on standard SMF code. But it was highly customised by the previous owner. To our knowledge, those customisations include:

- the entire Review system
- Banning
- Access rights
- The SA thread
- Stuff to do with TS providers
- Links to other sites
- Stuff around attachments, etc.

We'd like to relax a lot of stuff and tighten other things, but we can't do anything right now, because there is so much written in code that bypasses standard SMF.

So...

Please contact me on this thread if you have any of the below skills. Don't PM me, that shit is fucked up too - I can't PM anyone at all

- php
- SQL
- html
- networking stuff

The post pays no money whatsoever, and has very few benefits. The hours are long, but you will be helping to maintain an important public service.

I thank you. And so does @Head1

UTM

[dubs]

Is there another way to contact you as members may not want to post that they skills in certain areas on a public thread

[90125]

Is there another way to contact you as members may not want to post that they skills in certain areas on a public thread

Report the 1st Post and leave a comment 

[90125]

Is there another way to contact you as members may not want to post that they skills in certain areas on a public thread

Report the 1st Post and leave a comment 

[jeanphillipe]

Are you guys looking for the original site rules? Here is a copy, I saw the comment in announcements.

- Site ethos / mission
This site puts the interests of punters first. The site does not endorse or promote any service provider or any other site. This site is totally independent. No favoritism, no special treatment, no vested interests and no pandering to service providers.

- Service Providers
This site allows service providers to be members, but there is zero tolerance for touting, flirting, attention-seeking and negative attitude towards punters. Service providers must respect the ethos of the site. This site is not a chat platform between clients and service providers, nor is it a support site for service providers. All service providers / non-punters must reveal their working identities - no 'anonymous WGs'.

- Touting
Zero tolerance for touting / advertising. You must disclose any link you have that may be seen as bias if you're not just a customer. Sharing info must be for the benefit of other punters and not to promote the business of others.

- Reviews
A new review thread can only be created once a service provider has agreed to a booking. A meet does not need to take place, money does not need change hands, the only criteria is that the she had accepted the initial booking.

- Multiple accounts
Creating multiple identities will result in banning of all accounts.

- Name change
Contact admin with your new preferred username. The site will send you a new randomized password when your name is changed, so make sure your account's email address is working, otherwise you won't be able to login after your name is changed.

- Anonymous proxies
Not allowed unless permission granted by admin.

- Account deletion
Accounts are not deleted, simply log out and don't use the account again. Do not post resignation posts to announce you are leaving. Just logout and don't be a drama queen.

- Post deletion
Not possible, unless you accidentally include too much personal info.

- Review deletion
Not possible, as the notice on the review creation page made clear.

- Avatars
No sexually explicit / hardcore avatars. Topless is acceptable but sexual acts or close-up of sexual organs is not acceptable.

- Moderators
Only 1 admin and 1 moderator. No other member has any special access. No 'secret moderators'.

- Hidden forums / Inner Circle
None exist, with the exception of Moderators and Deleted Posts forums. The Off-Topic section is only visible to members.

- Membership of other punting forums
Membership of newly created forums founded by trolls / banned / ex-members will result in revocation of your PM facilities.

- Other punting forums
Other punting forums are both very hostile and ban links to this site, so this site returns the favor. Other forums are also anti-punter, therefore it is not in the interests of punters to give them publicity.

- Offers to buy the site
This site is not for sale.

- Advertising
No advertising of any kind.

- Donations
No donations of any kind, either monetary or benefit-in-kind.

- Funding
This site is funded solely by the admin.

- Bareback / Unprotected sex
Allowed, but other members have the right to express disapproval of such activities.

- Street prostitution
Allowed, but other members have the right to express disapproval of such activities.

- Transsexuals / Shemales
Allowed.

- FBSM / Massage
Allowed.

- Walk-ups
Allowed.

- Dogging / Swinging / Webcamming / Phone Chat
Only suitable in Off-Topic section.

- Male prostitution
General discussion allowed, but not reviews.

- Social meets
None will be sanctioned by the admin and not allowed to be organised on the forums. Use the PM facility instead to organize such meet ups.

- Off-Topic
There is minimal moderation of political and current event discussions - neither for or against left or right wing ideology.

- Gender / Race / Nationality
Anti-immigration and bashing of religion / culture / nationality is allowed, however extreme racial comments and racial slurs are not tolerated. On the other hand complaining about the lack of 'political correctness' or similar will equally not be tolerated.

- Privacy of service providers
It is generally not allowed to post personal info of service providers, such as real names and personal social networking profiles. Phone numbers may be posted in full. Hotels may be named. General description of incall locations is acceptable, but not specific house numbers and street names. Modelling, porn and media-related work are acceptable to be posted, even if it includes their real names as they actively sought publicity / higher-profile. Any news items may be posted. All aforementioned restrictions do not apply to thieves and those with criminal convictions. Past name changes are never censored, regardless of reasons.

- Abuse towards other members
Discord must be kept civil. Excessive abuse / swearing is not acceptable. "You're acting like a twat" is not excessive, however "you're a fucking inbred cunt" is excessive and is not acceptable.

- Allegations against punters
Admin can only judge members based upon their conduct online. The admin is not law enforcement and does not have investigatory powers and thus cannot determine whether any 'real-world' allegation against a member is true. Inaction by admin on unverified allegations does not mean endorsement of any alleged misconduct.

- Allegations of sexually transmitted diseases
Past incidents has shown such extreme and damaging allegations to be malicious and from troublemakers. Therefore it is generally not acceptable to make such allegations against others.

- Allegations of underaged / trafficked / forced sex workers
Contact law enforcement

[MME]

Report the 1st Post and leave a comment 

Is this the recommended way to contact admin for this request?

[Up The Manor]

Is this the recommended way to contact admin for this request?

Actually, PM is OK. It turns out I can PM members once I've been PM'd by them. It's just that we're not actually sure who has or doesn't have PM ability, as this is yet another core SMF code change 

If PM doesn't work, then yeah - report the post.

[scutty brown]

Actually, PM is OK. It turns out I can PM members once I've been PM'd by them. It's just that we're not actually sure who has or doesn't have PM ability, as this is yet another core SMF code change 

If PM doesn't work, then yeah - report the post.

oldadmin restored my pm access a few days before handover (I'd pissed him off over something and losing pm was the punishment) but in the mail confirming this he commented that he'd removed ALL pm restrictions and modifications a couple of days before, which I read as suggesting all users should now have it.
I can't remember the exact wording as all my pretakeover messages have gone

[testuser]

I can probably give a reasonable amount of help.

[testuser]

If you download the version from External Link/Members Only it's based on then either do a diff -R or use VCS to see what's actually changed in respect to customisations. Although that should help, it might be tricky if there's mess or things like line ending changes, whitespace, etc. Make sure the version is more recent than 2011 as before then it seems like there was some serious security issues.

[Up The Manor]

If you download the version from External Link/Members Only it's based on then either do a diff -R or use VCS to see what's actually changed in respect to customisations. Although that should help, it might be tricky if there's mess or things like line ending changes, whitespace, etc. Make sure the version is more recent than 2011 as before then it seems like there was some serious security issues.

Cheers. Yep, bizarrely, we’re actually running the latest code cut, which is 2.0.15. We have run a code diff too; but none of the changes are commented. We can’t go to the standard cut, because all the stuff which makes the site useful would go. OldAdmin must have been pretty damned good, because all of his code changes have survived numerous SMF core updates. Props to the man.

[smartieshouse]

I may be able to help with the "networking stuff"

[Liamant]

Can’t pm you but a lot of this might depend on if the old admin had it on his own server and now it’s been moved

[Up The Manor]

Can’t pm you but a lot of this might depend on if the old admin had it on his own server and now it’s been moved

That’s exactly what happened

[southern punter]

I considering raising my hand but I have no experience with SMF.  Looking at the website, it only has about 3 pages of developer documentation, and one of them is for the system's global variables -- this is like looking at an AW page and seeing bareback listed     On the other hand, if OldAdmin's mods survive core updates, that is a very encouraging sign.

[Up The Manor]

I considering raising my hand but I have no experience with SMF.  Looking at the website, it only has about 3 pages of developer documentation, and one of them is for the system's global variables -- this is like looking at an AW page and seeing bareback listed     On the other hand, if OldAdmin's mods survive core updates, that is a very encouraging sign.

It is quite impressive! I guess we’ll see when the next update is out!

[mrfishyfoo]

That’s exactly what happened

In which case the "issue" may be hard coded links to the old server which is now none-existant. The sql manager "should" allow a dead link search. These can then be replaced with the details of the new server using wildcards via a global replace query within the SQL.

....or I've just posted a load of bollocks. 

[Up The Manor]

In which case the "issue" may be hard coded links to the old server which is now none-existant. The sql manager "should" allow a dead link search. These can then be replaced with the details of the new server using wildcards via a global replace query within the SQL.

....or I've just posted a load of bollocks. 

Nah. It’s a good suggestion. We can’t get into SQL at the moment either though 😂

[mrfishyfoo]

Nah. It’s a good suggestion. We can’t get into SQL at the moment either though 😂

I presume you've tried a forced password reset ?? 

[playboyzain]

Nah. It’s a good suggestion. We can’t get into SQL at the moment either though 😂

What’s the actual issue accessing the dB? Are the credentials unavailable? With a little more detail may be able to help.

[MME]

Nah. It’s a good suggestion. We can’t get into SQL at the moment either though 😂

Check your PM...

[Liamant]

Nah. It’s a good suggestion. We can’t get into SQL at the moment either though 😂

From the problems I think it’s something totally different but can’t pm

[southern punter]

Nah. It’s a good suggestion. We can’t get into SQL at the moment either though 😂

The code obviously can or we wouldn't be seeing the forum - have you looked through the code, config and environment variables for the SQL credentials?

[hungrypunt]

Admin, how is the server accessed for SFM, is it using WHM ?
 Can you not access SQL via PHPmyadmin? from server level/cpanel and run SQL queries from there.
Are there certain fields in the Db you know what your looking for , or is it just a question of not knowing what is where to link to maybe?

Have you been set full privileges to the DB before old admin left ?

IVe got mysql, php, linux /litespeed/apache server host exp with html and basic java but not up to speed with forum software Vbulliten etc.

[Up The Manor]

Admin, how is the server accessed for SFM, is it using WHM ?
 Can you not access SQL via PHPmyadmin? from server level/cpanel and run SQL queries from there.
Are there certain fields in the Db you know what your looking for , or is it just a question of not knowing what is where to link to maybe?

Have you been set full privileges to the DB before old admin left ?

IVe got mysql, php, linux /litespeed/apache server host exp with html and basic java but not up to speed with forum software Vbulliten etc.

I've installed webmin and used that to install phpmyadmin. However, when I navigate to the URL which should take me to the phpmyadmin login screen, it redirects me immediately to External Link/Members Only and I get a 404.

On the advice of a member here, I've installed HeidiSQL on my laptop and have tried logging in there with the credentials OldAdmin gave us, but with no luck. There are a lot of settings and options however, and I may just be missing something.

Interestingly, he gave us 3 sets of SQL credentials:

root/xxxx
ukpunting/xxxx
puntingwiki/xxxx

Not sure what is going on there.

[SO595]

Interestingly, he gave us 3 sets of SQL credentials:

root/xxxx
ukpunting/xxxx
puntingwiki/xxxx

Not sure what is going on there

I'd guess root has permissions on everything and ukpunting and puntingwiki only have permissions on those databases.  The software is probably (should be) using the appropriate restricted login.

[SO595]

On the advice of a member here, I've installed HeidiSQL on my laptop and have tried logging in there with the credentials OldAdmin gave us, but with no luck. There are a lot of settings and options however, and I may just be missing something.

It's fairly standard practice to limit the hosts that a mysql user can connect from, so you may find you can only connect from localhost, not from another machine (like your laptop).  Could also be firewall.

[Up The Manor]

It's fairly standard practice to limit the hosts that a mysql user can connect from, so you may find you can only connect from localhost, not from another machine (like your laptop).  Could also be firewall.

Possibly, in which case I need to get phpmyadmin working. Can anyone suggest how to fix the above redirection?

[hungrypunt]

Id concentrate on root user tbh. Im guessing it has whm set up and you cant get to the page for that (usually 2086) because he has set it to be accessed from certain IP addresses.
Sorry im talking a bit blind but if it is that you cant access whm, then get on to the host to change the master password, the go through cpanel from there to access phpmyadmin.

Id certainly just concentrate on root, then you can change the other msql users/privelages from there.

I tried accessing WHM path from here and i was blocked/refused so likely the case is only certain ip addresses allowed ? or you dont have WHM at all

Can you FTP, is there a .htaccess file(may be hidden and need to unhide) that is handling the redirect, or maybe a config file. It could also be redirected in cpanel at whm level, in which case we are back to the "root" user issue needs sorting.

Whats the path it redirects from (pm probably) and you could try redirect checker sites if needs be
eg External Link/Members Only

[SO595]

Possibly, in which case I need to get phpmyadmin working. Can anyone suggest how to fix the above redirection?

Can't really help without more details. What access do you have to the server?  How are you trying to access phpmyadmin etc?

You probably shouldn't post any of that here.

[southern punter]

Possibly, in which case I need to get phpmyadmin working. Can anyone suggest how to fix the above redirection?

I would guess that puntingwiki and this domain are both running on the same IP with vhosts, and you have a config file or .htaccess that is missing or broken.

External Link/Members Only

[SO595]

I would guess that puntingwiki and this domain are both running on the same IP with vhosts, and you have a config file or .htaccess that is missing or broken.

External Link/Members Only

Looks like the 2 domains resolve to different IPs so could be on different servers.  Is the ownership of puntingwiki linked to UKP any more?  Not sure I've seen mention of it in any of the talk of new owners here or on UKE.

[Kev40ish]

Looks like the 2 domains resolve to different IPs so could be on different servers.  Is the ownership of puntingwiki linked to UKP any more?  Not sure I've seen mention of it in any of the talk of new owners here or on UKE.

Yes the owner of here does own Puntingwiki too.

[SO595]

I would guess that puntingwiki and this domain are both running on the same IP with vhosts, and you have a config file or .htaccess that is missing or broken.

External Link/Members Only

Also looks like it's running nginx not Apache.

All this config stuff comes down to what level of access there is to the server.  FTP? SSH?  All managed through a web console?

[EquineLover]

I used to own a web hosting company many moons ago. Also have some SMF experience. Let me know if you still need help. I could probably SSH into your machine to see what’s up.

[scutty brown]

This is the ultimate sysadmins nightmare.......the admin team need help, but for reasons of security they can't let any of us remote into the system. The thought of the wrong person getting a back door to the database is scary.

[EquineLover]

This is the ultimate sysadmins nightmare.......the admin team need help, but for reasons of security they can't let any of us remote into the system. The thought of the wrong person getting a back door to the database is scary.

Absolutely!

[agentsmith]

This is the ultimate sysadmins nightmare.......the admin team need help, but for reasons of security they can't let any of us remote into the system. The thought of the wrong person getting a back door to the database is scary.

Is it something that oldadmin could/would help with? Surely no one knows the ins and outs more than him?

[Kev40ish]

Is it something that oldadmin could/would help with? Surely no one knows the ins and outs more than him?

Has anyone messaged oldAdmin?

Although I do realise he doesn’t want any involvement in the sites going forward..

[Up The Manor]

Has anyone messaged oldAdmin?

He’s long gone

[scutty brown]

Has anyone messaged oldAdmin?

Although I do realise he doesn’t want any involvement in the sites going forward..

More like he doesn't want any further involvement, period. The posts he made on the two forums make that clear. Sounds like he was at the end of his tether..........too much bollocks, bickering, backbiting and bullshit going on.

[agentsmith]

More like he doesn't want any further involvement, period. The posts he made on the two forums make that clear. Sounds like he was at the end of his tether..........too much bollocks, bickering, backbiting and bullshit going on.

I was thinking more like just helping with the teething problems of the transition, not the day-to-day bollocks.

[SO595]

This is the ultimate sysadmins nightmare.......the admin team need help, but for reasons of security they can't let any of us remote into the system. The thought of the wrong person getting a back door to the database is scary.

At some point, they're going to have to trust someone to help or leave it as is.  The chance of this getting resolved by posting vague descriptions on the forum is slim.

[Up The Manor]

At some point, they're going to have to trust someone to help or leave it as is.  The chance of this getting resolved by posting vague descriptions on the forum is slim.

I’ve had plenty of PMs with offers of help and I’m happy to give certain people access. It’s simply that we haven’t made much progress. As you can imagine, we do this in our spare time, so it’s going to be a slow process.

[SO595]

I’ve had plenty of PMs with offers of help and I’m happy to give certain people access. It’s simply that we haven’t made much progress. As you can imagine, we do this in our spare time, so it’s going to be a slow process.

Glad to hear (I've PMed myself) I was just going by what it looks like from here and making the point that this kind of second hand troubleshooting is incredibly difficult.  If you have it in hand, all well and good 

[gash bash]

Possibly, in which case I need to get phpmyadmin working. Can anyone suggest how to fix the above redirection?

This is common practice to prevent bots from accessing some.webdomain/phpmyadmin and trying brute force attacks. I would assume the endpoint name has been changes to something else!!

This kind of stuff should have been handled in a handover - oh well.

log into your box running the forum

go to /var/www/html/

ls -l

there should be a 'link' which points to /usr/share/myphpadmin

try that in your browser. (dont post it here)

I haven't used mysql for many many years but im pretty sure this is the issue.

[gash bash]

Oh i forgot to say that the endpoint name for accessing phpmyadmin should also be in the nginx config file in the servers section.

nginx server file should be /etc/nginx/sites-available/default

and in that you will have a server block like
server{

location /blahblahmyphpadmin { some stuff here...}


}

[Up The Manor]

Thanks for the suggestions. I’ll give them a go. And yes, it should have been covered in the handover. Lots of things should. To say it was a bit of a rush job would be an understatement.

[mh]

log into your box running the forum

go to /var/www/html/

ls -l

This will be necessary for a "self hosted on a physical box (or VM in the cloud)" setup, but that would raise a whole other deep well of issues that would need checking/solving. Most web hosting providers don't give access to the underlying OS at a command prompt level and the management tools installation is the web hosting provider's responsibility.

[Up The Manor]

This will be necessary for a "self hosted on a physical box (or VM in the cloud)" setup, but that would raise a whole other deep well of issues that would need checking/solving. Most web hosting providers don't give access to the underlying OS at a command prompt level and the management tools installation is the web hosting provider's responsibility.

The one we use does allow access. I can get to a command line prompt via putty. Indeed, I used this to install webmin and then used webmin to install phpmyadmin.

I also have direct access to the source code so we should be good.