I changed the avatar limits from 65x65 to 80x80, but only because my own avatar looked squished.

-b0b
(...rocks on.)

I've fixed the attachment feature.  I've allowed uploads of attachments up to 10mb with the following extensions...

• *.jpg
  
• *.jpeg
  
• *.gif
  
• *.png
  
• *.swf
  
• *.zip
  
• *.txt
  
• *.bmp
  
• *.mp3
  
• *.doc
  
• *.xls
  
• *.ppt
  

Let me know what other extensions you guys want me to allow.

-b0b
(...rocks on even harder.)

---

I removed the "notify me of replies" icon, since I don't have an e-mail server running at the moment to process the replies.  This might be a fun "rainy day" feature to work on in the future, once I get my other server working.

-b0b
(...will get around to it one of these days.)

There are two problems I'm trying to fix...

1) The time seems to be an hour off.  Even though the server is set to GMT -5 (EST) and the forum software defaults to the same, all of the posts are appearing an hour off to me.  Are you guys seeing the same thing?  (This post should be listed at 10:34am or so.)

2) The "Post last modified on..." label isn't showing up, even though the feature is turned on.  I'll have to scrape around within the code a bit to find a fix.

-b0b
(...nods nods.)

I fixed the time issue.  I forgot about Daylight Savings Time, which was a separate option.

-b0b
(...nods nods.)

I renamed the existing pictures from the "More Smilies" column so they made a bit of sense (since I can't read German) and added a bunch of new ones.  Here's a few that were added...


Crucifix [smiley=Crucifix.gif]
Cry2 [smiley=Cry2.gif]
Farmer [smiley=Farmer.gif]
FlagConfederate [smiley=FlagConfederate.gif]
FlagUS [smiley=FlagUS.gif]
FlameThrower2 [smiley=Guns-FlameThrower2.gif]
Fortified [smiley=Fortified.gif]
Jester [smiley=Jester.gif]
Sheep [smiley=Sheep.gif]
Soldier-Shooting1 [smiley=Soldier-Shooting1.gif]
Soldier-Shooting2 [smiley=Soldier-Shooting2.gif]
ToiletGremlins [smiley=ToiletGremlins.gif]


A zip file of the new ones is attached.  If you've got any personal favorites you want added, give me a URL or attach them here.

-b0b
(...thinks they're cool.)

---

More fun with smilies.  Lots of cool guns!


BarneyKill [smiley=BarneyKill.gif]
BullCrap [smiley=BullCrap.gif]
ChainSaw [smiley=Chainsaw.gif]
Borg [smiley=Borg.gif]
BooHoo [smiley=BooHoo.gif]
DrillSergeant [smiley=DrillSergeant.gif]
GrenadeBlowUp [smiley=GrenadeBlowUp.gif]
Guns-AK47Animated [smiley=Guns-AK47Animated.gif]
Guns-AR15Firing [smiley=Guns-AR15Firing.gif]
Guns-AK47Reload [smiley=Guns-AK47Reload.gif]
Guns-AR15Reload [smiley=Guns-AR15Double.gif]
Guns-Assassinate [smiley=Guns-Assassinate.gif]
Guns-DeckCannon [smiley=Guns-DeckCannon.gif]
Guns-DualFist3 [smiley=Guns-DualFist3.gif]
Guns-DualFist2 [smiley=Guns-DualFist2.gif]
Guns-DualFist1 [smiley=Guns-DualFist1.gif]
Guns-FNFAL [smiley=Guns-FNFAL.gif]
Guns-Jailed [smiley=Guns-Jailed.gif]
Guns-Sniper1 [smiley=Guns-Sniper1.gif]
Guns-Sniper2 [smiley=Guns-Sniper2.gif]
ImWithStupid [smiley=ImWithStupid.gif]
Hick [smiley=Hick.gif]
MedievalSword [smiley=MedievalSword.gif]
LurkersMustDie [smiley=LurkersMustDie.gif]
LightSaberBattle [smiley=LightSaberBattle.gif]
Microwave [smiley=Microwave.gif]
Moped [smiley=Moped.gif]
ShootYourself [smiley=ShootYourself.gif]
WesDownersMom1 [smiley=WesDownersMom1.gif]
WesDownersMom2 [smiley=WesDownersMom2.gif]
StewyThePirate [smiley=StewyThePirate.gif]
WTF [smiley=WTF.gif]


This is just a small number of the total I added.  There are 187 total now.  If you click the "View all Smilies" link underneath More Smilies when you reply to a post you can see all of the available ones.  Too cool...

-b0b
(...must have more!)

---

Lol bob you went nuts with the gun smilies [smiley=Guns-AR15Firing.gif] [smiley=Guns-Assassinate.gif]

The attachment option is pretty hot, those that dont host images should love that

Yeah, I can create a virtual directory to link to that folder so people can host their own images here.

How about...

http://www.TWNCommunications.Net/Hosted

Then, if you upload a picture, you can link to it directly.  It'd look like this...

{Img} http://www.TWNCommunications.Net/Hosted/Picture.jpg {/Img}

Sound good?

-b0b
(...thinks someone will have to come up with a handy tutorial.)

Here's an attachment to test, NotepadHang.jpg.

---

Wow, never mind.  I guess it automatically displays a photo inline if an image is attached.  Well, as long as you guys don't leech all my bandwidth, I'll leave the new virtual directory I created so you can use the attachment option to host files for other websites or whatever.

I uploaded BadFragmentation.jpg, so the following URL should work to access it.

http://www.TWNCommunications.Net/Hosted/NotepadHang.jpg

I should also be able to use an inline photo tag to display photo attachments in other threads.

http://www.TWNCommunications.Net/Hosted/NotepadHang.jpg

So, if you guys want to host a file for another website, just attach it to a post somewhere (we can create a Random Attachment thread if need be) and use the following URL...

http://www.TWNCommunications.Net/Hosted/Filename.ext

Be sure to replace Filename.ext with the name of the file you attached.  Remember to read the post up top about acceptable file extensions.  Only certain file extensions are permitted, but I can always add other file extensions if I missed something.  If you try to upload an unpermitted file type, the forum will warn you about the error.  Just let me know if I missed one and I'll add it.

-b0b
(...could definitely use this to save some time.)

Sweet deal bob, I've got a few 12 gig files i need hosted. Its ok ill make sure only about 10 people a day download it. ;D

Live preview is fun too, you can check out how your post looks while you type it. Click the plus near the top to open it.

I was standing behind those firefighters. That fire was MASSIVE. The whole city turned out to watch it. It was like a football game, people were appearing with beer cups in their hands, lol. Everyong was parking on yards or random empty baseball fields. You could see the smoke for miles and it was drifting into Canada, making the skies hazy.

http://www.twncommunications.net/hosted/m017-firebuilding-1005n_10-17-2005_FN95E6D.jpg

http://www.twncommunications.net/hosted/m017-firewide-1005y_10-17-2005_FN95EP9-2.jpg

---

PoopHitsFan [smiley=PoopHitsFan.gif]


For all those times when TSHTF.

-b0b
(...which might be TEOTWAWKI.)

you all should be proud.


you live up to the name of "geek".



i'm glad to have met you all.




cait


scrolling marquee! eeeeeee!

It wouldnt be the "geek crew" without us.  

[smiley=PokeWithStick.gif]

Yes, and it wouldn't be The Geek Crew without more smilies!  Bahahaha!

GetOut [smiley=GetOut.gif]
HugeShock [smiley=HugeShock.gif]
HugeShock 2 [smiley=HugeShock2.gif]
PleaseDie [smiley=PleaseDie.gif]
WTF2 [smiley=WTF2.gif]
HeadBang [smiley=HeadBang.gif]
Computer Trouble [smiley=ComputerTrouble.gif]

-b0b
(...gotta catch 'em all.)

282, baybee!  I might get rid of some of the bigger ones, since they're rather annoying.

-b0b
(...nodsnodsnods.)

Alien-Mononoke [smiley=Alien-Mononoke.gif] (For those of you that liked Princess Mononoke!)
BadDog [smiley=BadDog.gif]
Bomb [smiley=Bomb.gif]
Car-Cop [smiley=Car-Cop.gif]
Constipated [smiley=Constipated.gif]
Fart [smiley=Fart.gif]
Guns-BiggerGun [smiley=Guns-BiggerGun.gif]
Guns-CaptureFlag [smiley=Guns-CaptureFlag.gif]
Luigi [smiley=Luigi.gif]
Mario [smiley=Mario.gif]
Pong [smiley=Pong.gif]
Smurf1 [smiley=Smurf1.gif]
SoapBox [smiley=SoapBox.gif]
SouthParkCartman [smiley=SouthParkCartman.gif]
StarWars-VaderFight2 [smiley=StarWars-VaderFight2.gif]

I got rid of that last piece of #c0c0c0 border on the front page, since it looked kind of funky all by itself.

-b0b
(...[smiley=Guns-FNFAL.gif])

Thanks bob, it was funky but i wasnt in the mood to hunt it down. Which value was it btw?

If I remember correctly, it was BorderContainer.  From what I can tell, it only affected two lines on the front page.  I'm not sure why it needed a separate denotation.

-b0b
(...pity the foo.)

More smilies!

-b0b
(...w00h00!)

---

I added a few more smilies, and deleted several of the huge ones.  Here are some of my favorite new additions.

Bump [smiley=Bump.gif]
Censored [smiley=Censored.gif]
CloudNine [smiley=CloudNine.gif]
DeadHorse [smiley=DeadHorse.gif]
EndOfTheWorld [smiley=EndOfTheWorld.gif]
DontTreadOnMe [smiley=DontTreadOnMe.gif]
Fart1 [smiley=Fart1.gif]
GrouchoMarx [smiley=GrouchoMarx.gif]
IAmSmiling [smiley=IAmSmiling.gif]
MickeyMouse [smiley=MickeyMouse.gif]
OffTopic [smiley=OffTopic.gif]
Oops [smiley=Oops.gif]
Same [smiley=Same.gif]
STFU [smiley=STFU.gif]
VoteBush [smiley=VoteBush.gif]
Zombie [smiley=Zombie.gif]

---

wtf bob   [smiley=VoteBush.gif] [smiley=Guns-RocketLauncher1.gif]

I never said I agreed with it.

-b0b
(...so there.)

Attachment goodness...

-b0b
(...attaches like a mad man.)

---

FirefoxLove [smiley=FirefoxLove.gif]

-b0b
(...best ever.)

More smilies!

---

Here they are!


Banana [smiley=Banana.gif]
Abused [smiley=Abused.gif]
BeatChair [smiley=BeatChair.gif]
Chainsaw2[smiley=Chainsaw2.gif]
DeadHorse2 [smiley=DeadHorse2.gif]
BS [smiley=BS.gif]
ButtKick [smiley=ButtKick.gif]
Dropkick [smiley=Dropkick.gif]
Flame [smiley=Flame.gif]
Newbie [smiley=Newbie.gif]
Owned [smiley=Owned.gif]
ROFLMAO [smiley=ROFLMAO.gif]


-b0b
(...358 total.  Aren't you excited?)

ThreadHijack [smiley=ThreadHijack.gif]

-b0b
(...is always on the lookout.)

this is a good one

---

BananaDance [smiley=BananaDance.gif]

Good catch!

-b0b
(...w00t!)

BananaPoop [smiley=BananaPoop.gif]
Brick [smiley=Brick.gif]
Gas [smiley=Gas.gif]
Hitler [smiley=Hitler.gif]
Jail [smiley=Jail.gif]
King [smiley=King.gif]
MichaelJackson [smiley=MichaelJackson.gif]

-b0b
(...cheers.)

If anyone can write a story incorporating as many of the smilies as possible, I'll treat you to lunch.  That would rock.  (the story, not me dishing out for lunch)

More smilies!

BananaRasta [smiley=BananaRasta.gif]
BeatWithStick [smiley=BeatWithStick.gif]
Bulldozer[smiley=Bulldozer.gif]
Gay [smiley=Gay.gif]
Crossbones[smiley=Crossbones.gif]
DUTroll [smiley=DUTroll.gif]
Greedy [smiley=Greedy.gif]
Guns-Zombie [smiley=Guns-Zombie.gif]
Horse [smiley=Horse.gif]
JackInBox [smiley=JackInBox.gif]
LollerSkates [smiley=LollerSkates.gif]
NoImage [smiley=NoImage.gif]
NoImage2 [smiley=NoImage2.gif]
Penguin [smiley=Penguin.gif]
PinkElephant [smiley=PinkElephant.gif]
RetardedLOL [smiley=RetardedLOL.gif]
Sheeple [smiley=Sheeple.gif]
Sleep2 [smiley=Sleep2.gif]
Snorkel [smiley=Snorkel.gif]
Spider [smiley=Spider.gif]
STFUSlap [smiley=STFUSlap.gif]
Survivalist [smiley=Survivalist.gif]
Survivalist2 [smiley=Survivalist2.gif]
TooHappy [smiley=TooHappy.gif]
Vikings [smiley=Vikings.gif]

-b0b
(...weeeee!)

More!  More!  More!


Bananas [smiley=Bananas.gif]
BlowKiss [smiley=BlowKiss.gif]
Cartman [smiley=Cartman.gif]
Chug [smiley=Chug.gif]
CopBeat [smiley=CopBeat.gif]
Couch [smiley=Couch.gif]
Deserted [smiley=Deserted.gif]
Dupe [smiley=Dupe.gif]
FlagSalute [smiley=FlagSalute.gif]
Guns-Gatling [smiley=Guns-Gatling.gif]
Guns-M4 [smiley=Guns-M4.gif]
KnightThatSaysNI [smiley=KnightThatSaysNI.gif]
NutKick [smiley=NutKick.gif]
TTIWWOP [smiley=TTIWWOP.gif]
Zombie2 [smiley=Zombie2.gif]
Zombie3 [smiley=Zombie3.gif]
DestroyComputer [smiley=DestroyComputer.gif]
DomokunFloppy [smiley=DomokunFloppy.gif]
OfficeDance [smiley=OfficeDance.gif]
PlzDie [smiley=PlzDie.gif]
RunWithScissors [smiley=RunWithScissors.gif]
Twinkies [smiley=Twinkies.gif]
Weiner [smiley=Weiner.gif]

-b0b
(...thought he'd spice things up a bit.)

The bananas remind me of the fluffy white "Yay!" things in the movie Rejected.  They also make me smile.

CouchChug [smiley=CouchChug.gif]
BananaSad [smiley=BananaSad.gif]
BrickWall [smiley=BrickWall.gif]
JerryJerry [smiley=JerryJerry.gif]
Guns-Roullette [smiley=Guns-Roullette.gif]


-b0b
(...more.)

Zelda [smiley=Zelda.gif]



Should I add more as I find them?

-b0b
(...loves smilies.)

I apologize for the downtime on the forum over the weekend.  Apparently, the edge router Comcast provided for my cable service reset for no apparent reason.  That killed the port forwarding that allows traffic to come in to my web server, hence the downtime.

I didn't realize it was down since I still had outbound Internet service and could get the forum just fine myself.  Tex let me know on Sunday that he wasn't able to get to it, hence the fix.

-b0b
(...apologized profusely.)

On a related note, I'm going to be defragmenting the server today, so if things are a bit sluggish throughout the afternoon, that's why.

-b0b
(...apologizes again.)

There's a huge (read: AWESOME) storm raging right now, and it's been knocking the power out intermittently.  That's screwing with my cable Internet service, so even though my UPS's are keeping the server and my PC running, the Internet service is up and down.  That will cause some random outages until  the storm has abated.

-b0b
(...loves storms.)

GREETINGS FEDERAL AGENTS!!!

I'm sorry to inform you that we are not Al CIA-eda operatives bent on taking down this country!  Our own govt officials are doing that well enough!  And no, we will not take $40,000 dollars and a video camera to do "terrorist activities"!  And no, you shouldn't try to send us 1,000 pounds of explosives in the mail and have us arrested right when it arrives!  The internet doesn't have "free speech zones" that is until you bastards try and pass Internet 2.  So just go on your merry way and keep plotting to take down this country you might think you are protecting!

63.27.202.103
63.27.196.54
63.27.132.62
Now I'm not saying these are the IP addresses of these govt agents...I would hope they'd be more slick about it!

Although according to your FBI Training Manuals Christians, Gun Owners, and THOSE WHO MAKE FREQUENT REFERENCES TO THE US CONSTITUTION" are terrorists...so I really have no clue if we're terrorists or not. (see pic)

I mean we're not as big as the government is...we're just the patsies!

X

---

Ooo ooo! im a defender of the US constitution! can I be charged and held against my will!?

Pick me! Pick me!

Oh and this thread has too many smilies.

[smiley=Guns-Gatling.gif]

...but this is by far my favorite.

That pamphlet is older than dirt, but it's still pretty funny!  For what it's worth, the first 25% of the 63.* block is registered to UUNet, so everything from 63.0.0.0 to 63.63.255.255 belongs to them.  UUNet is a wholly owned subsidiary of MCI, who now belongs to you-know-who.

The first two addresses are from Dekalb, Illinois, with the third one registering to Boston, Massachusetts.  

-b0b
(...notes that you really are a patsy.)

Quote:

(...notes that you really are a patsy.)

He He...that what I was going for.

And while that particular paphlet is old, there are new ones out that describe the same thing.  They also add terrorists might "wear blue jeans" and "be nice".  I kid you not.  I can find you the doc if you want me to.  So everyone who is nice and wears blue jeans are terrorists.

X
(I knew you wouldn't believe me so I found them!)

http://www.infowars.com/images2/ps/txps_terror_pamphlet_front.jpg


http://www.infowars.com/images2/ps/txps_terror_pamphlet_back.jpg

The forum will be down intermittently this afternoon while I install Server 2003 SP2 and a couple other updates.  It might also be a bit sluggish while I defragment.

-b0b
(...sorry!)

*tears*  :'(

Ohhh boohoo!

-b0b
(...cries big sloppy whale tears.)

Whales, the reason the ocean is salty.


ewwwww

A Message from Wes


Quote:

Hey there Patsy you sexy ass bastard! Haha Tell Briney he sucks for never answering his phone, and call b0b a homosexual for me at least once... Oh and tell Craig his mom has great tits. Thanks bro, I knew I could count on you to keep me in touch.

Quote:

and call b0b a homosexual for me at least once...

Yeah once....before the morning meeting, after the meeting, at lunch, when 2nd shift gets here, when Tom yells something stupid.  Yeah I have that one covered.

That's alright, I know you mean it in a loving way.

-b0b
(...!)

Ya...wishful thinking for Spanky there.

Also to keep you up to date with Wes.

• He no longer is a Wal-Mart stock boy

• He just got promoted in his carny work and he's actually going to be making a good chunk of change.

• He no longer has a computer however he did purchase a PS3, surround sound system, and plasma TV.

X

He can afford a PS3 and all the goodies, but he doesn't have a PC at all?  WTF?

-b0b
(...thinks the geekforce is waning in the FatMan.)

The forum was down because I stupidly tried to install FrontPage components on the server.  I've never, ever been able to install them on any server without having a metric crapload of problems.

In this particular case, the installation overwrote all of the security permissions on the server, hence the problems you saw today.

-b0b
(...is so freakin' angry.)

It's ok...it was only down for a bit...shh don't be angry...how about a back rub?

does this so called back rub come with a happy ending?

How about a bubble bath with smelling salts?

-b0b
(...shrugs.)

Ooo that would be just...heavenly.

Hey Bob...anytime this week is good for me to go up to K-Zoo so just get in touch whenever you're free.

X

The forum will be going down for about 20 minutes tonight so I can install another gigabyte of RAM.  I'm going to defragment the system drive once I get it back up and running, so expect some sluggishness later tonight.

Hopefully this will help reduce the overall slowness of the forum.

-b0b
(...loves how cheap PC3200 is these days.)

Screw it.  I'll do it tomorrow.

-b0b
(...thinks it is actually the Interweb connection.)

Quote:

Screw it.  I'll do it tomorrow.

That's the spirit!

The problem is definitely related to the Interweb connection, not the server.  I'm going to troubleshoot the problem after work tonight so expect an hour of downtime between 6:00pm and 10:00pm.

I'm going to replace the slightly damaged cable between the wall and the modem tonight and move it into the network rack.  I highly doubt that's the problem, but I want to eliminate that issue before I call Comcast and sit on hold until the sun shrinks into a small black sphere the size of a walnut.  

I'm also going to pop an extra gigabyte of memory into the server to keep Exchange 2003 happy.  It's one hell of a memory hog, considering I only have a handful of mailboxes on it.

Once all of this is done, I'll call Comcast and try to get a tech to come out tomorrow afternoon.  That should resolve the lag issues on the forum.

-b0b
(...thinks latency might be a sign of the Antichrist.)

"And the lord said, 'Lo, when Bob's server begins to lag, that shall be the water breaking and the start of the birth pains for the world.  Take heart that the dragon of old shall come to kill and destroy...and takeths thou bandwidth'.  Then Peter spoke, 'Uhh lord, what's bandwidth, yo?'"

X

Well, the good news is that it isn't a server problem and it isn't a cabling issue.

The bad news is that COMCAST IS #@$^%#$^ INCOMPETENT.  I spent over an hour on the phone last night trying to get them to fix my connection.  During that time, I got disconnected twice, pushed into a voicemail box once, and never, ever got to talk to a business rep.

I'm sitting on hold once again this morning, so I'll let you guys know what I find out.

In case you're interested in the technical details, I spent some time troubleshooting the problem yesterday.  Their nearest router is dropping packets like crazy.  15-20% packet loss with an additional 3-5% packet corruption.  That's why the forum is loading so incredibly slowly.  If I can get a speed test to load, I'm getting 800Kbps up and down, even though I'm paying for 8Mb/1Mb.

-b0b
(...needs to choke someone.)

I swear, if I hear "It's not complex, it's Comcast!" one more time, I'm going to scream.

-b0b
(...stupid hold music.)

The Comcast technician should be on-site tomorrow afternoon.  Assuming they don't send out another moron that wipes out the NAT table on the edge router, the connection should be fixed by 5:00pm.

-b0b
(...makes a mental note to backup the NAT table.)

I have a kinda Verizon story...but it no way compares to the stupidity of Comcast.

Back in the days of dial up we got two phone lines for the house since we were online so long, it being dial up and all.  I only got around to canceling the second phone line and transferring the DSL to our main line.  This happened in October and we disconnected the second line completely.  That means we ran all of Nov, Dec, Jan, and Feb fine with the DSL on the main line and being billed just fine.

Yesterday we received an email that looked legit, but in today's world I am never not paranoid.  Anywho it turns out it was legit, and the bill got fixed to the old second line number and they were unable to charge us for the DSL.  The good thing, among many things, that I like about Verizon is that they didn't shut off our service.

I'm still wondering how from four months all can be fine and another something changes to a service we haven't had in five months.

X

Wow, I hope the technician calls.  I'm up to 17% packet loss again and the forum is crawling.

-b0b
(...shakes his fist in righteous anger.)

In case you guys are wondering, the Comcast guy showed up today.  Not only did he not fix the problem, but things are noticeably worse now that he came out.  Another tech will be here tomorrow.

-b0b
(...is pissed.)

I swear, I am incredibly close to telling Comcast to blow me.  I'm a fairly patient guy, but I've frickin' had it.

In case any of you were wondering why the site has been down completely for the entire evening, Comcast swapped out my router this afternoon and forgot to forward my static IP to the new router.

Of course, their offices are already closed, so I can't get anyone to change it until tomorrow morning.  I've forward TWNCommunications.Net and GeekCrew.Net to the new IP address until they can get their shit together.

If Comcast had any real competition around here, I would tell them to get their equipment out of my house before I set it ablaze.

-b0b
(...is ready to break something.)

Verizon doesn't reach you?  I know I'm close, less than a mile away, but I figured they'd be competing big with Comcast seeing as Comcast's officers are less than a mile from Verizon's.

X

You can't really host a web server on DSL, unfortunately.

-b0b
(...sighs.)

In case you were wondering why the forum has been down all morning, the problem was (believe it or not) Comcast.

I called them this morning to get them to set up the public IP again, which they did.  Of course, they decided to reset the router at the same time, which wiped out the port forwarding I have setup for the web server and VPN access.  This prevented us from being able to get to the forum, and prevented me from fixing the problem remotely.

The Comcast tech today verified that none of the equipment in my apartment was causing the Internet issue (duh!).  The main cable line that runs into the apartment building needs to be repaired, so this may take a couple more days.

-b0b
(...has all but given up at this point.)

So you are still blaming concast, huh?

Suuuure, it is the computers fault...


(Nick Burns!)

MOVE!

Comcast finally got their crap fixed on Friday night.  Let's hope it stays that way!

-b0b
(...still needs to throw that memory into the server.)

Are you moving to Server 2008 anytime soon?

As soon as the cheap licenses start showing up, I'll snag one.  I've played with the Release Candidate and I love it.  The EasyPrint feature alone has sold me on 2008 for all future terminal servers.  What a godsend...

-b0b
(...would love to buy a copy.)

Too bad you aren't good enough of a friend.  I indirectly have 1500 licences of it.  (legally too).  I love the remote desktop programs protocal. We're implementing it next year at work.  

Quote:

Too bad you aren't good enough of a friend.

Holy ouch batman!

...only one thing left to do, fight to the death in a ring of fire!

The only problem with the new RDP software is that the client SUCKS.  Not "kinda" sucks, not "sorta" sucks, but "CAPS LOCK to max" SUCKS.

I don't know what Microsoft was smoking when they release the XP/2003 update of the TS6 client, but it was one of the shoddiest production releases I've seen out of them since NT4 SP6.

First, they shipped it as a Critical Update.  I'm sorry, but a variation in RDP is not a "critical" update by any stretch of the imagination.  Since they labeled it as critical, anybody running a WSUS server (like me) pushed it straight into production.  What a frickin' mess...

The first release (6.0) completely destroyed the RDP client on about 35% of the machines it was installed on.  Every time it ran, the client would somehow trigger the NX bit XP SP2 and would fire off a Data Execution Prevention message.  This would happen even on 32-bit machines that didn't have an NX-capable processor.  How the heck did they pull that one off?  Thanks for the QA, Microsoft.

I found an unsupported workaround to get past the NX errors, which would allow the RDP 6.0 client to run, but it would crash with a page fault error every time it made a connection to a terminal server or RDP server.  Again, this was on ~35% of my machines, which represents a wide variety of hardware, software, and manufacturers.  Suffice it to say that I had to roll those machines back to RDP 5.0, which was a complete pain in the butt.  

Of course, Microsoft didn't enable roll back functionality through WSUS, which meant that I couldn't uninstall the client through WSUS.  I had a choice between writing a script to uninstall the stupid program or removing it manually at either machine.  Scripting to the rescue...

For the machines that didn't have a problem with the new client (and I never did find what the heck caused the problem), the radically different interface confused the heck out of the end users.  I understand 6.0 has a lot of nifty features when used in conjunction with 2008 servers and Vista RDP endpoints, but the basic functionality of the client is identical.  Why change the interface?  What purpose does that serve but to confuse the heck out of the users?  I work with factory employees, for crying out loud, not rocket scientists!

Finally, my last rant about the client is the requirement for pre-authentication.  Instead of just connecting you to the terminal/RDP server and allowing you to authenticate through the logon screen, you're forced to provide your credentials up front before even connecting to the server.  That's not just retarded, it's powerfully retarded.  What is the point of that, outside of (once again) confusing the heck out of your user base?  Do you know how many phone calls I got about that?  It completely screws up the domain authentication factor because it doesn't read Active Directory trusts.  If your users don't understand the concept of domains (and I'm guessing 99.5% don't), God help them because the RDP client certainly won't.

-b0b
(.../rant.)

Doesn't it pre-authenticate because it's piped through https now.  Isn't that worth the hassle.  A secured connection is always a plus.  

You guys are nerds!

Nah I wouldn't say nerd.  Ever since bob could remember UPC codes to different items in Kmart I think the proper term is FREAK!

computerjuvenile wrote on Apr 25^th, 2008 at 1:06pm:

Doesn't it pre-authenticate because it's piped through https now.  Isn't that worth the hassle.  A secured connection is always a plus.

Pre-authentication is great - when the server supports it.  Unless you're running Windows Server 2008 or have an ISA Server 2006 box sitting around, pre-authentication is pointless.  We've got an ISA server here, but it's sitting between the network and the WAN connections, not the users and the servers - just like 90% of ISA deployments.

Why didn't Microsoft include a pre-authentication check box to enable the option, instead of forcing it on everyone as a compulsory "feature."  If it had a check box, Microsoft could even add a Group Policy option to allow administrators to control the feature over the entire domain or forest.

It's a great feature when it's supported, but it's poorly implemented.

-b0b
(...suck on that!)

Sorry about the downtime.  Some retarded Comcast technician came to the apartment complex yesterday to install an ingress filter.  If you've got crappy equipment that is backfeeding to the cable company, they'll put a filter on your line that keeps your stuff from screwing up cable service for all of your neighbors.

Of course, this dumbass technician didn't put the filter on the cable leading to the apartment with the faulty equipment.  He put it on the primary cable that feeds the entire building.  As such, any digital equipment (digital cable, cable Internet, etc.) didn't work, including my Internet gateway.

It took five phone calls, a lunch-hour trip from Sturgis to TR and back, and 32 hours to finally get a technician out to my apartment, even though my commercial business contract states a maximum 4-hour repair time.  You do the math.

I have to take a picture of the conglomeration of cabling that makes up the "lock box" at the apartment complex.  It's a freakin' joke.

-b0b
(...had to put on his angry pants today.)

The forum will be going down for a few minutes tonight so I can finally get around to adding that gigabyte of RAM I bought in February.

-b0b
(...is kinda lazy.)

Done!

-b0b
(...always gets around to doing something sooner or later.)

The forum will be going down intermittently tonight while I install a new SATA RAID adapter and the 750GB hard drive I bought this week.  It may run somewhat slow during the file transfer process, too, but it will have lot more storage space when I'm done!

-b0b
(...yeah!)

If anyone was wondering what happened to Wes and how to reach him.  Also, TR paper had an article about Andrew Azzam graduating from Tech...so ya...he's still alive too!


Quote:

Farewell dear Colorado....I will miss you.... To any who may have not heard yet that care. I will be flying out of Colorado next Thursday afternoon and moving to Florida. This may be a permanent thing and it may not....either way I wont be back for a very long time. I'll miss all of you, you were all kick ass friends. I'll miss the parties and the good times I had with all of you. If any of you don't have my number and wanna give me a call it's 1-386-747-0196 So give me a holla and say goodbye :) So remember.... Rock it like you want it, or go the fuck home. - Wes

WTF is in Florida besides old people?

Somebody should warn him that his blubber is going to melt if he gets that close to the equator!

As for Shizza, I thought he was dead?  I wonder what the heck he is doing these days?

-b0b
(...thinks ODB needs to be tracked down, too!)

I finished installing the new hardware in the server tonight.  It is now sporting 2TB of dedicated FTP storage, in addition to the storage space for the forum, OS, and mail server!

I've still got a few things to move over, but I'll be ready to start working on the FTP server and related networking challenges sometime later this weekend!

-b0b
(...w00t!)

The current forum turns 1,000 days old tomorrow!  That makes it just about as old as the last forum before the great crash of '05.

http://www.TWNCommunications.Net/Other/ForumBirthday.jpg

-b0b
(...who wants cake?)

Sorry about the downtime.

I replaced my older DVD writers in the Bobulator last week with some shiny new SATA LightScribe drives, and I took the server down tonight for a bit so I could move the old "hand-me-down" drives into the server.  It had a crufty DVD-ROM drive and a completely b0rked CD writer, so this was a much-needed upgrade.

I promise, I'm done screwing with the server for a couple days.  I've even put the case cover back on, so you know I mean business!  Hopefully, I can start working on the FTP server later this week.  I'll keep you guys posted!

I did find a fan that needed replacement, though, but I should be able to do that later this week without taking the server down.  

http://www.TWNCommunications.Net/Other/ServerCD.jpg

-b0b
(...meh, who needs fans?)

Test post.

You guys may have noticed several spurts of downtime lately.  I'd love to tell you what's going on, but I really haven't figured it out yet.  A critical system process on the server (LSASS.exe, which handles logons) has been spiking to 100% for several minutes at a time, and I can't figure out what is causing it.  Every time I think I've got it pinned down, the server starts acting up again.

I was hoping to put off rebuilding the server until early winter, but I might have to bump those plans up a bit.  The plan is to go with an Intel dual-core 64-bit processor and run Server 2008 Standard 64-bit and Exchange 2007.  I'll upgrade the forum software to the recently released v2.2 while I'm at it.

Once I save up some cash (which will be a bit tight during the job change), I guess I'll make it happen.  A stable forum is a happy forum!


-b0b
(...wants to play with a couple new Exchange features, too!)

There weren't nearly enough smilies on the forum, so I added 55-60 more.  That brings us up to ~467, most of which have never been used.  Enjoy!


-b0b
(...pointless!)

Thanks for enabling the RSS feed for new posts! I'm a Google Reader junkie, and you just made life easier for me. =)

The forum and mail servers will be going offline for a quick reboot in the next few minutes for an emergency security patch installation.

Just in case any of you guys are running any version of Windows Server at home, be sure you install all of the security patches and update your antivirus and firewall definitions.  A nasty security vulnerability on the Windows Server platform is being heavily exploited, and a worm is already in the wild.

The patch was released early this AM, but Patch Tuesday was just three days ago, so a lot of systems won't be patched for a full month.  This is definitely a "perfect storm" scenario.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/MS08-067.mspx

-b0b
(...has to work late on a frickin' Friday because of this.)

Oops, PERL died.  The server needed a reboot.


-b0b
(...needs to rebuild the server with a multicore processor.)

Sorry about the downtime.  The craptastic Comcast router was locked up and needed a reboot.  Hopefully this is just a fluke...


-b0b
(...really doesn't want to talk to Comcast.)

The forum will be going down for an hour or so this afternoon so I can update IOS on the edge router.


-b0b
(...12.4, yay!)

Done!  I updated IOS and installed some cryptographic options that will allow IPSec encryption and high-security VPN access.  I plan on replacing the router with something a little beefier next month.


Quote:

TWN-Router#sh ver Cisco IOS Software, C1700 Software (C1700-ADVSECURITYK9-M), Version 12.4(25c), RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc2) Copyright (c) 1986-2010 by Cisco Systems, Inc. Compiled Thu 11-Feb-10 22:20 by prod_rel_team ROM: System Bootstrap, Version 12.2(4r)XL, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1) TWN-Router uptime is 0 minutes System returned to ROM by reload System image file is "flash:c1700-advsecurityk9-mz.124-25c.bin" This product contains cryptographic features and is subject to United States and local country laws governing import, export, transfer and use. Delivery of Cisco cryptographic products does not imply third-party authority to import, export, distribute or use encryption. Importers, exporters, distributors and users are responsible for compliance with U.S. and local country laws. By using this product you agree to comply with applicable laws and regulations. If you are unable to comply with U.S. and local laws, return this product immediately. If you require further assistance please contact us by sending email to export@cisco.com. Cisco 1760 (MPC860P) processor (revision 0x500) with 53479K/12057K bytes of memory. Processor board ID FOC064006W0 (3619802113), with hardware revision 0000 MPC860P processor: part number 5, mask 2 2 Ethernet interfaces 1 FastEthernet interface 32K bytes of NVRAM. 32768K bytes of processor board System flash (Read/Write) Configuration register is 0x2112

Sadly, this killed off ~2 years of router uptime.   :'(


-b0b
(...IPSec for the win!)

Sorry about the downtime tonight.  I did a quick port swap to provide a bit more upload bandwidth to the server.


Before
http://www.TWNCommunications.Net/Other/10FullFull.jpg

After
http://www.TWNCommunications.Net/Other/100FullFull.jpg

For some reason, the craptastic Comcast modem didn't want to properly negotiate full-duplex on an Ethernet port, so I moved it over to Fast Ethernet and swapped the core switch over to the Ethernet connection.

As I said earlier, I'm planning on replacing my edge router with something a little beefier.  Probably this:

http://www.TWNCommunications.Net/Other/Cisco3745.jpg


-b0b
(...right after Japan!)

OMG FORUM DOWNTIME!  I tried checking the forum Thursday from the hotel lobby in Chiba, Japan, to no avail!  I couldn't connect remotely to either of my routers, either server, or my PC, so I knew it had to be a network issue. I figured out the problem as soon as I got home, but unfortunately it was entirely my fault!

When I was making the "work-around" fixes last week, I forgot to write the configuration changes permanently.  There was a nasty storm sometime this week that wreaked a ton of havoc in the Schoolcraft/Vicksburg area, and apparently it caused a lengthy power outage here.  My routers and switches are on a UPS array that provides ~2 hours of backup power, but the outage must have exceeded that.

Long story short, the core switch lost power and my temporary work-around configuration was lost.  When the power came back on, the switch came back online with the old configuration.  Suffice it to say that it didn't work.

The good news is that I had a chance to throw the memory in the router that arrived while I was gone.  That should give it a bit more oomph!  Also, I plan on buying the replacement router listed in the previous post sometime tomorrow afternoon.  Hopefully it will arrive by the end of the week!


-b0b
(...will be upgrading IOS on the existing router tonight!)

FORUM!!!!

http://www.twncommunications.net/Forum/Public_HTML/YABBFiles/Smilies/Banana.gif

Off-Topic replies have been moved to this Topic.

The forum will be down most of the day Monday while I do some massive overhauling of my network.  I'm replacing my puny Cisco 1760 router with a massive 3745 router, and upgrading the 24-port Cisco 2924M switch to a 48-port 2950 switch.

I'm also implementing three VLANs (sub-networks) to separate my secure traffic, laboratory network traffic, and guest traffic.  This will require every device to be migrated to a new IP which will take some time.

Things should be much smoother once I'm done.  I'll put pics and details in the Networking Fun thread.


-b0b
(...new toys, w00t!)

I hope you plan on issuing us some refunds then b0b.

Will you accept your payment in the form of soft shell tacos?


-b0b
(...mmm, tacos.)

If you can read this, I'm done!


-b0b
(...got it done in about six hours.)

Where's our tacos?

Also, congrats!

Before the upgrade...

http://www.TWNCommunications.Net/Other/100FullFull.jpg

After the upgrade...

http://www.TWNCommunications.Net/Other/100NewRouter.jpg


-b0b
(...hears angels singing.)

Sorry about the downtime last night.  I finally convinced Comcast to disable the routing functionality on the crappy SMC cable modem they gave me.  Now, everything flows directly to my router from the Interwebs instead of being double-routed through the SMC and my router.  Yay!

Although this won't really increase my outbound connection speed, it will drastically increase the number of connections I can support simultaneously (great for Torrents).  It will also make it much simpler for me to add new services because I won't have to forward them through two routers anymore.

If you have any trouble getting to anything, let me know!


-b0b
(...cheers.)

The forum will be going down for roughly one hour sometime this afternoon.  I'm throwing a new battery expansion on the UPS to extend battery power from ~15 minutes to ~85 minutes.  Just in time for winter!

I'm also throwing a network analysis module in the edge router so I can get a better idea of what's going on with my network traffic.  Pics later!


-b0b
(...yay!)

Bob,

I know we don't say it enough...but thanks for all that you do for keeping this forum up and going.  When I tell people who my friends are I can be one of a few people that say I'm still friends with the guys I knew in high school.  This forum is a huge factor in that and that's what I tell people.

So, thanks again for all that you do!

X

Yeah I agree Bob!  It's hard to imagine we've almost been out of High School for 10 years, and yet we all keep in touch through these forums!  Heck I haven't even seen most of you in years!

Anyways, way to go man!  Maybe I'll buy you a Steam present for Christmas....if I can find one you don't own.

The forum will be down most of the day Saturday for a complete network overhaul.  All of the equipment I've been talking about in the Networking Fun! thread is finally going to be implemented.  It'll offer a significant improvement in security and scalability over the existing configuration.

While I'm at it, I'm also going to revamp the battery configuration to use the new UPS I picked up a couple weeks back.  Both servers and all of the "production" networking equipment will run off one large battery, as opposed to the two smaller batteries I'm currently using.  This will allow me to control power to all of my hardware remotely using a single power distribution unit.

http://www.TWNCommunications.Net/Other/TWNNetwork.jpg


-b0b
(...figures it'll be 10-12 hours.)

By the way, here's a link to a larger version you can actually see:  Large Version.


-b0b
(...pixelation FTW!)

The forum will be down again intermittently tonight and throughout part of the day tomorrow as I continue to implement the firewall, VPN concentrator, and intrusion detection/prevention systems.  Hopefully, I'll be able to wrap up most of the project by the end of the day tomorrow.  In the meantime, here's an "in progress" picture of the overhauled rack after I got everything installed last week, but before I started running cables...


http://www.TWNCommunications.Net/Other/RackProduction2.jpg


-b0b
(...yay for security!)

It's 5:00AM, do you know where your forum is?

I've finished the final push of the network upgrade.  Both firewalls and the intrusion prevention system are now online and fully operational.  If you encounter any issues, let me know!


-b0b
(...is exhausted!)






Sidenote:  New, uber forum speeds:

http://www.TWNCommunications.Net/Other/100PIX.jpg

The ongoing snowpocalypse finally motivated me to develop a script for a "graceful" automated shutdown of the forum server and network hardware in the event of a power outage.  I haven't actually had a chance to test it, but hey - what's the worst that could happen?   8-)

If the power goes out, we've got approximately 45 minutes of battery power for the production network hardware, forum server, and mail server.  The mail server should now shutdown after 15 minutes of power loss, and the forum server will shut down after 30 minutes.  The script will save the running configuration on the network hardware and shut it down at the 35 minute mark.  The script is running on a laptop that has ~90 minutes of battery life after the UPS fails, and it will automatically turn everything back on if utility power is restored.  If the power outage lasts longer than two hours and the laptop shuts down, everything will have to be turned on manually.


-b0b
(...was bored.)

But I need to post Wes' mom jokes and kittens in costumes at a moments notice!!!

X

I bought some hardware and finally got around to building my new VMware server out of the remnants of the Bobulator VII.  I've got the VMware infrastructure completely built and I'm starting to assemble the new forum server.

The new forum server will run on Windows Server 2008 R2 and IIS 7.  This should provide improved security, but won't have a noticeable effect on the operation of the forum itself.  Once I get everything transitioned over, I'll upgrade the forum to the latest version.  We're about five versions out of date, mostly because I'm a slacker.

In short, expect a bit of downtime.  Once I'm ready to do the transition, I'll throw the forum into maintenance mode for a couple of hours to ensure no posts get lost.


-b0b
(...does a little dance.)

The shipment from NewEgg arrived today.  I've got two Intel Pro/1000 NICs installed along with 8GB of RAM (the maximum for this motherboard).  With this installed, I can get to work on completing the VMware infrastructure.  Hopefully, I'll be able to move the forum over sometime this weekend or early next week.

http://www.TWNCommunications.Net/Other/VMwareMemory3.jpg


Before
http://www.TWNCommunications.Net/Other/VMwareMemory1.jpg

After
http://www.TWNCommunications.Net/Other/VMwareMemory2.jpg


-b0b
(...w00t!)

I got the mail server migrated last night.  Since I upgraded that server a few months back, I simply imported the system from the physical server directly into VMware.

The forum server will be a total rebuild from scratch.  It's running Windows Server 2003 and I really need to upgrade the OS anyway, so it'll be in our best interests if I just build a brand new system on VMware and manually migrate everything over.

Once I get all the non-web stuff moved over (encryption/certificate services, Active Directory, etc), I'll move the forum over in one big chunk.  After I make sure everything is running properly, I'll upgrade to the latest version of YaBB.  I've got to work most of the day Saturday, but I might have a chance to do it Saturday evening or sometime Sunday.  I'll let you guys know.


-b0b
(...w00t.)

Well, it only took me two and a half months to get around to it, but I finally migrated the forum to the new VMware server.  As you can probably tell, the forum has also been upgraded to the latest version.

We were five versions out of date and I didn't feel like upgrading through each version, so I did a new install of v2.5 and migrated the old forum data into the new infrastructure.  It took a couple tries, but everything seems to be working now.  I locked down the forum application and files as tightly as I could on the back end, so if you encounter any problems, let me know.

To Do List
[list bull-blackball]

Fix "Advanced Settings" under Forum Administration

Create a new CSS for forum coloring (Might need Briney's artistic talents)

Upload all four million smilies we collected years ago...

Verify operation of the mail server.


-b0b
(...now remembers why he never updates the forum.)






New and Enhanced Features (v2.2.1 through v2.5AE)
- Caps Lock detection
- Accessibility in Admin Center, Forum side
- Added "None Selected" Radio Button in Extended profiles
- UK Time Selection
- Context Help
- CSS Fader Text
- Add [noparse] to YaBBC and "don't parse" checkbox
- [noparse] also for Smilies
- Number Format
- "X Posts Before Signature"
- Gender selection on Register page, if admin enable it
- SyntaxHighlight implemented in Code Box
- Image List implemented (default, ordered and images)
- Username, Display Name and Email Check (Ajax) on Add Member (Admin Center) Register and Edit Profile Page
- Clipfish and Gametrailers Media support
- Admin: add IP to registration log
- Improved Search Engine bots list
- Added Search Engine bots auto-sort feature
- ALL CAPS Alert; Admin can select number of uppercase characters to cause alert
- Layout of Registration page improved
- Improved free disk/host space checking; added two methods: find, and quota
- HTML-label tags to support screen readers
- Random function to News Fader
- Facebook and MySpace options in contact information
- Register button in login section at bottom of Board Index
- Selectable static/dynamic clock at top forum bar
- Media support for .3gp, hulu, vimeo, thenutz.tv, and dailymotion formats
- Transliteration for non-latinic language characters in uploaded files
- Option to disable Smilies in the row below the Post window
- Ability to change existing User Displayed names to include capital letters without getting error
- Expand/collapse feature to seldom used input boxes under the Post window
- Ability to turn off recent posts by user or set a maximum number of returned posts by user
- Function to end Polls automatically
- Registration form validation via Javascript
- Server Environment Module Checker
- Media support for My Video, MySpace,
- Search within YaBBC tags option
- Net::SMTP::TLS mail option
- More accurate last online X days and XX:XX:XX hours ago
- Recovery feature added to Backup
- Ajax & Javascript enabled for Favorites, Notification Clicks, Moderator/Member QuickSearch and Admin Delete
- Post sort arrows for Topic View in Boards
- Password Strength Meter
- Output Compression methods available on server determined and only shows appropriate options
- Enhanced move popup
- New sessionid after profile login
- Quick Reply Advanced Edition
- Reverse Post in Topic Advanced Edition
- YaBB Backup
- Top of Page Button
- Pie Charts for Polls
- Showcase Poll
- Preselected Smilies
- Category Pictures
- Image Resize
- Multi-Attachments
- Avatar Uploader
- Split/Splice Advanced
- Expand/Collapse Advanced
- New Members E-Mail Notification (to Admin)
- Extended Profiles
- Spell Checker
- Improved speed/performance in deleting Member Groups
- Speed/performance improvements to Rebuild and Recount maintenance functions
- Code improvements to allow single setting of max process time
- Color selection palette added to Forum News settings
- Ability to search by Email in Member list
- "Go back to search" link added on search results page
- Ability to search by user name in PMs
- Made PM text area resizeable consistent with Post text area
- Language selection at login
- Revised Pop-Up PM/email notifications and added selection functions to Admin Center
- Birthday greeting for user on their birthday
- Direct link to new PMs
- Improved PM listing background colors
- Selectable option for either pictures/picture links in quoted posts
- JavaScript-alert on multiple login clicks
- Default forum language selection at forum setup
- Support for 10 additional fonts in posts and PMs
- New icons (online, info, login)
- Reason tag for approved registration E-mails
- Carsten's Advanced Tabs Mod
- Post Reply Textarea resize
- Reorder Post independent Member Groups
- Media Player
- Google Video (just copy the browser url to the Google Video in between the media tags)
- .flv files (just copy the url to the file in between the media tags)
- *.mp4 files (opens up Apple Quicktime player)
- *.xdiv and *.divx files (opens up windows media player, only works if codex is installed though)

my eyes!

I'll start getting a style sheet together.

Yeah, I don't understand why anyone thinks the default silvery BS looks good.  It's blinding!


-b0b
(...boggles.)

Did anyone else get a spam PM about Windows/Office keys?  I disabled broadcast messages to keep it from happening again, but the spammer wasn't even a member so I'm not sure how the message was sent.  Weird.


-b0b
(...is off to check the logs.)

Negative, I did get a 2008 PM for a prayer request for you on a sort of secret job interview.

X

Awesome, only took three years to get there!  For what it's worth, I could use more prayer in that same direction.  ;)

I changed the registration completion timer from 168 hours to 12 hours.  We get a ton of spam registration attempts that never complete (~30 per day), and the new forum software blares the incomplete registrations across the top banner.  Besides, I can't imagine why someone couldn't complete a registration in 12 hours. 


-b0b
(...meh.)

The forum should now open immediately instead of opening an interstitial "Go to the site forum" page.  This might require a browser refresh.

I'm still working on the CSS issue, but I've not had much time to dig into it.  I got it a step further, so now you'll get a "Can't find default.css" page instead of a 404 error.  Progress!


-b0b
(...is sleepy.)

Thanks man, lol yea that's progress. Can't wait to fix this awful color scheme.

Oops.  I accidentally left Process Explorer running full-bore on the web server last night while I was tracking down the CSS issue.  Apparently, the server died somewhere around 40 million entries.


-b0b
(...derp.)

Following the judicious use of Process Monitor, I finally tracked down the offending Perl path that was killing the CSS template doohickey.  We should now (finally!) be able to update the crappy color scheme.


-b0b
(...needs to find a new logo, too.)



Edit:  I put the old logo back.  It'll do for now!  Also, all of the style sheets from the old forum can be viewed here for reference.  TheGeekCrew.css is the default sheet from the old forum.

thanks bob, ill give it a go

Whoops, sorry about the downtime today.  The web server automatically rebooted after some updates were applied earlier today (I need to reschedule that...) and IIS wouldn't process any anonymous logons because the DC certificate wasn't renewing properly.  I was swamped at work so I didn't have a chance to troubleshoot it until this evening.


-b0b
(...oh, and Briney, what about that CSS template?  ;p)

After eight years of service, Comcast decided to start charging me for my commercial modem.  I figured it was only fair to have them come out and replace the flaky model they gave me years ago with a DOCSIS 3.0-compliant model.  Sadly, I forgot to update my NAT translation on the router, so all incoming traffic to the forum was getting blackholed.

Stewie was kind enough to alert me to the error this afternoon.  Sorry about that, guys!


-b0b
(...whoops!)

Check this out bob! Might be related.

https://plus.google.com/105453543892591957012/posts/jUozXbPyEWo

Stick wrote on Jan 4^th, 2012 at 2:51pm:

Check this out bob! Might be related. https://plus.google.com/105453543892591957012/posts/jUozXbPyEWo

It is peripherally related.  Comcast "announced" the new fee in the November bill, effective the following month.  My bill is automatically debited so I don't even see a paper copy anymore.

Meh, I'll just pick up a Motorola SB6121 in a couple weeks and Comcast can take their crappy modem.


-b0b
(...wishes he had a choice in providers.)

Sorry about any forum sluggishness/downtime lately.  My ISP has been screwing the pooch the last few weeks with ridiculously high packet loss and latency.  After calling them five different times, they finally found and corrected the problem.  Some junction box in the neighborhood was apparently a bit jacked up, and thus causing signal degradation during high winds and other crappy weather (namely, winter in Michigan).


-b0b
(...fixed!  Yeah!)

The forum will be down for several hours at some point in the next couple days.  My office has been hitting 85 degrees this week with the air conditioner going full tilt, and it's only been around 75 degrees outside.  I really don't want my office to burst into flames this summer, so I've decided to stop being lazy and move my network equipment and servers into the basement.

We've finally started painting our Pepto Bismol-pink basement in preparation, and should be done with the majority of it by tomorrow evening.  Moving the network racks, servers, and other stuff is a bit of a monumental undertaking, so it will take several hours to relocate everything and run new cabling.


-b0b
(...will post pics!)

The forum is going down in a few minutes for the big migration.  Hopefully we'll be back in a few hours!


-b0b
(...is already sweating!)

If you can see this, it works!  What a huge, huge project.  I forgot how much all that crap weighed!

Special thanks to my lovely Mere who toiled with me for many hours over the past week painting and doing prep work.  She even helped me carry the endless piles of equipment down to the basement!

There will be intermittent downtime tomorrow (today?) as I run some new cabling.  I need to get to bed, so some of the Cat5 runs are temporary.

Thanks guys!


-b0b
(...w00t!)

Wow Bob and Mere, seriously thank you! Epic job! I think we owe you guys some fire wings...   :)

Whoops, somehow managed to get the time service (NTP) screwed up on the web server, hence the previous posts occurring two days ago despite actually being posted today.


-b0b
(...fixed!)

I finished up the last of the wiring this morning, and everything seems to be humming along just fine.

The difference in temperature and noise in my office is astounding.  The hard drives on the server were reaching temperatures of 108 degrees Fahrenheit in the office with the AC cranked with an outside temperature of 80 degrees.  Now that I've moved the servers and network equipment into the basement, the hard drive temperature is now holding steady at 79 degrees Fahrenheit with no AC with an outside temperature of 80 degrees!  That's a 30 degree drop in internal temperatures even with the loss of AC!

The difference in noise in my office is also quite astonishing, and it's honestly a bit difficult to get used to.  I haven't had a quiet office in years!  I still have the faint whir of the Bobulator (so much quieter than its predecessor!) and a single Cisco 2950 switch, but it is eerily quiet in here by comparison.  It's really a bit disquieting after so many years of white noise.

Other upgrades:
[list bull-blackball]

Installed a newer video card in the file server.

Installed a newish KVM switch that offers bare-metal access over IP, so I can fix broken servers remotely.

Installed an Ethernet surge protector between the cable gateway and the router to protect against lightning strikes.

Installed surge-protecting receptacles to replace standard power receptacles.  This should prevent lightning surges from even reaching the UPS.


-b0b
(...weeee!)

I've had some reliability issues with the web server over the past few days, so I've moved the forum to another hardware platform.  I'm doing some other updates to the VMware host server, but everything should be stable by the end of the night.


-b0b
(...sorry!)

Apologies for the downtime, guys.  The UPS that runs the server and network equipment has died a noble death.  When the power flickers, the UPS switches to battery temporarily, but it has been failing to switch back over.  Eventually, the battery dies and takes everything down with it.  It's effectively doing the exact opposite of what it's built for.

This morning, it finally failed to wake up at all following a complete power down.  I jumped on eBay and bought a used replacement that will still work with the external battery pack.  In the meantime, I have everything running on a much smaller UPS, so hopefully we don't get any extended downtime in the next 5-7 days.


-b0b
(...the shipping was as much as the UPS!)

As you might have noticed, I've upgraded the forum.  It was a couple of minor revisions (2.5 > 2.5.1 > 2.5.2), so don't expect anything too spectacular.

I've also made a couple changes to forum settings:

[list bull-blackball]

Fixed e-mail services!  This has apparently been broken since November 22nd, 2007, which just goes to show that I procrastinate almost as much as Briney.

I've increased the maximum number of attachments per post from 1 to 5.

I've added the new Office file formats of .docx and .xlsx to the list of allowed extensions.  Let me know if I missed any: jpg jpeg gif png sf zip txt bmp mp3 mpg doc xls ppt ico avi pdf docx xlsx 

I've increased the file attachment limit from 10MB to 100MB.

File attachments with the same name as an existing attachment will automatically be renamed upon upload instead of overwriting the original file.

The maximum avatar size has been increased from 65x65 to 125x125.  We may need to go derper larger.

The maximum size of an avatar file was increased from 1MB to 10MB.  That should be enough even for Briney.

Increased search results from 100 to 250.

The registration timeout (to receive an e-mail and click on the registration link) was reduced from 168 hours to 72 hours to cut down on the ridiculous number of active registrations from spammers.

Add god, love, sex, and secret to the list of banned passwords.

Increased personal message limits to absurd numbers (10,000+).


I also updated some registration settings that are apparently bugged.  I was sending an e-mail to new users (all 0 of them) with an automatically generated password, but the password contained special characters that are blocked by IIS.  This effectively prevented them from ever logging in.  I eliminated the automatically generated password so new users can specify their own passwords upon registration.

Here is the complete list of changes from the YaBB update:

[code]New and Enhanced Features:
---------------------------
- "X Posts Before Web Links"
- YouTube media support
- Admin: added 'Required on Registration' Extended Profile entries to registration log
- Admin: added choice to allow users to delete their own accounts.
- Admin: added choice to send 'registration denied' emails when no reason is given for rejection.
- Anti-spam modules: SpamFruits, HoneyPot and Anti-Spam Question with admin choice to activate
- Censor checks on PM and attachment names
- URL Encoding (Ban Email and Attachments)

Bug Fixes:
---------------------------
- Display names in UTF-8 character fixed
- Fixed deprecated code in Admin/Backup.pl, Admin/ModuleChecker.pl, Sources/Subs.pl
- Hide Login, Register, Reset Password in Maintenance Mode
- Incomplete date in Last Zip backup
- Language Dropdown Menus fixed
- Mail to Groups fixed
- Rebuild Membership bug fixed
- Missing YaBB tags in ManageTemplates.pl
- Optional Gender on Registration
- Javascript error in BoardIndex.pl
- '+' in email and file attachment names
- Ex-Member stops ability to modify other posts
- Date bug in Extended Profiles
- Extended Profiles: Required on Registration with Admin Edit Only blocking User Profile editing
- Security/IP blocking issue with downloads with bad names
- List images in Personal Messages
- Erroneous contexthelp messages on Smilies in Personal Messages posting screen
- Redirect problem in Login screen
- N/A after post delete
- Incorrect error text in UserCP
- Negative number of PMs
- Images in quotes
- Changing case in Display Name triggers Duplicate warning
- Send Topic can be accessed when disabled
- noparse disables Newsfader
- Extra Javascript line in Subs.pl
- Forum Jump not disabled in Maintenance mode
- Greybox images fixed
- Space in Displayname bug with Password reminder/reset
- Issues with all-number user names and Admin Approval of Registrations mode
- * code reformatted

Documentation Fixes:
---------------------------
- Updated Quick Guide
- Graphics Changes/Cleanup
- Language fixes/improvement[/code]

Edit:  I restored the silver default.css we came up with the for the last upgrade to replace that awful blue theme.

Briney sent me an awesome template to upload to the forum.  You should be seeing a black-themed template.  If you're seeing the old silver template or the gawdy blue template, hit refresh.  If that still doesn't work, let me know!


-b0b
(...thanks Briney!)

The theme is called Dark Shadows, made by a "Derek Barnstorm" I will change some of the images/font colors soon, and I can't say that I like the "new posts" flashing gif on the main page. But I'm glad we are back to a dark theme!

MediaMaster wrote on Dec 22^nd, 2012 at 4:33pm:

I can't say that I like the "new posts" flashing gif on the main page.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that noticed that.  I thought I was being a bit persnickety.  ;p


-b0b
(...maybe just a little bit persnickety.)

Fun fact:  We've had 89,825 user registration attempts by spammers.

I'm updating a bunch of Perl modules that underpin the forum, so there might be a bit of wonkiness for the next hour or so.


-b0b
(...yay for updates!)

I got a promotion, so I'm celebrating with more Internets.  Hopefully, the forum will be a bit snappier.  I upgraded from 12Mb down/2Mb up to 27Mb down/7Mb up.

With the 2mb upload, it was going to take me nearly two years to complete the initial backup of my file server to the cloud.  Hopefully I can cut it down to 4 months or so now!

http://www.TWNCommunications.Net/Other/SpeedTest.jpg
http://www.TWNCommunications.Net/Other/SpeedTest2.jpg
http://www.TWNCommunications.Net/Other/SpeedTest3.jpg


-b0b
(...not great, but not shabby for good ol' TR.)

Congrats on the promotion, Jim!  That's awesome!!!

If you need any help adding to the media pool...just let me know how to VPN in!

X

Whoops, forum was down for a couple hours because I'm retarded.  I've been implementing stronger, unique passwords for everything and forgot to update the password used for the Forum service account.


-b0b
(...sorry!)

One more screw up and we are replacing you with a robot sir.

The_Fat_Man wrote on Mar 13^th, 2013 at 2:44pm:

One more screw up and we are replacing you with a robot sir.

Plot twist:  I am a robot.

b0b wrote on Mar 13^th, 2013 at 5:44pm:

The_Fat_Man wrote on Mar 13th, 2013 at 2:44pm: One more screw up and we are replacing you with a robot sir. Plot twist:  I am a robot.

He's more man now, than machine.

My Internet connection was mostly borked this morning.  Called Comcast and found out the whole neighborhood was down.  Apparently, squirrels chewed through a distribution cable, exposing the copper core, which then kept shorting out from the rain.


-b0b
(...now hates squirrels.)

Is this why I couldn't post an awesome news article this morning?

Yup, but don't worry, I've got Top Men™ on the job.

http://www.TWNCommunications.Net/Other/Squirrel2.jpg


-b0b
(...Top.  Men.)

Not that I'm complaining, Bob - it may be just me - I have been having trouble in the past month being able to load the forum.  Not sure if you're working on it or whatnot, but just wanted to let you know in case you needed to.

Thanks again for keeping this up and running - I think we can thank this and the past forums that allows us to keep in contact and remain friends after all these years.

X

I haven't had any issues over here, but I access the forum locally 99% of the time.  I also pulled it up just now using a cellular modem with a VPN and it came right up.

When you have a problem with the forum does it just load slowly, load partially, or not load at all?


-b0b
(...will dig around.)

Not at all...usually times itself out.

You know I had the same problem the other day, but when I tried again a few hours later it was fine so I just chalked it up to a bad connection or internetz woes.

On a hunch, I went full-bore with some anime torrents and maxed out my VPN connection, just to see if that would impact external access to the forum.  At ~25Mbps download, my upload rate is still good and I can get to the forum instantly from a cellular connection.  I'll keep digging, thanks guys!


-b0b
(...boggles.)

The forum will be going down repeatedly tonight while I complete upgrade VMware on the box running the web server.  Sorry for the short notice!

I'm doing some hardware upgrades this week on the VMware server that runs the web forum, so there will be some limited downtime today and Friday/Saturday.  Here are the highlights:

[list bull-blackball]

Installing additional RAM, bringing the server from 96GB to 138GB.

Installing a new Adaptec 71605Q RAID adapter, five more hard drives, and (temporarily) a 128GB SSD for flash acceleration.  My goal is to use three 512GB or 1TB SSDs for flash acceleration down the road, but I've got the 128GB drive laying around and may as well put it to use now!  The new adapter also has twice the cache (1GB instead of 512MB) compared to the existing adapter.

Installing a dual-port 10Gb fiber network card to replace the existing 4-port 1Gb network card.  Only one of the two 10Gb ports will be connected right off the bat until I can afford to buy another Cisco switch with more 10Gb ports.  They are still incredibly expensive on eBay.

I'm also hoping to upgrade the CPUs in the server in February/March.  The server is currently running two Xeon X5620s with four 2.4GHz cores.  I'd like to swap them out for two Xeon X5690s with six 3.46GHz cores, bumping overall CPU power from 19.2GHz to 41.04GHz.  That should help this beast last a few more years.


-b0b
(...yay hardware!)

The forum will be going down for a few hours today (assuming my SAS cables arrive) so I can install the new RAID adapter and reinstall the VMware OS.


-b0b
(...yay for flash acceleration!)

The forum is back up for now.  The 10Gb network cards will be here Thursday or Friday, so there will be another 30-60 minutes of downtime while I get that configured.


-b0b
(...weee!)

Wow...10GB...technology never seems to stop impressing me with how far we come since we first got into the game ourselves and where we were at 5 years ago.

X

Something caused the forum index to blow up, so the index wasn't showing any posts.  I blew away the index and rebuilt it.  Let me know if anything looks shady.


-b0b
(...fun!)

I've been implementing some stronger crypto on the network, so apologies for any interruptions to the website or FTP.  I'm done, so I don't expect any further interruptions.

Also, I upgraded my Internet connection from 27x7Mbps to 75x15Mbps.  Hopefully that will help with some of the outbound bandwidth issues.


-b0b
(...AES baybee!)

TEST

I upgraded my mail server last month and forgot to update the server name in the forum configuration.  Let me know if you guys see any e-mail related weirdness.


-b0b
(...thanks for letting me know Stewie!)

As a heads up, the web server VM that runs the forum and the FTP is getting really flaky.  It's about time to rebuild anyway on a more recent server OS anyway.  I've started building the new VM and I'll take the forum down for a few hours later this week (maybe tomorrow?) to migrate everything.  The FTP will also be down during this window.


-b0b
(...bah!)

FYI - I've got a bunch of stuff uploaded to your FTP.

I'll hold off until the FTP is back up.

Thanks!

X

The web forum is back online, now running on a shiny new VM.  I think I've got all the kinks worked out, but please let me know if you run into any trouble.


-b0b
(...so fast!)

The web forum is back online, now running on a shiny new VM.  I think I've got all the kinks worked out, but please let me know if you run into any trouble.


-b0b
(...so fast!)

The web forum is back online, now running on a shiny new VM.  I think I've got all the kinks worked out, but please let me know if you run into any trouble.


-b0b
(...so fast!)

Had to fix a PERL issue. 

I couldn't find the solution anywhere else on the Internet.  Just in case some other poor bastard is googling this, YaBB kept generating a 502.2 error when attempting to post a message.  Newer versions of ActiveState PERL x64 generate an error message when calling a particular single name parameter.  I edited out lines 399-407 in CGI.pm (by default, located in C:\Perl64\lib\CGI.pm) to prevent the warning message (and with it, the IIS 502.2 Bad Gateway warning) and get it working again.


-b0b
(...when in doubt, comment it out!)

The FTP might be back up.  It works locally, but I don't have an external network connection to try it right now.  Let me know if it is borked!


-b0b
(...crosses his fingers!)

FTP seems to be working after updating the certificate.

X

Here's another PERL issue I found with YaBB 2.6.1 running on ActiveState Perl 5.22.1 with Server 2012 R2 and IIS.  Posting it here in case some other poor bastard runs into the same problem, since I couldn't find the issue on Google.  When running Setup.pl on the new version of YaBB, I got another lovely 502.2 Bad Gateway message...


Code (]HTTP Error 502.2 - Bad Gateway

The specified CGI application misbehaved by not returning a complete set of HTTP headers. The headers it did return are "[Sat Apr 2 13:09:56 2016):

Setup.pl: Unescaped left brace in regex is deprecated, passed through in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/ { <-- HERE yabbbr} / at Sources/Subs.pm line 1861. HTTP/1.0 200 OK Cache-Control: no-cache, must-revalidate Pragma: no-cache Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8 <!DOCTYPE html> <html lang='en-US'> <head> <meta charset="utf-8"> <title>YaBB 2.6.12 Setup</title> <style type="text/css"> html, body {color:#000; font-family:Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, Sans-Serif; font-size:13px; background-c...

The error message was incredibly long and was obviously mostly HTML bullshit.  I fixed this by breaking out the left brace in line 1861 of Sources\Subs.pm.  It originally looked like this:


Code (]$message =~ s/ {yabbbr} /\n/gsm;[/code):

I put in a leading backslash before the left brace, to make it look like this: [code]$message =~ s/ \{yabbbr} /\n/gsm;

All fixed.


-b0b
(...what a PITA.)