Server Blog

[waynosworld]

Thankyou

[asavage]

Upgrade phpBB from 3.3.2 -> 3.3.7

We're currently running php 7.4.3 . In preparation for php 8, which will be forced on us by the next Ubuntu server upgrade (20.04 -> 22.04), I've upgraded the forum software today. Only three hours, two of which were me unzipping the new files in the wrong part of the directory tree . . . twice. Took a while to figure that one out. My upgrade notes are getting better, I could follow my own recipe, and there were only a couple of changes from last time, in Dec2020.

Please let me know if you find anything new amiss. I don't expect any old issues to get cleared up by this upgrade.

[asavage]

The site's favicon disappeared. I noticed today, when I force-reloaded a page and the favicon from my browser's cache wasn't displayed. The whole darned directory of this site's favicons (there are several) was gone. Who knows how long that's been the case.

If you don't see a favicon in the URL address bar of your browser, or next to a bookmark of this site, try reloading the site including images (for many browers, [Ctrl+[F5]] will do it).

NissanDiesel PNG version of favicon.

nissandiesel-144.png (505 Bytes) Viewed 42964 times

[asavage]

I, and the forum's server, have moved from Duvall, Wash. to Oak Harbor, Wash., leaving Wave (Astound) for Comcast (Xfinity), the only choice at this address. Speed tests good!

[Nissan_Ranger]

Lots of fun! Did you change jobs as well?

Regards,

Andy

[asavage]

After 8.5 years at the hospital, I QUIT. They treated me abominably, and I really hung in there 1.5 years longer than I should have, but it eventually sunk in that I'd have to let it go and let what I'd built there go to crap, which it did. That was last October. While I'd planned to work another six years, I'm probably in the 'retired’ column now. I'd thought hard about taking another job, but my heart's not in it, and I'd been half-time for the last year and really liked that.

So, no, no new job. Unpacking into a rental all my stuff is going to be several weeks, though. I feel like I'm living in a heated storage unit, no organization here yet, but I got the server plugged in, that's a start.

[Nissan_Ranger]

OMG! I just found out how little I know about you. I have always thought that you ran a mechanic repair shop; you certainly have the knowledge and skills for that. Being retired will give you the time to do some of that kinda stuff that you maybe did not have time for earlier.

I know exactly how it is working for a stupid administration. I quit/retired from working on a military flightline for pretty much the same reason.

Regards,
Andy

[asavage]

Email from the forum to users hasn't worked in about three weeks. I think it's working now (except for gmail accounts). We are working on the gmail portion. There is some hope.

[two days later]
Gmail email seems to be working, too.

[asavage]

* The forum software has been updated from 3.3.6 to 3.3.17 . LMK if something that previously worked, now doesn't.

* About 2024, Ziply (fiber) became available at my residence, so I dropped Xfinity (Comcast). While I'm paying for 2Gb/s up/down, my house router isn't capable of >1Gb/s, so that's what we've been suffering with for almost two years <-- that is a joke, I don't use but about half that bandwidth more than 80% of the time. I should really either downgrade the service and stop paying for speeds I'm not using, or upgrade the router . . .

* Site performance is awful, with pages loads averaging around 24 seconds. This appears to be tied to the same reason that you are seeing a CloudFlare intermediate page displayed when you visit some websites: CF is testing for AI scrapers (etc.) at that page.

My home server is being saturated by requests, and I'm uncertain what I can do about it. Theoretically, I can pay CF to monitor/arbitrate web traffic. The free alternative is Anubis. One is a subscription, the other a learning/maintaining curve. I have not decided if/how I will approach an improvement.

* The site had been configured to use British English by default for a while, I just learned. I've set the default to US English, but if you registered during the time when the default was British, and if you'd like to change it, instructions to do that are at the BOTTOM of this long post:

https://www.phpbb.com/support/docs/en/3 ... uage-pack/

[asavage]

We missed the 20-year anniversary of this forum, 26Nov2005. I think that's 120 in internet years.

[plenzen]

Thanks for keeping us alive Al

Does not seem like that long to me .

I look back at some of the topics and there is a lot of information on here that has been gathered over the years.
That said, information that only a "few" would need or use.
These little guys are rapidly fading, sadly, into obscurity.

p

[Nissan_Ranger]

I can't believe that it's been 19 years since I joined up here. I'm 7* years old and was 5* when I joined...

Andy

[plenzen]

Ditto