Thinkpads Forum

the forum was updated to ver 3.1.3 today, Tuesday feb 10..
google analytics was added..
tapatalk was updated..

some additional work/configuration is required which I will try to undertake myself..
the recommendations are a bit above my understanding until I figure out what the acronyms mean..

nevertheless, the major work is done..

Thank you, Bill!

thanks Bill!!

you're all welcome..

the learning curve is steep, the manuals confusing, the acronyms unintelligible..

register complaints, suggestions and the like, here..

Thank you for the update Bill!

I am sorry that you need to go through the manuals...one step at a time Sir.

Thank you again for running the site, Bill.

John

Forum looks great, smooth transition!
Looks like we have a notifications icon now? Great.

The Notifications link may go away as it's really not working right. There seems to be a problem with turning several of the notification options off; they are "permanently" enabled with no way yet to turn them off. If the link does disappear you can always access it using the direct URL:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/ucp.php?i=ucp_notifications

tapatalk was updated..

Unfortunately for me, since the update tapatalk doesn't find any new posts, subforums, subscribed posts or anything other than the "pending & ongoing outages" and "forum announcements" subforums.

I don't know whether it's a tapatalk problem or thinkpads forum problem. I do know, based on experience, I'm more likely to see a response here than if I raise this issue with tapatalk.

Thanks in advance.

I notice that the "Last Post" is now centered. I'd like to offer the opinion that this makes those cells somewhat more difficult to read. Obviously I don't know if others feel the same.

Art

dsvochak wrote:

tapatalk was updated..

Unfortunately for me, since the update tapatalk doesn't find any new posts, subforums, subscribed posts or anything other than the "pending & ongoing outages" and "forum announcements" subforums.

You have a PM!

ArtShapiro wrote:I notice that the "Last Post" is now centered. I'd like to offer the opinion that this makes those cells somewhat more difficult to read. Obviously I don't know if others feel the same.

For me it's just a little bit more wasted space since the subject line of the last thread is now included. It may be possible to change the format back to the old version but we'll have to see what's involved. There's a few more things that need to be addressed before that.

Been getting this message periodically throughout the day for a while now. Unsure if this is related or a remnant, but in case anyone was unaware it was happening...

General Error
SQL ERROR [ mysqli ]

User thinkpa1_bbuser already has more than 'max_user_connections' active connections [1203]

An sql error occurred while fetching this page. Please contact an administrator if this problem persists.

We're definitely aware of the problem. It seems to be related to the extraordinary number of guest accesses that have been occurring (again) since the latest version of phpBB was installed. I'm about at the point to start banning IP addresses like I did last month when the forum had the same errors.

General Error
SQL ERROR [ mysqli ]

User thinkpa1_bbuser already has more than 'max_user_connections' active connections [1203]

Have been getting this error very often in the past 4 days. Sometimes I can not reach the forum at all for hours.

And it depends on the time of day. When the forum clock (not logged in) shows around 10am the error does not appear any more. Until the next day.

Add me to the list of those getting the error message as well. Definitely more frequently since before the upgrade.

Oh, and the browser title bar - instead of reading "forum.thinkpads.com - ...." now reads "(1) forum.thinkpads.com", sometimes (2).

Script kiddies poking around? Or something more sinister?

considering the recent "carnaback" ?USD 10-figure? taken from some banks, you'd think this forum is small potatoes

but yeah, I was getting the DB error as of this morning. someone with a grudge? or lazy crackers with their script set to "stupid"? (look, my actual jorb is forensic security and we get literally ten-thousands of the latter per day. good on Ray for trying to keep up with it...)

dr_st wrote:Oh, and the browser title bar - instead of reading "forum.thinkpads.com - ...." now reads "(1) forum.thinkpads.com", sometimes (2).

The (1) and (2) means you have new PMs and/or Notifications.

Yep, figured that out eventually.

Thanks!

Good news: that Notifications line will be modified shortly.
OLD: * Notifications [0] * Private messages [0] * Logout
NEW: * Drivers * HMMs * MTM * Private messages [0] * Logout

RealBlackStuff wrote:Good news: that Notifications line will be modified shortly.
OLD: * Notifications [0] * Private messages [0] * Logout
NEW: * Drivers * HMMs * MTM * Private messages [0] * Logout

thanks RBS

rock. bet that means some nice upgrades under the covers.

tried to PP Bill a few bucks, hope that might help keep the furnaces burning.

theterminator93 wrote:Been getting this message periodically throughout the day for a while now. Unsure if this is related or a remnant, but in case anyone was unaware it was happening...

General Error
SQL ERROR [ mysqli ]

User thinkpa1_bbuser already has more than 'max_user_connections' active connections [1203]

An sql error occurred while fetching this page. Please contact an administrator if this problem persists.

Add me to this list, been like it at least since 12:30pm UK time till at least 3pm UK time.

Well, it seems like we're being flooded by "guests", similar to what happened during the yuletide season. Maybe this time it's due to the Chinese new year?

I too have been getting the "SQL ERROR [ mysqli ]" almost every morning for the past week, including today. I often try to log in around 7 AM CST and get the error. Usually the error is gone later in the day. Except today. Around noon I got the error message for about fifteen minutes before I was able to access the site.

DoS attack?

We'll see in a few minutes...

edit: Well, that didn't go like I expected. I had gathered a list of IP addresses this morning (over 150) that showed a common thread; Who's online reported them coming from the same country (which will remain unnamed for now; it's not one I normally associate with hacking) and accessing the forum's Index page. I added them to the ban list and I thought that I'd see the number of guest access go down. After an hour the number of guests is still hovering around 320, which is about what it was right before I added the IP ban. It took me about an hour to extract, sort, and look up the list of guest IP addresses so it's possible by time that I entered the IP list, they had moved to other addresses. It might require several passes through the Who's online listings before an IP ban can make a significant dent. Back to the drawing board...

FYI no access all day till just before 4pm. Same mysql error as always.

RealBlackStuff wrote:Good news: that Notifications line will be modified shortly.
OLD: * Notifications [0] * Private messages [0] * Logout
NEW: * Drivers * HMMs * MTM * Private messages [0] * Logout

I see that this has been done. And, I'm logged in this morning, first time a almost a week. But wait! I'm an hour later today than before, hope that is not what made the difference.

I love you. Thank you for your dedication. My access has been without any trouble, since you resolved the D.O.S. excessive connections.

dr_st wrote:Oh, and the browser title bar - instead of reading "forum.thinkpads.com - ...." now reads "(1) forum.thinkpads.com", sometimes (2).

Just a moment ago, I got this spew as page title:

<!-- IF UNREAD_NOTIFICATIONS_COUNT -->(0) <!-- ENDIF --><!-- IF not S_VIEWTOPIC and not S_VIEWFORUM -->forum.thinkpads.com - <!-- ENDIF --><!-- IF S_IN_MCP -->Moderator Control Panel - <!-- ELSEIF S_IN_UCP -->UCP - <!-- ENDIF -->Difference between the W541 and the W550s<!-- IF

automobus wrote:
<!-- IF UNREAD_NOTIFICATIONS_COUNT -->(0) <!-- ENDIF --><!-- IF not S_VIEWTOPIC and not S_VIEWFORUM -->forum.thinkpads.com - <!-- ENDIF --><!-- IF S_IN_MCP -->Moderator Control Panel - <!-- ELSEIF S_IN_UCP -->UCP - <!-- ENDIF -->Difference between the W541 and the W550s<!-- IF

Same here for the past two hours or so...

The Gremlin was caught with his hands in the till.
He's been shot, quartered and fed to the lions.
Problem solved, thanks to our software guru Joe!