Important Notice: Forum Glitch - Website Update!

[Hawk]

Some of you may have noticed a minor glitch in the forums last night (May 28, 29). I know two of the members that did.

The Problem:

The server techs felt it imperative to update PHP on the server to the newest version, since the version that was running was about 3 years old. That's near Baldwin 4-6-0 technology in computer tech.
The version of forum software I run doesn't play well with the newest version of PHP; hence the glitch.

The Solution:

The server tech I always deal with was kind enough to set this website to run on the older version of PHP. However, this is only a temporary fix.
A more permanent solution would be for me to update the forum software, which I believe does play well with the new version of PHP on the server. Not too difficult of a task and one I should have done anyway. As is typical with most types of software updates there might be a few minor changes in the look or functionality of the forum, but it shouldn't be that big of a deal.

Voila!!! Server happy. Forum happy. Everyone happy.

Unfortunately, during the glitch last night I found a much bigger problem. I found no one (no-one, noone?) could create a new account for the archives. Then I realized that no one could even login, which meant no one could download any files.
The PHP update on the server completely disabled the script that handles the archives. They don't play together at all. Zilch. Nada. No go.
The temporary fix that worked for the forum did work for the archives, but at this time a more permanent solution is unknown. The script I'm using to maintain the archives is pretty old and the developer no longer supports it. Heck, he won't even reply to my emails.
Reverting back to the old CGI script I used to use is out of the question also, due in part to the conflict between the CGI version of the script (it's far much older than the PHP script) and the CGI version on the server, as well as the bandwidth abuse that would come, which was the whole reason for me using this script I now use; to cut down on the cost of running the site, which will, at some point in the near future, no longer work.

If I can't find a more permanent solution for the archives, that puts me in a bit of a dilemma. The archives would have to be done away with. Which then begs the question: Without the archives, is it worth keeping the forum/website going?

Comments are welcomed.

[RulerofRails]

I would hate to see this website go down. I'm not tech savvy with websites so have no idea of other possible solutions. I hope there's a solution available. To my knowledge this is the last dedicated site for RT3. I do believe that there will always be a small but dedicated following for the game. You will find your site linked multiples times on Steam and multiple YouTube videos especially for the Vista Fix. Does the forum software have an add-on for some sort of download section capability?

[Gumboots]

Based on the error messages I was seeing I suspected the glitch was due to exactly what you described: the host auto updating PHP to a newer version that didn't play well with older phpBB. Good to know there's a fix available temporarily.

About the archives: I'd suggest checking out phpBB's range of mods/add-ons* as it's quite likely they have a suitable one available. It's not an infrequent request for forums, so it's the sort of thing modders tend to make. A quick look yielded this, which looks promising: http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/features.htm

There's even the option of migrating to another forum app that does have a download manager available. Conversion scripts to and from phpBB are pretty common and well-tested. Migration is certainly possible.

At a pinch, it would be possible for people to upload stuff to a file hosting service not tied to this site. Not quite as convenient for keeping things organised but a widely used solution these days. Some of them are free, and some don't even require registration. I'd be happy to load up any of my stuff on request, if it came to that. Doing it that way would mean the forum could keep running as RT3 Central on a very basic hosting package.

*Edit: I just checked phpBB's extensions range for you and they don't appear to have something suitable listed on their site. However the free manager I linked to is currently supported and runs with phpBB, even though it's not listed on the phpBB site.

[Hawk]

I would hate to see this website go down.

Me too.

To my knowledge this is the last dedicated site for RT3.

There is The Terminal, but it's not what you would call very active, but then again, neither is this forum lately. Of course, if I did have to shut down this site, folks moving over to The Terminal would make it a little more active.

Does the forum software have an add-on for some sort of download section capability?

I'll be looking into that, but I don't recall anything from past research.

A quick look yielded this, which looks promising: http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/features.htm

I looked at that and it doesn't seem to be a server side app, unless I missed something. It's a download manager for users computers, from everything I could tell.

There's even the option of migrating to another forum app that does have a download manager available. Conversion scripts to and from phpBB are pretty common and well-tested. Migration is certainly possible.

While that is a possibility, I have looked into that before and due to the size of the database for this one, and the number of posts with attachments, there's a better chance of a migration to another forum app to go awry than to work well, based on everything I've read. The migration stuff generally works well with newer, smaller forums.

At a pinch, it would be possible for people to upload stuff to a file hosting service not tied to this site. Not quite as convenient for keeping things organised but a widely used solution these days. Some of them are free, and some don't even require registration. I'd be happy to load up any of my stuff on request, if it came to that. Doing it that way would mean the forum could keep running as RT3 Central on a very basic hosting package.

Yes, that is possible for future additions, but that doesn't help the current situation, and all the files on this site.
I have looked at file sharing sites before but due to the number of files here and the activity involved, most file sharing sites would delete files if they show no activity within 30 days, plus they do have system resource usage limits that I'm thinking would be exceeded by the activity involved with the files that are currently available, if I were to transfer them from here to there.

I do plan on looking into that option a little closer though, as well as checking out the phpBB forums for some options.

As it stands, the fees for this site are paid up to the first of Nov., and the server tech was kind enough to let me know that the EOL (end of life support)of the version of PHP this site is now running on will be Dec., so we do have a little time to figure something out.

I appreciate all the comments and suggestions. keep 'em coming.

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Edit 1: I just checked the phpBB website forums for extensions available for the version of phpBB I would have to upgrade to and found nothing.

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Edit 2: It looks like either MediaFire or 4Shared might be contenders for file sharing.
Anyone have any experience with downloading files from either of those sites?

[Gumboots]

I've used 4Shared a little bit. They delete accounts if you don't use them for a while, which is a bit of a bother, but apart from that seem ok.

BTW, I was recently involved in migrating a forum which had a fairly chunky database. Lots of attachments and posts. Can't remember how many gig worth offhand. It's possible, if necessary. Might not be fun, but is usually possible. Not that you'd want to if there was another alternative.

I'll see what I can find for server side download managers.

[Hawk]

I looked a little closer at MediaFire and 4Shared. MediaFire is $40. a year, but they don't accept PayPal and for personal/security reasons I won't use my bank account to pay.
4Shared costs $78. a year and they accept PayPal.
That's on top of what I pay for the server fess, although I would reduce my server fees a good bit by getting rid of the bandwidth usage for file downloads.
They both offer free accounts, but I don't believe either will allow direct links in free accounts - from what i could tell, and that would force users to go through the steps that include having to deal with ads and stuff. I would prefer to avoid that.

I'm going to keep looking to see what I can find.

Back before I started using this script I currently use, I spent a great deal of time searching for something to do what it's doing. This was the only one I found that suited my needs. It seems no one is writing these types of scripts anymore.

[Hawk]

I may be able to use a free MediaFire account. I'm testing it out.

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Edit 1: I've already uploaded 30 files (out of about 1,000). With a paid account I get direct links to the files. With a free account I get this: African Dream
Shame they won't take PayPal, but I get 10GB with a free account. All 1,000 files only add up to about 4GB.
I still have to edit all 1,000 file links.
The link on the web page will look something like this.

If this works out I don't believe I'll have to ask for donations.

[Gumboots]

Oh cool. I had another idea which may be worth considering too, if for some reason Mediafire doesn't work out.

I'm not sure if it would comply with their TOS, but GitHub is a standard resource for code development these days and they seem pretty liberal about what they allow. They have untold gigabytes of files constantly being stored, edited, uploaded and downloaded, and provide a good centralised way of organising stuff into categories/projects/whatever. So if we call this code development, which in a way it is, then an "RT3 project" centralised at Github may be a good way to handle it.

[Hawk]

I'm familiar with GitHub, but I've already got about 700 MB worth of stuff (66 files) uploaded to MediaFile.

Did you click on the link for the African Dream map? Do you think that will be acceptable?

[Gumboots]

Hey, it works. It's free. What are they gonna complain about? Beats driving yourself nuts trying to maintain outdated scripts that nobody will support. If someone wants a better solution, they can try and implement it themselves.

Anyway yeah, I thought it was fine. It gave me a zip. That's what I wanted. No worries. Maybe it's because I'm running an ad blocker, but I didn't see any crap. I was just a simple and clean download page. Even if there are some ads I could still put up with that. I don't visit the archives that often, and when I do it's never for an emergency, so it's not a huge imposition if there are a few ads floating around.

[Gumboots]

By the way,the only catch I can think of is that free accounts usually have a time limit between downloading files. So if someone needed a combination of files, it may take several hours to get them all. With that in mind, it may be worth thinking about repacking some utilities so they're in a combination pack, just in case that would be handy. Free hosts will usually allow you to download one file of several hundred meg, but then won't allow you to download two small files consecutively. Just a thought.

As a rough guideline, I'd say if anything is much less than one meg it might as well be packed with something else. A one meg download is nothing these days, even on a phone. Also means fewer links to maintain if you do things that way.

[Hawk]

I run an ad blocker too so I didn't see any ads either.

I'll check and see if there's a time limit on multiple downloads.

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Edit 1: I just downloaded 4 files, one right after the other with no problem.

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Edit 2: This is what it says for free accounts.

10GB of free space
Unlimited sharing
Unlimited downloading
Unlimited Ad-supported downloads

[Gumboots]

Sounds good.

[RulerofRails]

That test link worked fine for me too. I have adblocker also.

I read here, https://www.thebalance.com/mediafire-review-1356575, that to keep an account active all that is needed is for a yearly login. Which seems pretty reasonable.

If you want to give a solid test, you could do a trial run with for example the Africa maps page before the deadline, perhaps these could just be available for anyone to download so you don't have to fuss with a membership check.

I'm sure you have a good back-up system in place, so a caution is probably not needed. I just don't trust cloud-based storage quite enough long-term to be less than diligent with back-ups.

[Hawk]

Once I fully implement MediaFire, registration to download won't be needed. In fact, all registered accounts will be done away with when I delete that script.

Yes, I do have backups. I have the whole website, including all files, backed up on my hard drive.

I've already got all the files uploaded to MediaFire. I just have to get the links for all 1,000+ of them (one at a time) and I already have about half of them copied to a text file, then change those links in the web pages. I figure it will take a good week or two. Maybe more, depending on how bored or rambunctious I get.
Then all that will be left is updating the forum software and swapping the site over to the new version of PHP.

If you want to test more than one link, here's a list of RT3 Africa map links. These will be the same links that will be on the web pages.

African Dream
Coal Miners Daughter German Version
Coal Miners Daughter
Drums of War
Egypt 1855

Feel free to test them all. I supposedly get unlimited downloads.

The one down side is I won't be able to publish a periodical download count as I have in the past. I will still be able to see how many downloads a file has, but gathering that info for all files would mean having to get the count from each file individually. Most likely something I won't be doing, but if one were curious about how many times a certain file was downloaded, I'll be more than happy to check.

[Gumboots]

Just tested downloading all four English maps (skipped the German one). No problem with consecutive downloads. I got them one after the other without needing a Mediafire account, and it is seriously FAST, delivering 5 and 6 meg downloads in the blink of an eye. Quite honestly, it appears to be a better system than what you had before. It'd probably be worth having even without the lack of maintenance and reduction of bandwidth bonuses.

And you could cut your workload some by merging zips where appropriate. No need for links to five Mogul skins and five Connie skins when they'll all fit in one smallish zip.

[Hawk]

Yea, I wish I had looked into MediaFire a long time ago, but then - back in 2012, when I set up this registration script, it may not have been as good as it is now.

Anyway, it looks like it's going to be a pretty good solution to the issue. When you get a bunch of lemons, you make lemonade, and in this case it looks like it's going to be pretty good lemonade.

Merging zips would be a little bit more work for me because then I have to redo the web page, and in the long run it wouldn't make any difference, but I'll look into it.

[RulerofRails]

Downloaded all the maps. No problems with the links or multiple downloads. Tried disabling adblocker, and unfortunately the green download button now launches a pop-up window for some random site at the same time as initializing the download. A site which is no doubt paying for that to happen. It doesn't affect me, as I can't stand to be on most regular websites without an adblocker, but I don't know about some of the senior members. . . .

[Hawk]

Yea, that's the downside to a free account: It's ad supported, but I think most folks that don't run an ad blocker are used to that crap.
I'll see how it goes and see if I get any complaints. At least I won't be asking for donations or requiring folks to create an account and limiting how many files they can download in a given time frame.
It's a give or take kind'a thing.

[Hawk]

The update on the website is complete, baring any issues/problems that may arise.

No longer is it required to create an account to download files.

No longer is it required to login to download files.

No longer is there a 25 file per day limit.

No longer will I be asking for donations, I hope! That's the plan anyway.

Please report any problems that you find on the website. I would really appreciate it.

Next is updating the forum. I have a test forum set yup on another domain that is running the same version as this one. I'll do the update there first to see how it goes.