-
Hi Guest !
Welcome to the 500Eboard forum.
Since its founding in late 2008, 500Eboard has become the leading resource on the Internet for all things related to the Mercedes-Benz 500E and E500. In recent years, we have also expanded to include the 400E and E420 models, which are directly related to the 500E/E500.
We invite you to browse and take advantage of the information and resources here on the site. If you find helpful information, please register for full membership, and you'll find even more resources available. Feel free to ask questions, and make liberal use of the "Search" function to find answers.
We hope you will become an active contributor to the community!
Sincerely,
500Eboard Management
Site update news ...
- Thread starter gerryvz
- Start date
Only 4 Vader-related sock puppet accounts, that I know of. And 1-2 from szvook.
It's appears that I'm on the road back to getting the code working again. The "lightbox" functionality and thumbnails are back and working, though it seems not consistently on all posts.
Please be patient with me ... this is not fun finding the exact bugs in the forum's software code and "debugging" things, uploading and testing fixes, and keeping the forum up and running while doing this !!!
This afternoon I ran a full rebuild of the attachment database, a maintenance item that took several hours in the background.
Cheers,
Gerry
I'm going to run a software update tonight on the Tapatalk forum software (not the main vBulletin site software). The site should not be down at all during this time, but if I do have to take it down, it won't be off-line for more than five minutes. I will probably do this around 10-11 PM Central Standard Time.
Cheers,
Gerry
Cheers,
Gerry
This morning, I updated the version of the php scripting language from version 5.4 to version 5.6. php is the language in which the vBulletin software "code" that runs this site uses. The 5.4 version of php is an old version, and it is old enough so that it is no longer being actively supported.
The new 5.6 version of php is the current "mainstream" version and is actively in use and supported. A newer, cutting-edge version of php, version 7.0, is available (actually, 7.0.5 just was released about four days ago), but it is new enough that I don't want to upgrade to it (though I could) until I am assured that there are few to no bugs in it.
When we migrate to the XenForo software (and it will be SOON, I promise!!), we will be using php version 5.6 already, and in the next 6-9 months I will probably migrate to php version 7.1 or later once it becomes available.
This "upgrade" from php 5.4 to 5.6 for this site has already happened and should be 100% transparent to everyone.
If you are interested in learning more about the php programming language, you can get it here.
Cheers,
Gerry
The new 5.6 version of php is the current "mainstream" version and is actively in use and supported. A newer, cutting-edge version of php, version 7.0, is available (actually, 7.0.5 just was released about four days ago), but it is new enough that I don't want to upgrade to it (though I could) until I am assured that there are few to no bugs in it.
When we migrate to the XenForo software (and it will be SOON, I promise!!), we will be using php version 5.6 already, and in the next 6-9 months I will probably migrate to php version 7.1 or later once it becomes available.
This "upgrade" from php 5.4 to 5.6 for this site has already happened and should be 100% transparent to everyone.
If you are interested in learning more about the php programming language, you can get it here.
Cheers,
Gerry
I'll plan to give my annual "state of the 500Eboard" report when I return from my European holiday in early July. That will mark 8.5 continuous years of the 500Eboard in operation -- more than 1/6 of my lifespan!
Just happened to look at our membership numbers. Looks like we'll easily have crossed over the 6,000-member mark by that time (unless lowman leaves us to establish a 500Eboard in Norway or something). That's a big milestone. It wasn't too long ago that we hit the 5,000 member mark.
Just happened to look at our membership numbers. Looks like we'll easily have crossed over the 6,000-member mark by that time (unless lowman leaves us to establish a 500Eboard in Norway or something). That's a big milestone. It wasn't too long ago that we hit the 5,000 member mark.
Due to repeated and unauthorized abuse and re-posting of some of this site's resources by some individuals over at the Benzworld 126 forum, I have made some changes to the underlying directory structure of this site.
These changes should be 100% transparent to the members and non-registered guests of this forum, but should eliminate abuse and freeloading of this site's resources that is being encouraged by certain individuals at Benzworld 126 forum. I wouldn't have mentioned it, but am doing so in the interest of transparency to our membership.
Thanks,
Gerry
These changes should be 100% transparent to the members and non-registered guests of this forum, but should eliminate abuse and freeloading of this site's resources that is being encouraged by certain individuals at Benzworld 126 forum. I wouldn't have mentioned it, but am doing so in the interest of transparency to our membership.
Thanks,
Gerry
A quick note ... after a fair bit of deliberation, I created a new sub-forum in the C126 section that is specifically for all of the "HOW-TO" articles for the 126 that folks have done. This is to keep this section consistent with the HOW-TO sub-forum for the main E500E forum. It's nice to have all of the HOW-TOs in one place to scan.
Hopefully everything moved over OK and all of the photos are still in places they should be....
Hopefully everything moved over OK and all of the photos are still in places they should be....
Hey Folks,
It's getting time for my annual July site update on statistics and comparison to last year, and I plan to do this in the next few days, now that I'm finally back after 3 weeks out of the country. So please (for those interested) bear with me on this...
My sincere apologies for not spending much time on the site over the past couple of months. I've had a lot going on both with work (travel and projects) and especially in my personal life. All of this has precluded me from spending any time with/under my cars, and from contributing on this site. And it's totally de-railed (but NOT cancelled) my plans for transitioning the site to the new forum software. It is likely that my challenges are going to be high, and my time very limited, through probably the end of this calendar year. Unfortunate, but I have to prioritize, for now.
One thing, is that while I was out of the country, vBulletin issued a significant security patch to the forum software, which I will install and update tonight (Monday night) late. Thus, the forum will be off-line for approximately 15-20 minutes probably around 11-midnight Central Time while I'm taking care of this patch.
Secondly, vBulletin has a new update to the forum software, version 4.2.4, in Beta right now. However it is unsupported and supposedly they are working out the last few bugs, so I won't install it until it goes "live" as a regular version. I would expect this will happen in probably the next month or two, at most. They are being a bit coy as to what it entails, but I expect since it is a "dot" revision that it will be extremely minor, and not contain any updates on functionality. Likely just a few minor security patches and other small updates not worth spit.
Thanks to Dave, Glen and Klink for keeping things going beautifully while I've been away. I promise to all of you that I am not down and out for the count -- just down. Thanks to all of you for your active participation and for the great and continuing questions and discussions. I look forward to the day when I can engage again multiple times daily rather than "checking in on things" every couple or three days.
And lastly, thanks to those of you who have sent me messages of support and encouragement. I am both grateful and thankful for the many friends on this forum I have made, and for you guys checking in on me.
Cheers,
Gerry
P.S. I don't know if you guys had heard, but the Benzworld and dozens of other vBulletin-based forums owned by their parent company, Vertical Scope, were hacked a couple of weeks ago, and many user passwords were stolen by the hackers. This particularly affected Vertical Scope forums that have been running older versions of vBulletin. Just goes to show that the bad guys are out there and always probing. May be a good time to change your passwords on the forums that you frequent, if you haven't done so (or been forced by the forums to do so after the hack).
It's getting time for my annual July site update on statistics and comparison to last year, and I plan to do this in the next few days, now that I'm finally back after 3 weeks out of the country. So please (for those interested) bear with me on this...
My sincere apologies for not spending much time on the site over the past couple of months. I've had a lot going on both with work (travel and projects) and especially in my personal life. All of this has precluded me from spending any time with/under my cars, and from contributing on this site. And it's totally de-railed (but NOT cancelled) my plans for transitioning the site to the new forum software. It is likely that my challenges are going to be high, and my time very limited, through probably the end of this calendar year. Unfortunate, but I have to prioritize, for now.
One thing, is that while I was out of the country, vBulletin issued a significant security patch to the forum software, which I will install and update tonight (Monday night) late. Thus, the forum will be off-line for approximately 15-20 minutes probably around 11-midnight Central Time while I'm taking care of this patch.
Secondly, vBulletin has a new update to the forum software, version 4.2.4, in Beta right now. However it is unsupported and supposedly they are working out the last few bugs, so I won't install it until it goes "live" as a regular version. I would expect this will happen in probably the next month or two, at most. They are being a bit coy as to what it entails, but I expect since it is a "dot" revision that it will be extremely minor, and not contain any updates on functionality. Likely just a few minor security patches and other small updates not worth spit.
Thanks to Dave, Glen and Klink for keeping things going beautifully while I've been away. I promise to all of you that I am not down and out for the count -- just down. Thanks to all of you for your active participation and for the great and continuing questions and discussions. I look forward to the day when I can engage again multiple times daily rather than "checking in on things" every couple or three days.
And lastly, thanks to those of you who have sent me messages of support and encouragement. I am both grateful and thankful for the many friends on this forum I have made, and for you guys checking in on me.
Cheers,
Gerry
P.S. I don't know if you guys had heard, but the Benzworld and dozens of other vBulletin-based forums owned by their parent company, Vertical Scope, were hacked a couple of weeks ago, and many user passwords were stolen by the hackers. This particularly affected Vertical Scope forums that have been running older versions of vBulletin. Just goes to show that the bad guys are out there and always probing. May be a good time to change your passwords on the forums that you frequent, if you haven't done so (or been forced by the forums to do so after the hack).
Tonight I upgraded the site to the newest stable version of the vBulletin software, version 4.2.3 Patch Level 2.
I also updated the Tapatalk plugin from 5.6.8 to 5.6.10.
I brought the site down for about 15 minutes for these operations. Hope it didn't inconvenience anyone too much for the time that things were off-line. Everything should be back up and fully operational at this time.
Cheers,
Gerry
Notes from vBulletin on the upgrade. Note that I do not use Beta software for the 500Eboard, although the 4.2.4 Beta version is available from vBulletin.
A security issue has been reported to the vBulletin team. Potentially, this issue could allow attachment uploads to exploit your system. This issue has been resolved.
You can download the patch for your version here: http://members.vbulletin.com/patches.php
To install the patch:
1) Download the appropriate files for your version of vBulletin 4
2) Upload all files found within the zip file. Make sure to overwrite the existing files on your server.
This should not affect your modified settings.
If you're using version 4.2.1 or before, then you should upgrade to your installation of vBulletin to 4.2.3.
In addition to the patches, a new version of vBulletin 4.2.4 Beta is also available. Please perform a regular upgrade if you are using the beta.
Patches:
4.2.3 Patch Level 2
4.2.2 Patch Level 6
I also updated the Tapatalk plugin from 5.6.8 to 5.6.10.
I brought the site down for about 15 minutes for these operations. Hope it didn't inconvenience anyone too much for the time that things were off-line. Everything should be back up and fully operational at this time.
Cheers,
Gerry
Notes from vBulletin on the upgrade. Note that I do not use Beta software for the 500Eboard, although the 4.2.4 Beta version is available from vBulletin.
Security Patch - vBulletin 4.2.2, 4.2.3, 4.2.4 Beta
Yesterday, 4:16pmA security issue has been reported to the vBulletin team. Potentially, this issue could allow attachment uploads to exploit your system. This issue has been resolved.
You can download the patch for your version here: http://members.vbulletin.com/patches.php
To install the patch:
1) Download the appropriate files for your version of vBulletin 4
2) Upload all files found within the zip file. Make sure to overwrite the existing files on your server.
This should not affect your modified settings.
If you're using version 4.2.1 or before, then you should upgrade to your installation of vBulletin to 4.2.3.
In addition to the patches, a new version of vBulletin 4.2.4 Beta is also available. Please perform a regular upgrade if you are using the beta.
Patches:
4.2.3 Patch Level 2
4.2.2 Patch Level 6
You broke the internet for 15 minutes!! My morning at work with coffee and reading the latest was utterly shattered.
On the serious note - thanks for keeping this wonderful forum in order, updated and patched.
Tonight at around 2:25 AM Central time I updated the Tapatalk plugin on the forum. The site was not down during this update.
According to Tapatalk, here are the items that were fixed by this update:
- improved support for ignored users
- improved support for inline attachments
- solved issue that cause problems when sending automated private messages from admincp
According to Tapatalk, here are the items that were fixed by this update:
- improved support for ignored users
- improved support for inline attachments
- solved issue that cause problems when sending automated private messages from admincp
Eighth Birthday of the 500Eboard !!
Eight years ago, this coming Wednesday night, around 10:00 PM Central Standard Time, the 500Eboard first came online and went live.
The board had lain dormant -- waiting patiently to be initiated and brought online -- for around six months in anticipation of 500Ecstasy to arise once again. Over the many months 500Ecstasy was down and off-line, I became increasingly convinced that it would never really come back online again.
And thus, with very little fanfare on that cold, Sunday night, I brought the fledgeling forum on-line, activating it from the administrative control panel. And immediately after, I sent an email out to 10 or 12 of the "old guard" 500Ecstasy friends, letting them know that a new 500Eboard was ready and waiting for their participation.
The name "500Eboard" took its direct inspiration from the BMW-centric "M5board" forum.
At the same time, I posted two threads on Banzworld and PeachParts Mercedesshop forum to also notify folks that a new forum was starting up to replace the very popular 500Ecstasy.
The rest is history, and I have tried to post annual updates to document the rapid growth of this forum ever since.
500Ecstasy came back up and went back down at least two times after the 500Eboard started up, but it was never up for long, and eventually died for good. So many of us lamented the huge amount of .036-related information that had been accumulated there during the late 2003-early 2008 period. The interesting thing is that during the 500Ecstasy years, it was the tail-end of the aftermarket availability for many 500E performance parts, including the mods available from BergWerks and RENNtech. The market has moved on, yet the information remains evergreen.
I'd venture to say that the depth, breadth, quantity, quality, presentation and overall usefulness of information that has been accumulated here since 2008 has eclipsed what we achieved at 500Ecstasy. The worldwide 500E community is as large and vibrant as ever, and in recent years we've begun to see our cars gain real value and increased collector and enthusiast interest -- a trend that will continue well into the future, albeit at a steady and modest pace.
So, as the site celebrates its 8th birthday in the next few days, I think back to the humble beginnings of the site and I take a hint of pride and satisfaction that our community started with ZERO posts, and ONE single member, and has grown quite nicely ever since -- into the robust and vibrant information resource that we have today.
The 500Eboard is quite often recognized by many Mercedes watchers as an example of the very best, most useful and accurate, most knowledgeable and "nicest" cultured Mercedes forums -- and I've heard many times from non-Benz folks -- it truly is one of the very best automotive forums overall on the Internet. During the Monterey (Legends of the Autobahn) weekend, I had several Benz related people compliment me on the overall quality of our forum.
Thanks to each and every one of you for making our little slice of the Internet what it has become!!
Here's to eight more great years !!
Cheers,
Gerry
Eight years ago, this coming Wednesday night, around 10:00 PM Central Standard Time, the 500Eboard first came online and went live.
The board had lain dormant -- waiting patiently to be initiated and brought online -- for around six months in anticipation of 500Ecstasy to arise once again. Over the many months 500Ecstasy was down and off-line, I became increasingly convinced that it would never really come back online again.
And thus, with very little fanfare on that cold, Sunday night, I brought the fledgeling forum on-line, activating it from the administrative control panel. And immediately after, I sent an email out to 10 or 12 of the "old guard" 500Ecstasy friends, letting them know that a new 500Eboard was ready and waiting for their participation.
The name "500Eboard" took its direct inspiration from the BMW-centric "M5board" forum.
At the same time, I posted two threads on Banzworld and PeachParts Mercedesshop forum to also notify folks that a new forum was starting up to replace the very popular 500Ecstasy.
The rest is history, and I have tried to post annual updates to document the rapid growth of this forum ever since.
500Ecstasy came back up and went back down at least two times after the 500Eboard started up, but it was never up for long, and eventually died for good. So many of us lamented the huge amount of .036-related information that had been accumulated there during the late 2003-early 2008 period. The interesting thing is that during the 500Ecstasy years, it was the tail-end of the aftermarket availability for many 500E performance parts, including the mods available from BergWerks and RENNtech. The market has moved on, yet the information remains evergreen.
I'd venture to say that the depth, breadth, quantity, quality, presentation and overall usefulness of information that has been accumulated here since 2008 has eclipsed what we achieved at 500Ecstasy. The worldwide 500E community is as large and vibrant as ever, and in recent years we've begun to see our cars gain real value and increased collector and enthusiast interest -- a trend that will continue well into the future, albeit at a steady and modest pace.
So, as the site celebrates its 8th birthday in the next few days, I think back to the humble beginnings of the site and I take a hint of pride and satisfaction that our community started with ZERO posts, and ONE single member, and has grown quite nicely ever since -- into the robust and vibrant information resource that we have today.
The 500Eboard is quite often recognized by many Mercedes watchers as an example of the very best, most useful and accurate, most knowledgeable and "nicest" cultured Mercedes forums -- and I've heard many times from non-Benz folks -- it truly is one of the very best automotive forums overall on the Internet. During the Monterey (Legends of the Autobahn) weekend, I had several Benz related people compliment me on the overall quality of our forum.
Thanks to each and every one of you for making our little slice of the Internet what it has become!!
Here's to eight more great years !!
Cheers,
Gerry
Thank you for putting for the personal time / effort / resources to build this site Gerry. If it were not for this site's treasure trove of information, I don't believe I would have purchased w124.036. 50% of the enjoyment I have from the car is driving it --- the other 50% is reading about the techniques that folks here have developed / researched in maintaining the car.
A big thanks to you, Gerry. It's been enjoyable to see the interest and enthusiasm for the cars grow. As someone who enjoys automotive repair and ownership it's especially nice to have answers to virtually any question about the 036 which enables me to own one with a high level of comfort. I hope the holiday has been enjoyable in light of the difficulties your family has experienced in the last year.
drew
drew
Thanks for the good wishes, Drew. I'm not out of the woods yet, but the weeks after the New Year will allow me to begin a new chapter of my life and look again to the future. I appreciate all of the support and apologize that I haven't been able to be as active on the forum (not to mention with maintaining my cars) as I would like to be.
I'm starting a new project now with my 560SEC, which will be a lot of my focus for the next couple of months. I'm documenting it and will post a very comprehensive thread when things are far enough along that I have good meaty stuff to report.
Cheers,
Gerry
Oooo, do tell! Picked up that M119 6.0L CIS engine did ya? That would be a sweet conversion into an SEC!
vBulletin has released the final version of 4.2.4 on March 1. The forum is currently on 4.2.3 Patch Level 2.
I am very leery to upgrade the forum to 4.2.4 at this time, because of a fear that it may "break" a few of the modifications that I have used on the forum for years, such as the rotating site banner image; the "Thank you" link, and so forth. I will be doing some additional research to see if any of these modifications are affected. If I determine that they are not affected, then I shall consider updating the software toward the end of March.
The forum is currently running on the MySQL 5.1 version of the database; and version 5.6 of the php language. These versions are sufficiently advanced (current) enough that vBulletin 4.2.4 will run on them with no problem. However, there is a strong movement to move to php version 7.0, which is the "current" / normal version of php. Again, I am concerned with compatibility issues with the forum software and plugins and php7, so I am leery to make the move up to this version, for fear of "breaking" the forum. php5.6 is a fully supported version of the language through late 2019, so there is yet some life left in it.
One note is that vBulletin also has an "unstable" version of the vBulletin 4.2.X software, which is 4.2.5 Beta 3. Not that it matters, given we have made the decision to migrate away from the vBulletin platform, but it is slightly encouraging to see that there may be some signs of life in vBulletin 4.X for those forums that use it, for the future.
Also, the Tapatalk plug-in has also been updated recently, for the first time in a while, so I will be also updating it later this month.
The migration to the XenForo software is still in the works (I just extended the software license and support for that forum software at a cost of well over $100). My long personal nightmare of the past year ended in late February, and I am able to begin looking toward putting more time into the forum again. Another reason why I don't really want to put more time into patching vBulletin, instead putting the cycles into the migration to XenForo.
When the migration to XenForo is made, it will be made onto the very latest versions of the mySQL database and php 7.X language.
Cheers,
Gerry
I am very leery to upgrade the forum to 4.2.4 at this time, because of a fear that it may "break" a few of the modifications that I have used on the forum for years, such as the rotating site banner image; the "Thank you" link, and so forth. I will be doing some additional research to see if any of these modifications are affected. If I determine that they are not affected, then I shall consider updating the software toward the end of March.
The forum is currently running on the MySQL 5.1 version of the database; and version 5.6 of the php language. These versions are sufficiently advanced (current) enough that vBulletin 4.2.4 will run on them with no problem. However, there is a strong movement to move to php version 7.0, which is the "current" / normal version of php. Again, I am concerned with compatibility issues with the forum software and plugins and php7, so I am leery to make the move up to this version, for fear of "breaking" the forum. php5.6 is a fully supported version of the language through late 2019, so there is yet some life left in it.
One note is that vBulletin also has an "unstable" version of the vBulletin 4.2.X software, which is 4.2.5 Beta 3. Not that it matters, given we have made the decision to migrate away from the vBulletin platform, but it is slightly encouraging to see that there may be some signs of life in vBulletin 4.X for those forums that use it, for the future.
Also, the Tapatalk plug-in has also been updated recently, for the first time in a while, so I will be also updating it later this month.
The migration to the XenForo software is still in the works (I just extended the software license and support for that forum software at a cost of well over $100). My long personal nightmare of the past year ended in late February, and I am able to begin looking toward putting more time into the forum again. Another reason why I don't really want to put more time into patching vBulletin, instead putting the cycles into the migration to XenForo.
When the migration to XenForo is made, it will be made onto the very latest versions of the mySQL database and php 7.X language.
Cheers,
Gerry
Release notes for vBulletin 4.2.4
Bug
- [VBIV-424] - Tag search does not give chronological results (Regression from vB3)
- [VBIV-15670] - Facebook Embedded Video has changed, <object> tag no longer works
- [VBIV-15929] - Thread cannot be submitted if synonym tag is used.
- [VBIV-15954] - Error when merging posts due to latest security patch
- [VBIV-15963] - Bad table BBCode can killl threads- makes page timeout
- [VBIV-16006] - Mobile style does not respect show['tag_box']
- [VBIV-16023] - email TLS needs to use tls:// instead of ssl:// for certain SMTP service providers
- [VBIV-16102] - Skype status fails - Microsoft have changed how it works
- [VBIV-16108] - multi-quotes cookie not being removed after quick reply
- [VBIV-16113] - Incorrect time zones in Russia
- [VBIV-16124] - "For your information" block in Admin CP is messed up
- [VBIV-16130] - threadbits API fix to prevent mobile app crashes
- [VBIV-16135] - vB4 with empty Activity return error JSON to mobile Client
- [VBIV-16137] - Active user count refers to incorrect field
- [VBIV-16138] - non-poll thread does not show in Mobile app's postview
- [VBIV-16139] - Change Message_Plain return from showthread api
- [VBIV-16145] - cpnav.xml files doe not allow multiple permissions to be listed
- [VBIV-16148] - Missing phrase 'avatar' from maintenance phrase group
- [VBIV-16159] - Panjo Plugin Needs Removing
- [VBIV-16161] - Typo in vB_ProfileBlock_VisitorMessaging $pageindo instead of $pageinfo
- [VBIV-16167] - ALTER IGNORE Table produces error in MySQL 5.7.4 and higher
- [VBIV-16178] - ForumRunner code still using split()
- [VBIV-16184] - Warning in class_dm_threadrate.php
- [VBIV-16185] - Date field defaults in MySQL 5.7
- [VBIV-16198] - ACP : Newer version does not display if there is no other news
- [VBIV-16201] - Undefined constant used in forumrunner and skimlinks
- [VBIV-16206] - Warnings in ACP rebuild user titles and ranks
- [VBIV-16208] - PHP Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in ..../includes/functions_prefix.php on line 131
- [VBIV-16210] - Strict Standards: Static function vB_Route::getURL() should not be abstract in ...../vb/route.php on line 428
- [VBIV-16212] - PHP Warning: Only variables should be passed by reference in ....\includes\class_dm_user.php on line 1058
- [VBIV-16213] - Unable to moderate rss feeds from admincp
- [VBIV-16223] - Creating default object from empty value
- [VBIV-16225] - Guests can not vote in cms poll widget, even if group has permission to vote in polls
- [VBIV-16230] - JS Error editing a template
- [VBIV-16240] - Array being passed to iconv
- [VBIV-16241] - PHP Error
- [VBIV-16245] - The domain zone in the e-mail is limited to 6 symbols
- [VBIV-16252] - Non-static method should not be called statically
- [VBIV-16253] - PHP Warning: iconv() expects parameter 3 to be string, array given
- [VBIV-16255] - PHP Issues in class_upload.php
- [VBIV-16261] - Proxy detection not working
- [VBIV-16274] - PHP Deprecated: Non-static method - vBBlog_Search_Result_BlogEntry::create_from_record()
- [VBIV-16275] - Notices with time doesn't work in specific case
- [VBIV-16277] - Add exists check to getallheaders in init.php
Feature Request
- [VBIV-16132] - Create MAPI for poll
Improvement Request
- [VBIV-16131] - Wrong filedata.refcount value leads to attachment loss
- [VBIV-16134] - Askimet Update Request
- [VBIV-16147] - When forum setup to allow IPv6 addresses the strikes system does not lock out users with IPv6 addresses
- [VBIV-16153] - Paypal Security Updates
- [VBIV-16175] - Change type of moderatorid field in moderator table
- [VBIV-16186] - Update 4.2.3 install package with fix for old attachments being deleted
- [VBIV-16191] - Update CLI upgrader to allow running of single upgrader version, and start from specific version
- [VBIV-16193] - Remove IE Compatability headers
- [VBIV-16204] - Change Navigation Manager install default to Forum.
- [VBIV-16229] - FATAL ERROR: Invalid URL.
- [VBIV-16263] - Generic Improvement Updates
- [VBIV-16267] - Switch forum read marking to database, and remove cookie marking
Task
- [VBIV-16133] - Update MAPI to v8
- [VBIV-16179] - Remove Postrelease
- [VBIV-16180] - Sync new vB5 bitfields back to vB4 file
- [VBIV-16260] - Remove zend.ze1_compatibility_mode
I am updating the Tapatalk plugin to the most recent version, 5.6.14. The site won't be off-line during this time - it's a simple and easy update.
Changes:
- solved issue with inline attachments in some forum installations
- solved issue with avatars in low quality, now they will show in app better
- solved issue with mark all as read
- solved issue with Tapatalk logo appear in tweets when forum is not BYO
- added Email Notification features corresponding to the Newsletters feature in Tapatalk Site Owner Console. (Default is OFF).
Changes:
- solved issue with inline attachments in some forum installations
- solved issue with avatars in low quality, now they will show in app better
- solved issue with mark all as read
- solved issue with Tapatalk logo appear in tweets when forum is not BYO
- added Email Notification features corresponding to the Newsletters feature in Tapatalk Site Owner Console. (Default is OFF).
Folks:
I have taken the step of adding a new sub-forum in the 400E/E420 subsection, that is expressly intended for listing parts specific to those (124.034) cars for sale.
If a part you are selling is used in common to both the 500E/E500 and to the 400E/E420, please list it ONLY on the 500E "Parts for Sale" sub-forum so that it reaches the widest possible audience.
Please DO NOT list parts two times in each "Parts for Sale" sub-forum. If you do this, BOTH of your redundant parts listings will be immediately deleted upon discovery by a moderator.
I think there is enough critical mass in 400E/E420 parts for them to have their own sub-forum for parts FS, going forward.
Hope this helps folks.
Cheers,
Gerry
I have taken the step of adding a new sub-forum in the 400E/E420 subsection, that is expressly intended for listing parts specific to those (124.034) cars for sale.
If a part you are selling is used in common to both the 500E/E500 and to the 400E/E420, please list it ONLY on the 500E "Parts for Sale" sub-forum so that it reaches the widest possible audience.
Please DO NOT list parts two times in each "Parts for Sale" sub-forum. If you do this, BOTH of your redundant parts listings will be immediately deleted upon discovery by a moderator.
I think there is enough critical mass in 400E/E420 parts for them to have their own sub-forum for parts FS, going forward.
Hope this helps folks.
Cheers,
Gerry
vBulletin recently released version 4.2.5, which is (from what they are saying) the "last" updated version of vBulletin 4.X that they will issue, barring any critical security patches. That means that vBulletin 4.X has finally reached "End of Life" status.
The infrastructure for this site is already set up to meet the requirements for vBulletin 4.2.4. The requirements for 4.2.4 are php (the language in which the forum software is written) version 5.5.0, and mySQL database version 5.0.
The requirements for vBulletin 4.2.5 (the new version I mentioned above) are php 5.6.0 and mySQL 5.5.
The site currently runs on mySQL 5.1 (which does not meet the minimum for the new forum software) and php 5.6 (which does meet the minimum for the new forum software). I am not going to bother upgrading the database software, given that the size of the database is nearly 450 MB (yep, that's half a gig of data!!) and I would have to "upgrade" the database to a higher version. It's too risky although not a too technically difficult chore.
At this point, I'm going to keep the site running on the current 4.2.3 until we convert over to the very long-promised XenForo software. At that time of conversion, we'll upgrade the database and the php to the latest versions.
Just FYI I have "upgraded" the database and php probably 2-3 times each during the past 8.5 years. But it's not worth the time/stress/effort just in case something goes wrong.
Just wanted to let you guys know what's going on - not that it matters too much. For now it's easier to keep things as they are, generally operating smoothly, without monkeying around and changing things. Rather keep my technical powder dry for when we make the "big" forum switch.
Cheers,
Gerry
The infrastructure for this site is already set up to meet the requirements for vBulletin 4.2.4. The requirements for 4.2.4 are php (the language in which the forum software is written) version 5.5.0, and mySQL database version 5.0.
The requirements for vBulletin 4.2.5 (the new version I mentioned above) are php 5.6.0 and mySQL 5.5.
The site currently runs on mySQL 5.1 (which does not meet the minimum for the new forum software) and php 5.6 (which does meet the minimum for the new forum software). I am not going to bother upgrading the database software, given that the size of the database is nearly 450 MB (yep, that's half a gig of data!!) and I would have to "upgrade" the database to a higher version. It's too risky although not a too technically difficult chore.
At this point, I'm going to keep the site running on the current 4.2.3 until we convert over to the very long-promised XenForo software. At that time of conversion, we'll upgrade the database and the php to the latest versions.
Just FYI I have "upgraded" the database and php probably 2-3 times each during the past 8.5 years. But it's not worth the time/stress/effort just in case something goes wrong.
Just wanted to let you guys know what's going on - not that it matters too much. For now it's easier to keep things as they are, generally operating smoothly, without monkeying around and changing things. Rather keep my technical powder dry for when we make the "big" forum switch.
Cheers,
Gerry
I was notified early this morning by the hosting company that a security issue with one of the vBulletin forum software files had allowed a spammer to use the forum's mail sending capability (using the hoster's SMTP servers) to send a bunch of spam. So, they were notifying me that they had "disabled" two vBulletin files that had contained the security vulnerability.
This caused the forum to go down for an hour or so, while I tracked down the cause of the problem, and resolved it. At the same time, I decided to upgrade the vBulletin forum software from version 4.2.3 to the near-current 4.2.4, which took about 30 minutes to do. This updated forum software should resolve the vulnerability based on a security patch they rolled into the newer version.
I re-enabled the new files by changing the UNIX file permissions to 755 (rwxr-xr-x) from the hoster-set 200 (the technical gurus among you will know what I'm talking about), and this re-enabled the forum and allowed the forum software upgrade to complete.
Things should be back to normal, and I don't anticipate any problems going forward. If there continues to be a vulnerability with the forum software and e-mail spammers, I may be forced to disable the e-mail function for the forum that sends e-mail notifications that you have a PM waiting, or emails you if you have that option set up. We'll see how things shake out.
Thanks for your patience in the ~90 minutes or so that the forum was down while I was taking care of this issue and updating the software.
Cheers,
Gerry
This is sort of a "Is it just me?" post, but today, if I try to access the overall Forum using any "Forum" link, I get an "access denied" message. I seem to be able to do most anything else except view the overall Forum with all the topic headers, etc. It's the same using either Safari or Chrome. I cleared cookies and it was the same. Tried logging out and in, and same.
Edit: NEVER MIND.... of course just as soon as I posted this, tried a "Forum" link again, it works. Don't know what was up, but anyway, not an issue now.
Edit: NEVER MIND.... of course just as soon as I posted this, tried a "Forum" link again, it works. Don't know what was up, but anyway, not an issue now.
Last edited:
I've been in further touch with the hosting company. It appears that even since Friday, when I locked things down on the site, that there continues to be problems with the spammers using the "send page to friend" function in the vBulletin software. This is due to a weakness/vulnerability in the vBulletin software that is fairly easy for spammers to exploit.
I locked things down even further today, disabling the vBulletin CMPS system (what you used to see when you would go to "www.500eboard.com") and the Wiki software. It appears that the spam flood has abated, according to the hosting company.
All of this is exceedingly frustrating. It appears that this "send to friend" vulnerability has existed in the vBulletin software since at least versions 3.7 and 3.8, which go back better than 10 years ago. And it's never been effectively solved. A lot of forums have been stricken with this problem.
Given that this vulnerability exists, and now that vBulletin has officially announced that they will never issue another version of the software version 4.X again, I think this is our official impetus to make the leap to XenForo, which is actively developed, more secure, and just a more modern platform all around.
I'm going to officially activate the XenForo server today, do a full and fresh install of the latest software and add-ons, and initiate the migration. I'll keep folks updated on this thread as to what is happening. There is likely going to be some downtime (probably a few hours or overnight).
At the time of the migration, I'm going to forward the 500Eboard domain over to "500Ecstasy.org" -- which is a domain that I own and established expressly for the purposes of the migration. Once the migration is complete, and we've worked out all of the bugs (URL redirects, photos, avatars, adding plug-ins, Wiki content migration, and so forth), I'll officially shut down this forum and archive everything.
I'm just designing and mapping out the migration timeline now, but it is going to be soon. I can't have a forum that is under attack and is being compromised by spammers.
This site will remain "up" and in its existing form (sans CMPS and Wiki) until it goes down for the migration. Do not wig out, go postal, yadda yadda......
Cheers,
Gerry
It was an issue - the hosting company disabled a key file that displays the forum, because that file is responsible for sending spam out due to an inherent security flaw/bug in it. I re-enabled everything, and locked the forum security down almost to the max, so it should be OK now.
I tried accessing the site using IE 11 and I get this message:
Fatal error: Call to undefined function print_portal_output() in /homepages/0/d315437492/htdocs/index.php on line 4
I can access the site with Firefox.
Fatal error: Call to undefined function print_portal_output() in /homepages/0/d315437492/htdocs/index.php on line 4
I can access the site with Firefox.
If you use the URL "http://500eboard.com/forums" you should be able to access the forum as always.
The URL "http://www.500eboard.com" is disabled as that page is run by the content management system (CMS).
I may just redirect that URL to the "/forums" URL so that everything just points to the forum itself.
The URL "http://www.500eboard.com" is disabled as that page is run by the content management system (CMS).
I may just redirect that URL to the "/forums" URL so that everything just points to the forum itself.
I have tentatively re-enabled the Wiki and vBulletin CMPS (www.500eboard.com) capability. It seems like things have calmed down and we've stopped the spammers dead in their tracks.
Unfortunately though, the site is under strong attack from fake accounts being created. I think I've been able to stop that, as well. About 40 new Russian accounts created in the past 48 hours that I've had to delete......
Cheers,
Gerry
Unfortunately though, the site is under strong attack from fake accounts being created. I think I've been able to stop that, as well. About 40 new Russian accounts created in the past 48 hours that I've had to delete......
Cheers,
Gerry
banzworld
Well, Banzworld has a 124 V-8 forum that seems to be yet another fount of knowledge about the 400E420 and 500E500 models, as well as their "regular" 124 forum which is a very longstanding, accurate and well-used Internet resource on our cars. It is even GSXR-participated (and through this, I would assume GSXR-approved)
Remember, nothing in this world is irreplaceable, including this site. There are ALWAYS alternatives.
