HCSuperStores

Rob, you always look out for #1. Can't say enough about you this way! Things have been good, and I hope not to see any new help desk improvements for months at a time!

Um ... I do appreciate the thought ... but .... naw! I guess I'll just have to wait for a while ... but it sounds like there are some good things! I'll have to live vicarioiusly through others in the mean time.

I'm really not very happy about this! I mean, please ... at least give me something I can use! Anyone who has been here for some time knows it will be weeks, months or longer before we experience a problem and THEN we will be able to experience "the new ticket system". Come on Bill ... can't you do better!!!! Give me something I'll actually use! I guess I'll just have to wait forever before I get to see what great things you've come up with when submitting a ticket! *sigh*

I just read in the Inquirer that Suse 9.2 is free for the downloading. A DVD ISO is available for download at their site at this location. For those wondering what I'm talking about .... Suse is a stable and respected distribution of Linux. For those who haven't tried Linux, this may be a great opporunity to give it a whirl! Enjoy!

I would have to agree with you Mike. Anything more restrictive would probably cause other issues.

Hi Thomas! Is the "50 every minutes rule" a hard and fast rule, dictated by some server setting that TCH has established? I've always wanted to know specifically what the rule is so I can be sure to comply and not be flagged for my own purposes. I've had to put the threat of God into my clients to be sure they do not abuse thier own accounts. I have a reseller account with multiple domains. Is it 50 per e-mail address? So it would be possible to spread the load over a few e-mail addresses? Or, is it 50 per domain name? Large accounts with 10s or 100s, or more e-mail accounts might easily exceed this naturally. If you have any fix on this let me know. As always, just looking to stay in bounds, play nice and see that myself and my clients do not abuse any system or even show up on any report! Thanks! BIll

I used to have problems with Trillian too, but I worked with the earlier verions and I admit I never paid. Since my switch to Linux I've been using Gaim and I'm very happy with its stability. It interfaces fine with the other IMs. I do remember trying to start a chat with you, Bill, back a few weeks ago. It appeared that you attempted to respond but nothing came through. You were the only one that I have ever experienced this with. It could have been a Trillian problem ... maybe? Anyway, it's a solid IM that I have been using myself for 6 months with little issue. Enjoy!

All the Linux users in the world smirk. Although I probably give Billy a little more breathing room than than the world press will, the circumstances are still rather humbling and good for a little laugh. Who doesn't want the big bad bully of the IT world to trip over a crack in the sidewalk every now and then, even if it only wounds his pride? Good post Raul!

I'll try to help ... but forgive me if I'm not answering your question exactly. This is, I think, what you are looking for. #!/usr/bin/perl use CGI; use CGI::Carp qw(fatalsToBrowser); print "Content-type: text/html\n\n"; print "Hello World"; exit; The lines in blue are optional but recommended. Be sure your script has been uploaded in ASCII format (v.s. binary) and that the permissions are set to 755. If you need more clarification on this, send me an e-mail to be sure I see it. Good luck!

TCH has treated me very well and I really have no complaints about that momentary blip. I have a high appreciation for the staff at TCH and the job that you guys do. I will say that, so far, the "fine tuning" has seemed to keep any issues at bay. No 406 errors. Keep up the good work guys. It's a complicated problem for sure and I know you'll "get those guys"! Go get'm!

So, Lisa ... what you ar e saying is that even if the name WAS changed, that the spammers could easily write something more in their scirpts to find the new name?

Wow ... what a mess. People should spend time being a little more productivein life! But I tend to like puzzles. And this one is a doozy!

As a thought ... Does it really matter WHERE they installed the MT script? Aren't you looking for a specifically name .cgi file? Could you not queue off of that? If you find the file, then you know that it has to be attended to. If you don't find it, then you've already renamed it and you don't need to do anything to it. As far as the CPU load being an issue, you are already suggesting (per the beginning of this thread) that people implement these changes. Wouldn't this cause the rebuild anyway? So either manually, or via an automated script, wouldn't you incur the load regardless? The script would allow you to methodically go through and do the rebuild at low-CPU usage times. It would be in a more controlled fashion. As always, just my opinion ... PS - On the blocked words, I've already noticed an improvement. Just as a note to this, I have software that uses anatomically correct words (medical) often. So any words that you attempt to block like this will cause a problem with my software. It's used daily and I'll communicate those issues to you if I run into them.

I could only hope to be at your level, or at Lisa's for that matter!!!

My post count is going up too ... but I've been in my hole a while anyway. I need to stretch the fingers a little! Yes, you might have to be sure that you don't do this to 100 MT accounts at once as it would kill the server. But you could make the script intelligent enough to only do, say 5 a night. So eventually all would be updated. Every one that you modify means that much more protection. Once all the MT accounts are updated, the load would be minimal. Yes, I would rather have the software vendor be the responsible party. But I suspect this is "free" software and thus is the price you pay. And Lisa, I know nothing about MT but the little I have read. But it seemed from the little that I have read that a smart script could accomplish the job and if written correctly, could do so without any negative impact on the server. The question is would TCH customers revolt over some or all of these changes? Or does TCH want to get at this level with MT clients? I don't know ...

I understand that running a script might seem a bit drastic, and parental like. But it might serve as an option instead of banning MT entirely. As far as a parental or watching issue ... I'm sure TCH sets particular server wide setting, to the best of their ability, that keep things balanced and protected. Not as an attempt to control minute details, but for the stability of all accounts on any server.

Hey Lisa --- agred. It sounds like MT is difficult to install. This is why I suggest that TCH write one scirpt that would run every night on each of the shared servers to make the changed automatically. TCH just has to figure out what it wants to enforce, and then have the script do this. Because this has become a load issue for the servers, it seems the logical choice from my perspective.

Hello Everyone and Allen! I personally don't use MT ... but I do have a suggestion and a vested interest in TCH finding a solution to this problem. My server was affected last night because a server-wide "bad words" filter was implemented. This caused some innocent words and posts to be flagged as "inappropriate" and therefore some of my scripts bombed with a server error. So anyway, on to a solution .... I don't believe a blind, server wide solution will work because it would be rather impossible to be sure that you are not affecting all the other software, commercial and custom, that exists. So my solution is to enforce standards within the MT software that are effective at stopping this problem. In examining the LINK at the beginning of this post, there seem to be a number of settings or configurations that, if implemented, would stop or severely reduce this issue. If TCH were to adopt a standard that says "Any account that uses MT MUST have these security measures in place to use this software" it would virtually eliminate the issues we are experiencing. But TCH could also write a script that may run once a night that would enforce these admin options, making these changes automatically. The first time the script is run would be the largest expected load on any server. Afterwords, it would only affect new MT installations and the server load would be negligible if anything at all. This solution would keep things at a software-specific level and not affect any other commercial or custom software running on the server. Any thoughts???

Can you tell me what server you are on? I was having that same problem last night! Boy, that really had me had me going there for a while!!!! Thanks!

I have to chime in and agree with Bruce on this one. I've done some changes on the IPB board and every time I made a little error, that is exactly what would happen. The post makes it, but you are faced with a blank screen. Reversing your edits will clear up the problem.

If it were possible, I would go with the both option. A page that quickly tells you if there is a problem where you can find your server quickly and easily. If the status page shows my server's HTTP services are down, I don't bother to look any further. However, if the server is working, the additional detail would give troubleshooting information for the technically minded people out here. Additionally, it would add to the atmosphere of "transparency" that we have continued to love and enjoy as being part of TCH. Being able to talk with support about and point to a specific problem with the server may help get things working more quickly. Just my thoughts ...

FYI ... One service, that seems to meet my clients needs most appropriately so far, is through send2fax. You can subscribe to them and then simply use e-mail to send out faxes via e-mail, which any server can do without putting a hit on resources. So at least I know it's possible and not too expensive for this company. Cheers!

It's a good start, but I believe that my client is looking for more of a rich fax document, that would include B&W pictures or illustrations. The link that you mentioned seems to be strictly for text faxes, although the technology is very interesting! Any other ideas?

I have a client that wants to send out a fax page to his clients upon request. This is not a "fax blast" but an on-request fax. Has anyone ever done this? I'm looking into services now but you guys here seem to have most bases covered. Thanks for any help you may give!

Oh never mind ... When I attatched to the port locally (i.e. 192.168.1.101) it needed to talk directly to port 21. This is how I was tessting. But when coming in from the modem, via the IP address, port forwarding took over and it worked. It really did work! Thanks!