Gina's Ubuntu HowTo website

[Gina]

Just to say I've moved the above website to new hosting c/o QiQ's special birthday offer :) Everything is much the same ATM except that I've added a Guestbook for people to post comments, suggestions or questions. When I've tried having guestbooks before they've been inundated with spam - this one (provided by the hosting) has an anti-spam feature :)

Link in sig

[Furby]

Hi Gina,

Just tried to leave a comment in the guestbook, but the verification code is just showing a iight blue strip with nothing in it and it keeps asking me for the code :confused:

[Gina]

Oh I see :( Have you got images turned on? That's all I can think of ATM.

[Furby]

Hi Gina,

Yes, images are turned on, I will do a screenshot so you can see what I mean, won't be a mo...

EDIT: This is what I am seeing:

http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/9506/ginagn3.jpg
Shot at 2007-10-08

[Gina]

OK Sarah - though I can guess what you mean

[Gina]

OH!!! Just been to check again and I'm getting the same - just a blue box! :(:( WTF's gone wrong now?? :mad:

My laptop's keyboard has gone wrong and now my website's up the creek :(:( It was fine a few days ago.

[Gina]

Just been doing some checking - I think the application on the server is misbehaving - I have the same guestbook on another website and that's the same :( I also tried booting Win XP and using 3 different browsers - all gave the same blank box!

[Furby]

No worries Gina, just thought it would be nice to commend you for a job well done and start your guestbook off ;)

[Gina]

Thank you Sarah :) I appreciate that :):) Maybe it'll be working tomorrow. If not I'll contact Peter and see if there's a server problem.

[Gina]

Sarah (and any others interested) - The guestbook app appears to be working again now :)

[Furby]

Gone to post again just now and it is the same :eek:

I will manage it one day :lol:

[Gina]

Seems to be coming and going :( Appears to be alright again now.

[Furby]

Gonna have to get online earlier and try it, just been and it is the same - I will catch it before Christmas :lol

[Gina]

:lol I hope they get it running 24/7 soon - I expect they're working on the server.

[Gina]

I've had another go at the Guestbook. The one I started with and which was supplied with the hosting (QiQ) is still giving problems and going to the author's website didn't help. So I Googled for guestbook scripts and came across a simple basic guestbook written in Perl and HTML which I've tweaked a bit and installed on the website. This is now working and available for entries. It doesn't have any spam guard system or any other frills - but it works! I may pretty it up a bit and leave it at that - unless it fills with spam like I've had in the past.

[silver]

for Perl scripts and stuff http://nms-cgi.sourceforge.net/scripts.shtml is v handy :)

[Gina]

Thanks :) That looks very useful :):)

A few minutes later...
Just had a look and I see that these Perl scripts replace and improve on Matt Wright's scripts which I'm using for the guestbook now. I'll try the newer scripts :)

[Gina]

Silver... I've used your suggestion for improved Perl script for the Guestbook and after editing and testing now have a new Guestbook installed on the website.

Sarah... Thank you for your contribution to the Guestbook :):) I'm looking into adding Replies to the Comments without a lot of bother. I could just add a new comment as a reply but I think that would look rather tacky.

Looks like I may be learning to program in Perl sometime :lol

[Furby]

Sarah... Thank you for your contribution to the Guestbook :):) I'm looking into adding Replies to the Comments without a lot of bother. I could just add a new comment as a reply but I think that would look rather tacky.

Looks like I may be learning to program in Perl sometime :lol

No problems Gina! I think your site will be a very useful resource for many and you have worked well on it, great stuff! :)

[Gina]

Thank you Sarah :):)

[Gina]

Well, something has gone disasterously wrong with the Guestbook. It's losing entries and I've yet to find out why or how. So now I'm virtually forced to learn Perl - the language (script) the application is written in. I've started looking at Perl and the guestbook script which I've printed out (30 pages of it). The rest of the guestbook app involves the Guestbook HTML page and the Add HTML page. These are quite simple and I can see nothing wrong there - so now I'm looking at the Perl script that actually "works" the guestbook - adding new entries in the specified place.

Perl has many similarities to other programming languages so I have a good base there. It differs in constructs and details. I've downloaded plenty of reading from the web in the form of Perl docs -- some 20 odd PDF files! I'm hoping I won't need to read all of them :lol

BTW... Any "Perl-mongers" on here??

[Gina]

Evidently not :lol

Anyway, I've studied some Perl and studied the guestbook script and the HTML it adds to the guestbook.html file and I think I've found the problem. I've updated the guestbook.html and guestbook.pl files on the server and am hoping no more entries will go missing.

[silver]

oh missed this, yes I know some Perl if you need help :)

[Gina]

Thank you :) I'll bear that in mind :)

[Gina]

I now have a new Guestbook application on my Ubuntu website courtesy of the QiQ hosting I use. This is basic, plain and simple but does incorporate spam protection from web-bots. The reason my site was unavailable a little while back was that a web-bot had infiltrated the Guestbook script and added 3000 spam messages in one day! This caused the hosting to shut down automatically to avoid DOS. I thought I had disabled the Guestbook but it seems the script was still accessible by the "spam machines". I have now removed all the old guestbook files and installed a new system complete. As I said, it's not particularly "pretty" but should do the job. I may be able to improve the look and maybe provide better navigation later.

I'd like to say a public thank you to Sarah for spotting an earlier post of mine on this subject and arranging to have the "block" removed :) http://members.aol.com/ginasimages/thankyou.gif

[Furby]

No worries Gina :) Pleased it is sorted now! Just tested the new book and all seems fine ;)

[Gina]

Thank you :)