What is the best packaged version of nuke?

Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2006 12:36 pm

I apologize for asking this, but to be completely honest, I'm confused as to the above question.

I'm currently running phpnuke 7.0 with bbtonuke 2.0.6 webforums. I've ascertained that the latest version of bbtonuke is the best for my forums, but I'm still very much confused about nuke.

I know that it's recommended to go no later than 7.5 or 7.6 but I've also read here that there's a few of you who think 6.9 and 7.0 were the shizzle.

I guess my questions are as follows:

- if you were in my position, what version of nuke would you upgrade to, assuming you would even upgrade?
- what version of sentinal would you use or would you consider other security software such as protector?

Again, I hope this isn't wasting anyone’s time, it's just that I've done a lot of reading throughout the nuke community and no where is there anything really carved in stone over what is the best IMHO.

Thanks for your help.

Regards,

Ken

Sells PC To Pay For Divorce Joined: Posts: 5661

Is this a trick question?

Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2006 7:15 pm

Ah if your system is stable and continues to be Patched, why upgrade?
The only reason I would see to upgrade at this point is to use addons that are only compatible with 7.5 and higher... that would be few if any. The new admin system could be useful for some addons, but it doesn't take much to make it compatible to 7.4 and lower

Site Admin/Owner Joined: Aug 27, 2002 Posts: 17088

As to NukeSentinel(tm), you should always use the latest release, which as of this writing is v2.4.2pl3. Yes, it requires that you have applied NukePatched v2.9 or higher, but here again, you should have that too.

Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2006 9:39 pm

hitwalker wrote:

Is this a trick question?

No its not, go read around all the various nuke communities if your reasonably new to webmastering and tell me you can come out with a definitive answer. If you can your a much smarter person than I can ever hope to be. Everyone has an opinion and most are not afraid to express it. What you have to do is weed through it all, qualify the people posting and go with what seems to be the most supported direction. I have seen plenty on this site and others that state beware of anything above nuke 7.6 but I've also seen my fair share of "gotsta love 6.9 and 7.0”. When faced with these two scenarios, as a new webmaster, which do you choose?

Thanks evaders99 and Raven for the responses. I didn't want to ask the question in the first place but sometimes a webmaster does need confirmation as to a firm direction prior to making up his/her mind. If it were one site that I had to work on I'd prolly muck around and not worry too much, but I have 5 sites that all demand attention so I didn't want to start off in the wrong direction.

Sincerely,

Ken

Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2006 10:07 pm

I am still using 6.9 (heavily modded and patched) here. I will be converting to my RavenNuke76(tm) v2.x series as soon as I have the time.

New Member Joined: Mar 01, 2006 Posts: 1

Hello,

I just recently acquired a new client with a very old site. He is running 6.9. His host recently told him that his site was using 120% of the servers processor. They moved him to a dedicated server at a cost of 60.00USD per month.

I am moving him off of his host and told him that there could be some issues with 6.9 that need to be patched or resolved.

Being a Nuke Newbie I assumed that upgrading him to one of the 7.x versions may solve any issues he is having and plug any security holes. To my suprise, on these forums, it has become quite a mind-numbing experience.

I am a veteren developer and have used other CMS apps, but never nuke.

SO, I share Duke's concerns.

This client is primarily using the Gallery and Forum module.

What would be the best course of action here? Keep him on 6.9 seems to be the answer, BUT....which patches and upgrades would you folks recommend to atleast make his site stable and "more" secure?

I'm at a total loss here? Any advice would be deeply appreciated.

Thanks,

Bryan

Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2006 7:04 am

Personally, I think you should investigate WHY the resource useage is so high before you even contemplate doing any updates.
For example, if he is using a Gallery script, are any of the pictures being hotlinked?
Is anything being generated in the server error log to indicate a problem - for example calls to missing files or images etc
If you have a log of referers, are all they genuine or referers you actually want?
Is the site being bombarded by bots which have undesirable bandwidth eating abilities like Inkomi/Slurp.

Are all area's of the site 'public' which means badly behaving bots (those that ignore the directives in robots.txt) are indexing stuff they dont need to.
As the Gallery may well have quite large file size images, this should be set for 'registered users' in preference to 'all visitors'.

Does the site have a robots.txt file?
What is the meta refresh rate set to?

When was the last time the database 'optimised'?

These are just a few of the things I would be checking myself before deciding a course of action. Obviously plugging security holes and fixing bugs is important but if there is an underlying problem with the site, that needs to be looked at first - baggage should be left behind not taken with you when you move Wink

Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2006 8:03 am

TopsailDesigner, also, technically speaking Smile

you can't use more than 100% of something, but that's just an editorial comment Wink

In addition to what Guardian has said, check for RSS feeds or any kind of feeds from other sites. Check for misbehaving shoutboxes and/or chat scripts. Use SWSTATS to determine where all the usage is.

6.9, in and of itself, was one of the most stable versions released. That's one of the reasons I, among many others, still use it.

Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2006 10:13 am

Unfortunately Patched files for 6.9 aren't being released. So you would have to make the changes manually. Security-wise, if you like doing it yourself, then you can stick with 6.9. Otherwise I recommend 7.6 + Patched files or RavenNuke

Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 2:35 am

Raven wrote:

I am still using 6.9 (heavily modded and patched) here. I will be converting to my RavenNuke76(tm) v2.x series as soon as I have the time.

I always feel compelled to respond to these kinds of threads -- psychological defect, I suppose... Cool

6.9?!?!? I'm still using 6.5 "(heavily modded and patched)". God's truth... I've thought about 'upgrading' for 3 years, but I never seem to find the time (either)... killing me

It's been pointed out, in other threads such as this, that what I'm using doesn't actually bear any resemblance to PHP-Nuke 6.5 -- and I suppose that's a valid point -- maybe the whole point...

Personally, I don't think it makes any difference how old the 'core' is, as long as you keep up with the Jones', and one step ahead of the hackers. As a matter of fact, having a "heavily modded and patched" older version is probably more likely to stymie script kiddies, yada, yada, yada...

So, if it were me -- Duke, TopsailDesigner, et al -- I would stick with what you are using now and simply 'butcher' the code... Wink

Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 3:02 am

evaders99 wrote:

Security-wise, if you like doing it yourself, then you can stick with 6.9. Otherwise I recommend 7.6 + Patched files or RavenNuke

Exactly!

You know, I've thought (perchance dreamed) about this a lot...

It seems that ppl are always hankering for a "PHP-Nuke Lite" version, so called. If it were up to me, in a perfect world -- if there were 31 hours in a day, 52 days in a week, and 365 weeks in a year -- I would designate PHP-Nuke 6.9 to be "PHP-Nuke Lite" and PHP-Nuke 7.6 "PHP-Nuke Pro". All other versions of PHP-Nuke are superfluous, as far as I'm concerned...

In other words, I think the key to 'sustainability', as our friend 'Nuke Evangelist' would say, would be to maintain 2 different (but compatible) versions of PHP-Nuke -- 6.9 & 7.6 "(heavily modded and patched)". These are THE Milestone Releases, IMHO... Cool

Site Admin Joined: Jun 04, 2004 Posts: 6433

I'd also have to agree with Guardian. There isn't anything different between 7.0 and later versions that would substantly affect performance, nor is there anything IN these versions that would do so. Moving off the old host sounds like a good idea, especially if there was no evidence to support that claim.

If you're starting a new site, I'd definitely suggest RavenNuke (based on version 7.6).

If you're on an existing site, there are several options. First, use NukeSentinel, which gives you several options for not only improving security, but also limiting access to resource-hogging "visitors." If you're concerned about security and not interested in maintaining a version that is no longer supported with patches AND you have the ability to convert your SQL tables or follow through various upgrade scripts (this isn't trivial), you can upgrade.

Obviously, many people run older versions of Nuke with no problem. The admin function changed in 7.5, but that's really the only significant different between 7.5 and higher and previous version. And, as VinDSL already mentioned, it's easy enough to convert modules between pre-7.5 and post. Chatserv posted a simple set of instructions to do this somewhere - I believe it was on [ Only registered users can see links on this board! Get registered or login! ]

It's always interesting to hear statements like you heard from the previous host. Take a trip to Missouri if you haven't already learned the phrase: Show me. In this case, it might help to show yourself to make sure the site isn't being abused in some way.

Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 6:42 am

Sorry, it was evaders who mentioned the ease of switching admin functions between pre 7.5 and post...

Client Joined: Oct 07, 2003 Posts: 735 Location: Ohio

RavenNuke is the shizzle. Smile

Posted: Fri Mar 03, 2006 11:10 am

Quote:

RavenNuke is the shizzle

What he said... or something.

-sting

Posted: Thu Apr 27, 2006 1:54 am

RavenNuke so totally rocks.

I run multiple sites, thankfully most of them are small and without a ton of forum activity. But one of my nuke sites, it began with 6.0, my first one, is huge. Last year the users sent nearly 50,000 IMs to each other, there are nearly 1000 pics in the gallery, 65000 forum posts, and a front and center shoutblock with 20 posts a day ... Though I love to dine with the Jones too, that site continues to run on 6.9 with patches and sentinel and protector (I broke things when I tried removing it) and an online all-the-time sysop and no public registration. It is heavily modded.

But I need to upgrade. I want the blocks and modules being developed today.

I was saying the same thing back around 7.3 ... now I'm glad I didn't go there because 7.5 and 7.6 would have been required too.... and then there would be all the patching and the bugs, and all my mods to do again and again and again.

Then when 7.7 (arrgggg) came out and then 7.8, my head started spinning and I started looking at other CMS. But I love my nuke, so I tried Platinum, PCNuke and Evolution. But they lacked Sentinel, Groups and for me, they were full of much I didn't need/want.

I agree 6.9 and 7.6 are nuke sweet spots. But the sweetest nuke ever is RavenNuke. So, if there is a new nuke in your future, or like me an old nuke needing some work, you have now on the best bit of the rock to be found anywhere in Nukedom.
RavensScripts