NukeSentinel 2.1.0 Questions & Observations

Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2004 1:56 am

Hi Folks...

I've just downloaded the new NukeSentinel 2.1.0 and had a few questions and observations. I realize the update is brand new, so anyone reading this, please keep that in mind as the application developers have done a great job in updating and improving things as they discover any issues.

This post is intended as simply a heads-up about what I have discovered in the new 2.1.0 that has just become available here.

First, I noticed that the readme file is the same as the 2.0.2 readme. I think this needs to be updated slightly to reflect procedures for updating NukeSentinel from 2.0.2.

Specifically, I'm unsure if it is necessary (or not) to upload the latest abuse directory containing the latest tpl files.... I have customized my messages and realized that uploading the latest release would overwrite all of that work. If I need to do that and re-edit my custom messages, that's fine, but it should be documented in the installation procedures either way.

Next, I also discovered some new files:
sample.htaccess and
sample.staccess

The new sample.htaccess seems to have some neat new stuff in there, but I could not find any documentation (including the user's guide) that talks about how to implement (or integrate) it's contents successfully with existing .htaccess solutions employed.

Next, the sample.staccess file is empty. Should there be something in that?

Next, I went ahead and instead of uploading any of the New NukeSentinel files, I decided to start by uploading the new Users Guide.

When I ran this latest release on my site, I discovered that the new menu navigation tree looks transparent in Firefox making it very difficult to successfully navigate to sub-pages.

In the new User's Guide, I found no mention of the new 2.1.0 htaccess Features and little mention of the new "Blocked IP", "Blocked Ranges" and "Blocked Referrers" sub-directory contents found in the new /modules/ sub-directory. While I see screens about these in the User Guide "Features" and other sections, I don't see much else.

I guess what I am curious about is why these things are being named as individual modules instead of being named "NSNST_Blocked_Ranges" or simply all put under a "NukeSentinel" module directory for example. My only concern is that as things evolve, a user might mistakenly delete one of these modules thinking it to be a stand-alone add-on, rather than what it actually is... part of NukeSentinel.

I only inquire about these modules as I have already modified my existing blocked referrers and I wanted to make sure that any changes from upgrading to 2.1.0 wouldn't result in any loss of pre-upgrade data. I was hoping to see more about that in either the Users Guide or in the readme but could find no mention of any of these alterations or the impacts to those upgrading from previous releases (if any).

(oh and just a note that it seems all references to the words "referrer(s)" is commonly mispelled throughout the application as "referer(s)".. obviously (in the big picture), this is a minor issue, but I thought I would just mention it as it should be corrected in some future release.)

Next, I think I should mention that I've noticed that the new NukeSentinel scrolling block is having issues with Marquee in Firefox and other Gecko browsers. I have another post on this site that discusses those issues. This post also describes what causes the problem as it has already been identified by DJMaze (from what he discovered when fixing Marquee blocks in CPG-Nuke). If you have any questions about exactly what he did to correct the problem, I'm sure he can give you a quick answer.
UPDATE: The jumpy scrolling block issue has been fixed in the final version of 2.1.0 ... I think Raven is running a pre-release block here and that is why we still see it that way here.

Anyway... I'm off now to backup my site and then to attempt an update to 2.1.0.

Thanks and keep up the good work!

UPDATE: Just a heads-up about a small typo in the IP2C add-on.

in the readme.txt file the IP2C installation instructions find:

Quote:

2) Then, in the address line of your browser, erase the admin.php and replace it
with nsnst_ip2country.php
For example: [ Only registered users can see links on this board! Get registered or login! ]
This will install, uninstall NukeSentinel™ IP2C database tables & data.

They should ACTUALLY read:

Quote:

2) Then, in the address line of your browser, erase the admin.php and replace it
with nsnst_ip2country.php
For example: [ Only registered users can see links on this board! Get registered or login! ]
This will install, uninstall NukeSentinel™ IP2C database tables & data.

Okay, so I discovered this by being lazy and simply cutting and pasting the line into my screen... what can I say? It took me almost a minute to realize the link was wrong (after checking my files).....

Update: NukeSentinel 2.1.0 now in use on my site... Works great so far.. Love IP Range banning, boy did I need that!

Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2004 5:30 pm

I'm going to try and cover as much as I can as clearly as I can, but bear in mind that I can't spell worth a crap and I'm not a document writter Smile

I have thought of combining all of teh modules (Blocked IP's, Blocked Referers, and Blocked Ranges) into one module named NukeSentinel. However the reason I haven't is because one webmaster may want one of them but not all of them and if they were all in one it would be all or none.

I'll update teh readme with a note about what MUST BE uploaded.

sample.htaccess and sample.staccess are samples of the CGIAuth system. In the sample.htaccess file you will see a sample of the code needed to use CGIAuth and the sample.staccess, while empty, if renamed to .staccess and uploaded your server then chmoded to 666 will store the CGIAuth AID's and Passwords.

Quote:

(oh and just a note that it seems all references to the words "referrer(s)" is commonly mispelled throughout the application as "referer(s)".. obviously (in the big picture), this is a minor issue, but I thought I would just mention it as it should be corrected in some future release.)

On this, I copied it from the HTTP_AUTH system which has referer instead of referrer Smile

So I had left for now til a time when I can go back thru and change the ones needing to be changed and leave the ones that shouldn't be changed.

The New User Guide will be updated from time to time to correct anything missing or needing a better explaination. We wanted to get 2.1.0 out since we finished it's coding and testing a week or so ago.

Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2004 5:47 pm

Old readme.txt section:

Code:

Section 3: Installation:


------------------------


Extract archive to temp dir and copy included as noted below (and chmod if shown):


(root/ means your nuke root directory)


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------


LICENSE.txt (do not upload, NukeSentinel™ License)


README.txt (do not upload, your reading it)


TEMPLATES.txt (do not upload, instructions for template files)





Only on Apache servers -------------> root/.htaccess (CHMOD 666)


                                                     Be sure your .htaccess file


                                                     has at least one blank line at


                                                     the end of it.





Uploading Files:


----------------


NukeSentinel™ Files in Directories:            FTP Upload to:


html/abuse/*.*               ----------------> root/abuse/*.*


html/admin/*.*               ----------------> root/admin/*.*


html/blocks/*.*              ----------------> root/blocks/*.*


html/images/*.*              ----------------> root/images/*.*


html/includes/*.*            ----------------> root/includes/*.*


html/language/*.*            ----------------> root/language/*.*


html/modules/*.*             ----------------> root/modules/*.*


* root = the root directory of your site.

New readme.txt section:

Code:

Section 3: Installation:


------------------------


Extract archive to temp dir and copy included as noted below (and chmod if shown):


(root/ means your nuke root directory)


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------


LICENSE.txt (do not upload, NukeSentinel™ License)


README.txt (do not upload, your reading it)


TEMPLATES.txt (do not upload, instructions for template files)





sample.htaccess and sample.staccess are samples of the CGIAuth system. In the


sample.htaccess file you will see a sample of the code needed to use CGIAuth and


the sample.staccess, while empty, if renamed to .staccess, upload your server


then chmoded to 666 will store the CGIAuth AID's and Passwords. 





Only on Apache servers -------------> root/.htaccess (CHMOD 666)


                                                     Be sure your .htaccess file


                                                     has at least one blank line at


                                                     the end of it.





Uploading Files:


----------------


NukeSentinel™ Files in Directories:            FTP Upload to:


html/abuse/*.*               ----------------> root/abuse/*.* Not needed for upgraders


html/admin/*.*               ----------------> root/admin/*.*


html/blocks/*.*              ----------------> root/blocks/*.*


html/images/*.*              ----------------> root/images/*.*


html/includes/*.*            ----------------> root/includes/*.*


html/language/*.*            ----------------> root/language/*.*


html/modules/*.*             ----------------> root/modules/*.* Not needed for upgraders


* root = the root directory of your site.

Site Admin Joined: Jun 04, 2004 Posts: 6432

From dictionary.com:

Quote:

referer - A misspelling of "referrer" which somehow made it into the HTTP standard. A given web page's referer (sic) is the URL of whatever web page contains the link that the user followed to the current page. Most browsers pass this information as part of a request.

Since that's the spelling in the HTTP standard, is it really misspelled? As many of you know, I'm a stickler for proper spelling, but this is what you see when you look at logs, etc. So even though it isn't "correct," I'm not sure correcting it would be correct... Very Happy

I also noticed the User Guide Firefox / Mozilla menu issue before it was released and sent a message to GeekyGuy (I see GeekyGuy posted a fix here and on his site). I've also done some simple customizations to 2.0.2. Using a file comparison tool (I use BeyondCompare, but another great tool, WinMerge is free) can help retrofit the changes pretty easily.

Given the magnitude of enhancements in this release, my hat is off to the NukeSentinel™ team (Bob, Raven, ChatServ) and to GeekyGuy for his work on the User Guide. Keep up the good work guys, and let me know how I can help!

Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2004 2:57 pm

I agree with the question, is it misspelled if it is a standard?

kguske, I do have to thank you for alerting me to the transparent menu a couple of weeks ago, but I promptly forgot to do anything about it. Embarassed

I will be getting info from the Forums posts and adding to the User Guide. I will send it to Bob and Raven when I make significant changes, and we will make it available for download. I hope to have something together soon.