Messages posted by: LSander

I'll try it.

FYI, I experimented a bit more with other things in the "nobody@host" slot. I tried "two words" and "oneword".

Both of them went to the Comcast email address OK, but neither was forwarded to AOL, or received directly from AOL.

Conclusion: AOL will accept anything@anything.com, whether a valid address or not, but it seems to reject anything that doesn't look like a valid email address.

It's fixed! (At least as far as I can tell.)

I made your suggested changes, plugging in guestbook@host44.ipowerweb.com in the "nobody@$host" slot.

Then I made a variety of posts and private messages, with my guestbook email address set either to an AOL address or to another address that automatically forwards all messages to AOL.

Everything worked, with the exception of one message which seems to have been lost. That may have been due to an error on my part.

If the poster includes an email address in his post, the notification is "From" that address. Otherwise, it is from guestbook@host44.ipower.web

The subject of all notification messages is "New guestbook entry", whether the notification is of a posting or a private message.

After my extensive testing (a dozen messages, in different permutations), I changed "guestbook@host44.ipowerweb.com" to "guestbook@ussrankin.org" in the "nobody@host" slot. I posted to the guestbook, and the notification was received by AOL with no problems. I conclude that that's an acceptable address to have in there, but it remains to be proven by repeated use.

Bottom line: THE NEW CODE WORKS. Thanks for all your help.

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For future versions...

It would be most excellent if private messages could be identified as such in the subject of the notification message.

Private messages don't include Location, Homepage, or Picture, even though they are asked for in the form that creates the private message, and they DO appear on guestbook posts. It would be best if these items were either included in the private message, or if the form somehow showed that they weren't included.

That's it. I'll let you know of any further developments.

Regards,
Lou Sander
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
USA

I'll try the fixes and let you know. Like so many computer things, this problem is really very small (I can always just check my Comcast email for notifications), but one can't rest until it's fixed.

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On the AOL stuff, Carbonize said:

I am an ex AOL user and here is why I don't like it
1 - You HAVE to use their software
2 - Their software infests your system like a virus and is a pain to remove
3 - The limit what you can actually do online (I'm a programmer and need more than web sites and email)

1 & 3: By having cable modem Internet access, I get around HAVING to use their software and its many limitations. AOL is also less expensive if you "bring your own access". If I could only have one means of Internet access, it would NOT be AOL.

2: They are much less virus-like than they used to be. Every time there's a new version, they put a bunch of stupid shortcuts on your desktop and they put one of their icons in your system tray. These are easily removed, though. Getting rid of AOL entirely, or of a version remaining on the computer, is just a matter of going into Control Panel and removing the program. Other than that, AOL is pretty well-behaved on this score.

My main objection to AOL these days is the inane content of their welcome screens. There's a lot of coverage of movies, TV, rock music, and other stuff that I'm just not interested in these days, and there isn't any way to get rid of it. They've got a "Small Business" welcome screen that has a little bit less of that stuff, but it's only a minor relief.

I need to make some adjustments to the screen that comes up when one makes an error posting entries to the guestbook (picture too big, flood control in effect, etc.)

Where do I find that screen?

I'm still working on this. On messages that DO get through, AOL gives access to some very complete header information. If I could see that info on one of the messages that gets blocked, I could probably figure out what is wrong.

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On using AOL... I access it through a cable modem and it serves me extremely well. The one overriding reason I keep it is that I don't want to change my longstanding email address(es). Other reasons include:

It is easy to use and as solid as a rock.

It has reliable dialup capabilities if my high speed provider goes down.

It can be accessed from anyplace in the country with a local phone call.

It is extremely immune to hacking.

Phone-based tech support is superb (though online & email support are lame).

It hasn't ever been acquired by a company that requires me to change all my email addresses, my way of operating, etc., and this record is likely to continue.

Its spam control is very good, and constantly improving/evolving. (My wife gets zero spam--none. I get a certain amount of it because of the places I visit. AOL handles almost all of it.)

It is frequently updated, and has armies of people working to make it better. (God is on the side of the big battalions.)

Basically, it does everything I need it to do, with very few drawbacks.

It DOES block Guestbook messages, but that seems to be a side effect of titanium-strength spam filtering.

Carbonize (didn't log in) wrote:Ah thats the problem then. The guestbook script fills in the email if none supplies as theirname@server. Because you are hosting it locally it is putting server as your IP. You need to manually edit that part in add.class.php.

I'm not hosting locally. The email seems to figure out from where I am accessing the guestbook, then tacks that onto the end of itself, after the "@".

I want to override that, but I need a little more help in knowing what to edit in add.class.php. (I'm getting reasonably capable at this stuff, but I'm still basically a newbie.)

I am still wrestling with this. ET's suggestion seemed like a good one, but it didn't work. I CAN get post notifications forwarded to my Comcast accounts, but not to AOL (and I am NOT interested in moving my email away from AOL--there are too many advantages there).

I surmise that part of the problem is in the notification email itself. In my case, the email says it originates at USSRankin@67.165.108.105. I'm not 100% sure where that numeric URL is, but I'm pretty sure it's the router for my home network.

I have installed the "quick mod" to have the guestbook log the IP rather than the hostname (changing $host in add.class.php). When I reverse the modification, the email says it originates at USSRankin@c-67-165-108-105.client.comcast.net

If I knew where to plug it in, I'd be willing to plug in one address that these notification emails always say they are from.

I'm having trouble getting notification of new posts via email. The guestbook seems to be sending them out OK, but I only sometimes get them.

I want to get my notifications at a specific AOL email account, but they just won't go there. It doesn't matter what AOL account I set up as the webmaster email address, NOTHING gets through to the AOL account.

I have several comcast.net email accounts, and they can receive notifications with no problem. But when I set them up to forward all mail to one of my AOL accounts, they refuse to forward my guestbook notifications to any AOL account. Messages from other sources are forwarded with no problem.

It seems like maybe AOL just doesn't like guestbook mail. Any info on this? Any suggestions?

Well, thanks to you, your forum, and lots of help from Amber222, my Guestbook looks exactly as I want it to, and is much less vulnerable to hackers. Check it out at www.ussrankin.org (click the guestbook link toward the bottom of the page).

And to think that three days ago, my host company spent a LOT of time looking into my hacked Guestbook and ended up telling me that my only solution was to uninstall it and start again from scratch.

Thanks! On the black-on-black -- you evidently caught my guestbook in the middle of some experimentation with different "looks." We weren't trying to hide anything, just to find the best appearance. We did NOT stick with the black.

New topic: One of the hacker sites suggested that hackers search the web for the words "Advanced Guestbook." I changed the text at the bottom of my page to say "A d v a n c e d," etc. (with extra spaces). Maybe that will discourage some of them.

Everything is working fine, but I want to put the date in bold, and skip a line after it.

My guestbook is at http://www.ussrankin.org/guestbook/

I'm a reasonably advanced beginner at this stuff, but I can't even find where the date is stored. (No problem with the date itself, I just want to change its format a bit.)

Lou Sander
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
USA

When I try to use Easy Administration, I get this message:

Fatal error: Cannot instantiate non-existent class: gb_image in /home/ussranki/public_html/guestbook/lib/admin.class.php on line 101

How can I fix this? People can post to the guestbook, but I can't edit their posts.

How do I include Advanced Guestbook entries in my site search/site map script?

When the script I use (FreeFind) indexes my site, it finds many duplicate entries. When it makes up a site map, those duplicates are included.

FreeFind lets you specify what directories or files to include in or exclude from its indexing, but I don't know enough about PHP or Advanced Guestbook to tell it what to do.

Currently I have disabled the Guestbook from all indexing, but of course now I can't search the entries, some of which are very valuable.