[ Index ]

PHP Cross Reference of Unnamed Project

title

Body

[close]

/docs/ -> FAQ.html (source)

   1  <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
   2  <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en">
   3  <head>
   4  
   5  <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
   6  <meta http-equiv="content-style-type" content="text/css" />
   7  <meta http-equiv="content-language" content="en" />
   8  <meta http-equiv="imagetoolbar" content="no" />
   9  <meta name="resource-type" content="document" />
  10  <meta name="distribution" content="global" />
  11  <meta name="copyright" content="phpBB Group" />
  12  <meta name="keywords" content="" />
  13  <meta name="description" content="phpBB 3.0.x frequently asked questions" />
  14  <title>phpBB3 &bull; FAQ</title>
  15  
  16  <link href="stylesheet.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen, projection" />
  17  
  18  </head>
  19  
  20  <body id="phpbb" class="section-docs">
  21  
  22  <div id="wrap">
  23      <a id="top" name="top" accesskey="t"></a>
  24      <div id="page-header">
  25          <div class="headerbar">
  26              <div class="inner"><span class="corners-top"><span></span></span>
  27  
  28              <div id="doc-description">
  29                  <a href="../index.php" id="logo"><img src="site_logo.gif" alt="" /></a>
  30                  <h1>phpBB 3.0.x FAQ</h1>
  31                  <p>phpBB 3.0.x frequently asked questions</p>
  32                  <p style="display: none;"><a href="#start_here">Skip</a></p>
  33              </div>
  34  
  35              <span class="corners-bottom"><span></span></span></div>
  36          </div>
  37      </div>
  38  
  39      <a name="start_here"></a>
  40  
  41      <div id="page-body">
  42  
  43  <!-- BEGIN DOCUMENT -->
  44  
  45      <p>This is a very basic Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page which attempts to answer some of the more commonly asked questions. It is by no means exhaustive and should be used in combination with the 'built-in' User FAQ within phpBB3, the community forums and our IRC channel (see <a href="README.html">README</a> for details).</p>
  46  
  47      <h1>FAQ</h1>
  48  
  49      <div class="paragraph menu">
  50          <div class="inner"><span class="corners-top"><span></span></span>
  51  
  52          <div class="content">
  53  
  54  <!-- add entry about common UTF8 problems (for example wrong uploading, editing) -->
  55  <ul>
  56      <li><a href="#install">I am finding phpBB too difficult to install. Will you do it for me?</a></li>
  57      <li><a href="#legal">I am having problems with the admin at a certain board, help!</a></li>
  58      <li><a href="#legal">A board has ripped off my graphics/software/etc., stop them!</a></li>
  59      <li><a href="#legal">A board is dealing in warez/porn/etc., you need to prevent them doing this!</a></li>
  60      <li><a href="#legal">I want to sue you because i think you host an illegal board!</a></li>
  61      <li><a href="#viewonline">According to viewonline a user is doing/reading something they should not be able to!</a></li>
  62      <li><a href="#mail">I keep getting Mail sending errors when I (or my users) post/send PM's/etc.!</a></li>
  63      <li><a href="#mail_language">My users are complaining that emails are not in their selected language!</a></li>
  64      <li><a href="#aol_browser">My AOL based users keep getting logged out!</a></li>
  65      <li><a href="#avatars">I am unable to upload avatars from my computer, regardless of the settings.</a></li>
  66      <li><a href="#gallery_avatars">I just cannot get gallery avatars to appear!</a></li>
  67      <li><a href="#permissions">How do I use/set permissions?</a></li>
  68      <li><a href="#login_issues">I (or my users) cannot stay logged in to the forum!</a></li>
  69      <li><a href="#logout_issues">My users are complaining about being logged out too quickly!</a></li>
  70      <li><a href="#not_answered">My question isn't answered here!</a></li>
  71      <li><a href="#disclaimer">Copyright and disclaimer</a></li>
  72  </ul>
  73  
  74          </div>
  75  
  76          <span class="corners-bottom"><span></span></span></div>
  77      </div>
  78  
  79      <hr />
  80  
  81      <a name="install"></a><h2>I am finding phpBB too difficult to install. Will you do it for me?</h2>
  82  
  83      <div class="paragraph">
  84          <div class="inner"><span class="corners-top"><span></span></span>
  85  
  86          <div class="content">
  87  
  88  <p>Simple answer, no we will not. We are not being difficult when we say this we are actually trying to help you. phpBB has a reputation for being easy to install, that reputation is we believe well deserved. It is a simple process of unarchiving a single file, uploading the resulting directory/files to their intended location and entering some data in a web based form. The sequence of events, what to type where, etc. is covered in detail in the accompanying <a href="INSTALL.html">INSTALL.html</a> documentation. If you cannot install phpBB3 the chances are you will be unable to administer or update it.</p>
  89  
  90  <p>There are people, companies (unrelated to your hosting provider), etc. that will install your forum, either for free or for a payment. We do not recommend you make use of these offers. Unless the service is provided by your hosting company you will have to divulge passwords and other sensitive details. If you did not know how to use an ATM would you give a passer-by your bank card and PIN and ask them to show you what to do? No, probably not! The same applies to your hosting account details!</p>
  91  
  92  <p>We think a better solution is for you to carefully read the enclosed documentation, read through our knowledge base at <a href="https://www.phpbb.com/">www.phpbb.com</a> and if necessary ask for help on any thing you get stuck on. However, the decision is yours but please note we may not offer support if we believe you have had the board installed by a third party. In such cases you should direct your questions to that company or person/s.</p>
  93  
  94          </div>
  95  
  96          <div class="back2top"><a href="#wrap" class="top">Back to Top</a></div>
  97  
  98          <span class="corners-bottom"><span></span></span></div>
  99      </div>
 100  
 101      <hr />
 102  
 103  <a name="legal"></a><h2>I am having problems with the admin at a certain board, help!<br />
 104  A board has ripped off my graphics/software/etc., stop them!<br />
 105  A board is dealing in warez/porn/etc., you need to prevent them doing this!<br />
 106  I want to sue you because i think you host an illegal board!</h2>
 107  
 108      <div class="paragraph">
 109          <div class="inner"><span class="corners-top"><span></span></span>
 110  
 111          <div class="content">
 112  
 113  <p>We provide the software, we have absolutely nothing to do with any board that runs it (beyond phpbb.com of course!) and we also do not host any site. The GPL grants the user an unlimited right of use subject to their adherence of that license. Therefore we cannot prevent, dictate, control or otherwise limit the use of phpBB software. So please do not contact us for such matters.</p>
 114  
 115  <p>If you have a problem with a given board please take it up with them, not us. We are not and cannot be held legally responsible for any third party use of this software (much like Microsoft et al cannot be held responsible for the use of Windows in illegal activities, etc.). Additionally we do <strong>not</strong> track the use of phpBB software in any way. So please do not ask us for details on a &quot;given&quot; board we will not be able to help you. If any law firms or lawyers out there send us writs, cease and desist orders, etc. for third party website use of this software we reserve the right to charge for time wasted dealing with such issues...</p>
 116  
 117          </div>
 118  
 119          <div class="back2top"><a href="#wrap" class="top">Back to Top</a></div>
 120  
 121          <span class="corners-bottom"><span></span></span></div>
 122      </div>
 123  
 124      <hr />
 125  
 126  <a name="viewonline"></a><h2>According to viewonline a user is doing/reading something they should not be able to!</h2>
 127  
 128      <div class="paragraph">
 129          <div class="inner"><span class="corners-top"><span></span></span>
 130  
 131          <div class="content">
 132  
 133  <p>No, they probably are not. phpBB uses sessions to keep track of users as they move between pages. The session information tells us who this user is. Therefore in order to determine what a user can do on a page we first need the session details. Once this data is available we can check whether the user is permitted to do whatever it is they are trying to do. This can result in it appearing as if a user is reading a topic in a forum they should not be able to access. Or perhaps viewing private messages when they are only guests, etc. In practice the user is not doing these things, they are viewing a &quot;You are not permitted to do this&quot; type message. The session data has simply been updated before we were able to determine what the user could or could not do.</p>
 134  
 135  <p>Of course this only applies where permissions have been set correctly!</p>
 136  
 137          </div>
 138  
 139          <div class="back2top"><a href="#wrap" class="top">Back to Top</a></div>
 140  
 141          <span class="corners-bottom"><span></span></span></div>
 142      </div>
 143  
 144      <hr />
 145  
 146  <a name="mail"></a><h2>I keep getting Mail sending errors when I (or my users) post/send PM's/etc.!</h2>
 147  
 148      <div class="paragraph">
 149          <div class="inner"><span class="corners-top"><span></span></span>
 150  
 151          <div class="content">
 152  
 153  <p>This error will occur if phpBB cannot send mail. phpBB can send email two ways; using the PHP <code>mail()</code> function or directly via SMTP. Some hosting providers limit the <code>mail()</code> function to prevent its use in spamming, others may rename it or limit its functionality. If the <code>mail()</code> function got renamed, you are able to enter the correct name within the administration control panel. In either case you may need to make use of SMTP. This requires that you have access to such a facility, e.g. your hosting provider may provide one (perhaps requiring specific written authorisation), etc. Please see <a href="https://www.phpbb.com/">www.phpbb.com</a> for additional help on this matter.</p>
 154  
 155  <p>If you do require SMTP services please do not ask (on our forums or elsewhere) for someone to provide you with one. Open relays are now things of the past thanks to the unthinking spammers out there. Therefore you are unlikely to find someone willing to offer you (free) services.</p>
 156  
 157          </div>
 158  
 159          <div class="back2top"><a href="#wrap" class="top">Back to Top</a></div>
 160  
 161          <span class="corners-bottom"><span></span></span></div>
 162      </div>
 163  
 164      <hr />
 165  
 166  <a name="mail_language"></a><h2>My users are complaining that emails are not in their selected language!</h2>
 167  
 168      <div class="paragraph">
 169          <div class="inner"><span class="corners-top"><span></span></span>
 170  
 171          <div class="content">
 172  
 173  <p>You must have deleted a language pack or the language pack is incomplete. phpBB will try to send emails in the users selected language. If it cannot find a suitable email template it will switch to the boards default language.</p>
 174  
 175  <!-- additional entry about encoded emails -->
 176  
 177          </div>
 178  
 179          <div class="back2top"><a href="#wrap" class="top">Back to Top</a></div>
 180  
 181          <span class="corners-bottom"><span></span></span></div>
 182      </div>
 183  
 184      <hr />
 185  
 186  <a name="aol_browser"></a><h2>My AOL based users keep getting logged out!</h2>
 187  
 188      <div class="paragraph">
 189          <div class="inner"><span class="corners-top"><span></span></span>
 190  
 191          <div class="content">
 192  
 193  <p>phpBB uses sessions to keep track of users as they browse the board. These sessions use a combination of a unique session id, the users IP and if specified the users browser and/or the users x-forwarded-for header to identify each user. We make use of all of this as an extra safe-guard to help prevent sessions being hijacked (by discovering the unique session id).</p>
 194  
 195  <p>Unfortunately this only works when the users IP is constant as they browse the board. For most users this will be the case. However certain providers route their users via a cluster of proxys. In some cases, particularly the AOL browser, this results in different IPs being forwarded as the user moves between pages. We take account of this by not checking the entire IP by default but only the first "three quads" (<samp>A.B.C</samp>). Again in most cases this will be fine. However again AOL uses IPs which can vary so much that checking only the first two quads results in a fairly static IP being available for session validation.</p>
 196  
 197  <p>If you are experiencing problems related to this you can set the Session IP validation parameter found in <code>Admin-&gt;General-&gt;Server Configuration-&gt;Security Settings</code> to <samp>A.B</samp>. Please note that reducing the IP validation length does potentially increase the risk of sessions being hijacked (this is something for you to consider, phpBB Group takes no responsibility should anything happen!). We suggest to at least additionally enable the browser validation.</p>
 198  
 199          </div>
 200  
 201          <div class="back2top"><a href="#wrap" class="top">Back to Top</a></div>
 202  
 203          <span class="corners-bottom"><span></span></span></div>
 204      </div>
 205  
 206      <hr />
 207  
 208  <a name="avatars"></a><h2>I am unable to upload avatars from my computer, regardless of the settings.</h2>
 209  
 210      <div class="paragraph">
 211          <div class="inner"><span class="corners-top"><span></span></span>
 212  
 213          <div class="content">
 214  
 215  <p>There are two possibilities here, the first is you have not created the directory you specified as the storage location for avatars, ie. as specified in the <code>Admin -&gt; General -&gt; Board Configuration -&gt; Avatar settings</code> section. If the directory does not exist uploadeable avatars are automatically disabled. You should create the required directory (ensuring it has global write access or other appropriate permissions to allow the webserver to write files to it).</p>
 216  
 217  <p>The second possibility is that your provider has disabled file_upload support. You should contact your provider and ask them if this is the case. There is not a lot you can do, there are still three other avatar settings left to choose from including uploading via an URL which will work fine.</p>
 218  
 219          </div>
 220  
 221          <div class="back2top"><a href="#wrap" class="top">Back to Top</a></div>
 222  
 223          <span class="corners-bottom"><span></span></span></div>
 224      </div>
 225  
 226      <hr />
 227  
 228  <a name="gallery_avatars"></a><h2>I just cannot get gallery avatars to appear!</h2>
 229  
 230      <div class="paragraph">
 231          <div class="inner"><span class="corners-top"><span></span></span>
 232  
 233          <div class="content">
 234  
 235  <p>phpBB categorises gallery avatars and it does this by reading through folders contained in the location you specified as being the gallery path. For example, if you set the gallery path to <samp>images/avatars/gallery</samp> phpBB will expect to find a series of folders within that path, e.g. <samp>images/avatars/gallery/moviestars</samp>, <samp>images/avatars/gallery/cartoons</samp>, <samp>images/avatars/gallery/misc</samp>, etc. Placing images directly in <samp>images/avatars/gallery/</samp> will result in nothing being listed in your gallery.</p>
 236  
 237          </div>
 238  
 239          <div class="back2top"><a href="#wrap" class="top">Back to Top</a></div>
 240  
 241          <span class="corners-bottom"><span></span></span></div>
 242      </div>
 243  
 244      <hr />
 245  
 246  <a name="permissions"></a><h2>How do I use/set permissions?</h2>
 247  
 248      <div class="paragraph">
 249          <div class="inner"><span class="corners-top"><span></span></span>
 250  
 251          <div class="content">
 252  
 253  <p>Please read the paragraph about permissions in our extensive <a href="https://www.phpbb.com/support/documentation/3.0/">online documentation</a>.</p>
 254  
 255          </div>
 256  
 257          <div class="back2top"><a href="#wrap" class="top">Back to Top</a></div>
 258  
 259          <span class="corners-bottom"><span></span></span></div>
 260      </div>
 261  
 262      <hr />
 263  
 264  <a name="login_issues"></a><h2>I (or my users) cannot stay logged in to the forum!</h2>
 265  
 266      <div class="paragraph">
 267          <div class="inner"><span class="corners-top"><span></span></span>
 268  
 269          <div class="content">
 270  
 271  <p>If you (or your users) are, after attempting a login, being returned to the index (or other page) without appearing to be logged in the most likely problem is incorrect cookie settings. phpBB uses cookies to store a session id and a small amount of user data. For this data to be stored correctly the cookie domain, name, path and secure settings must be correct. You can check this in <code>Admin-&gt;General-&gt;Server Configuration-&gt;Cookie Settings</code>. Typically the cookie domain can be left blank and the cookie path set to <samp>/</samp> (a single forward slash). Do <strong>not</strong> set the cookie as being secure unless your board is running over a secure sockets layer connection, ie. https://</p>
 272  
 273  <p>If you still have problems try setting the cookie domain to your full domain name, e.g. <samp>www.mysystem.tld</samp>, <samp>www.something.mydomain.tld</samp>. You <strong>must</strong> ensure the domain name contains at least two dots or browsers will be unlikely to recognise the cookie, e.g. <samp>.mydomain.com</samp>, <samp>mydomain.com</samp>. Do <strong>not</strong> add http:// or anything else to the domain name!</p>
 274  
 275          </div>
 276  
 277          <div class="back2top"><a href="#wrap" class="top">Back to Top</a></div>
 278  
 279          <span class="corners-bottom"><span></span></span></div>
 280      </div>
 281  
 282      <hr />
 283  
 284  <a name="logout_issues"></a><h2>My users are complaining about being logged out too quickly!</h2>
 285  
 286      <div class="paragraph">
 287          <div class="inner"><span class="corners-top"><span></span></span>
 288  
 289          <div class="content">
 290  
 291  <p>You can increase the default length of sessions (ie. how long before a users session is considered 'dead') in <code>Admin-&gt;General-&gt;Server Configuration-&gt;Load Settings</code>. Set it to whatever value your users feel comfortable with, remember that security issues may affect your decision (ie. having too long a session may allow non-users to abuse your board should a user forget to logout or otherwise leave a current session on a public workstation).</p>
 292  
 293          </div>
 294  
 295          <div class="back2top"><a href="#wrap" class="top">Back to Top</a></div>
 296  
 297          <span class="corners-bottom"><span></span></span></div>
 298      </div>
 299  
 300      <hr />
 301  
 302  <a name="not_answered"></a><h2>My question isn't answered here!</h2>
 303  
 304      <div class="paragraph">
 305          <div class="inner"><span class="corners-top"><span></span></span>
 306  
 307          <div class="content">
 308  
 309  <p>Please read our <a href="https://www.phpbb.com/support/documentation/3.0/">extensive user documentation</a> first, it may just explain what you want to know.</p>
 310  
 311  <p>Feel free to search our community forum for the information you require. <strong>PLEASE DO NOT</strong> post your question without having first used search, chances are someone has already asked and answered your question. You can find our board here:</p>
 312  
 313  <p><a href="https://www.phpbb.com">www.phpbb.com</a></p>
 314  
 315          </div>
 316  
 317          <div class="back2top"><a href="#wrap" class="top">Back to Top</a></div>
 318  
 319          <span class="corners-bottom"><span></span></span></div>
 320      </div>
 321  
 322      <hr />
 323  
 324  <a name="disclaimer"></a><h2>Copyright and disclaimer</h2>
 325  
 326      <div class="paragraph">
 327          <div class="inner"><span class="corners-top"><span></span></span>
 328  
 329          <div class="content">
 330  
 331      <p>This application is opensource software released under the <a href="http://opensource.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.php">GNU General Public License v2</a>. Please see source code and the docs directory for more details. This package and its contents are Copyright (c) <a href="https://www.phpbb.com/">phpBB Group</a>, All Rights Reserved.</p>
 332  
 333          </div>
 334  
 335          <div class="back2top"><a href="#wrap" class="top">Back to Top</a></div>
 336  
 337          <span class="corners-bottom"><span></span></span></div>
 338      </div>
 339  
 340  <!-- END DOCUMENT -->
 341  
 342      <div id="page-footer">
 343          <div class="version">&nbsp;</div>
 344      </div>
 345  </div></div>
 346  
 347  <div>
 348      <a id="bottom" name="bottom" accesskey="z"></a>
 349  </div>
 350  
 351  </body>
 352  </html>


Generated: Wed Oct 2 15:03:47 2013 Cross-referenced by PHPXref 0.7.1