Website updates

[Ghost]

Hey folks,

I've got some time to spare during the COVID-19 pandemic, so there's no better time to update the website.

We were running a version of phpBB from 2012 or something like that, and an old version of PHP that our hosting started charging us extra for. First and foremost I'll be fixing those. The longer we go without updates, the harder it gets to actually do the updates.

Unfortunately, the updates break some of our customization:

• The home page and all other content-only pages were custom-built by me some time ago. It's nowhere near compatible with the latest versions of phpBB, so those will be temporarily unavailable. I'll bring the content back somehow, but I'm not sure how yet.
• The forum style isn't available for the latest phpBB versions, so we'll use the default until I setup a suitable replacement.

What still works:

• http://neoee.net -- It's not powered by phpBB, so it's unaffected. You can still download the NeoEE patch there.
• All standard forum functionality.
• The extension for the Downloads section seems to have been well-supported over the years, so we still have all other downloads (official patches, civs, scenarios, etc.).

Over the next week or so, you might see the site become unavailable or disabled. Don't worry, it's just me toying with it and I have backups. If you see anything that's really broken and it stays that way for a while, let me know here.

You may have also seen an bunch of spam in the past few months. We get hit pretty heavily from time to time and have to adjust our anti-spam strategy. Currently, we're using reCAPTCHA v2, which appears to have been broken by some bots, even when it's at the strongest setting. For now, it's still controllable without any changes. The next version of phpBB will support reCAPTCHA v3, so I hope to enable that once it's available. Until then, I apologize if your account with 0 posts got deleted.

[Bogdan_xD]

thx for the update, thought for a moment that the domain was rip and already bought by someone when i entered the website.

[Bogdan_xD]

although, it's not topic related, do you work with Jodocus on other stuff aswell for the lobby or just helping him migrating the site and lobby to his server(i asked about it)?

[Ghost]

I handle the hosting account (web hosting, NeoEE server hosting, domains), donations, and the save-ee.com website. Back before NeoEE, I used to develop the Save-EE Lobby.

Jodocus is the NeoEE patch and server app developer. He sets up NeoEE on the server. I don't help him with any of this, though I'm curious to see what he could share via open source.

Occasionally I'll make changes on the server, which are server-health related and not NeoEE related. And I've made some minor changes on the NeoEE website.

[Minato]

Wishing you good luck improving the site. EE community is lucky to have someone like you!

[Jodocus]

Nice to see the forums being upgraded.
The migration to a linux server is still due (but needed, as we run a way too old Windows server that is constantly under h4x0r Brute force password attacks), even though the software is ready. Thing is that migration is a more involved task I had no time for so far:

1. Order the new server/possibly new IPv4
2. Install Linux
3. Re-adjust the domain names
4. Install MySQL Database Server
5. Compile the NeoEE Titan Server
6. Setup the NeoEE Titan Server
7. Set up E-Mail server (HUGE amount of work...)
8. Set up SSL certificates/Let's encrypt
9. Set up web server/migrate the neoee.net homepage (or even re-design it...)
10. Test the server
11. Possibly fix new, linux-related bugs

Besides of this, there are known (and annoying) bugs in the server software which need fixes as well (not to speak about some security issues in the server software that really need to be fixed). And there is of course the regular maintenance of the server, which is partly automatic (e.g. restarts, SSL certificate renewal, Updating software) but has to be checked and there is also the Support Mail service etc. This has just grown over my head (or rather my schedule) over the time.

And on top of it, the patch is in dire need for an overhaul. More and more Anti virus tools flag it (also thanks to the unfortunate Loader.exe I added to the patch for adjusting the lobby screen resolution, which was later also added by yukon to his patch), but RealForce (who doesn't seem to have more time than I have) is in charge for working on the installer. The CDKey management needs improvement (as it seems to lock out about ~1-5% of people that try to install NeoEE).
Re-working on the installer from scratch is no option, it was a huge work on its own to translate it to a LOT of languages.
The drexmod should get included into the NeoEE patch (either automatically or optional).
A software certificate may also help to increase the trust into the installer binary, though it will cost some more of dem $$$.
And I still have some ideas how to enable RIP hosting for people using IPv6 via Dual Stack Lite Tunnels, which needs an implementation in both the patch file "neoee.dll" and in the server software, as for more and more people port forwarding no longer works (and then, in the long run, nobody can host EE games over the internet any more).

So... if anybody feels like he could and want to contribute, I am always open. NeoEE/Save-EE is quite some work.

[Bogdan_xD]

damn, so many good things, specially the hosting on ipv6...

i fking hate it that i have no idea about programming on this kind of stuff so i could help.The only way I can and Will help would be with $ for the server costs and that software certificate so it doesn't get flagged by AVs.

The only guy that i think has the knowledge besides you 2, and the interest, would probably be yukon, but you probably already knew this

[simple_faith]

yes mi lord