Forum posts doing something weird

[Wellhellothere]

I did just create my first post and I can't seem to find it anywhere. Do new post get screened before they're visible on the forum, or did it actually disappear do to glitch?

[Pugsy]

I did just create my first post and I can't seem to find it anywhere. Do new post get screened before they're visible on the forum, or did it actually disappear do to glitch?

New account first posts are indeed screened to make sure they aren't spam. You should see your posts now and any subsequent posts will show up immediately.
We had to implement this additional security measure a couple of years ago because of spam bot attacks over running the forum with spam. I would wake up to 40,000 new spam posts happening faster than I could block them. Most were in Chinese/Korean characters.

For all you old forum members who remember the Chinese/Korean dude spammer....he still tries here about once a month to see if the same filters are in place. I get a couple of posts from him promoting the universities in the characters and usually a random post in English and then he gives up and doesn't post anymore since he doesn't see his spam show up. He still tests the waters here.

[chunkyfrog]

May he continue to wet his bed and fail to sleep peacefully, due to the damp and stench that is his alone.

[Pugsy]

Last I checked the forum software still didn't like my hughes.net IP provider. This was about a week ago. I just turned it off for now and running off my phone. No other website cares though...and the forum software doesn't think anything is wrong with my computer when I use the Verizon IP. If I could change providers I would but where I live my choices are limited and while my phone does okay...it's slower than molasses in the wintertime.

[jimbud]

Mine seems to be back to the way it used to be. Just occasional error notices. Have not had a robot challenge in days.
I also have hughes.net, no choice. Never great, but better than dial up.

JPB

[Pugsy]

Mine seems to be back to the way it used to be. Just occasional error notices. Have not had a robot challenge in days.
I also have hughes.net, no choice. Never great, but better than dial up.

JPB

I got the robot challenge several times yesterday and again several times this morning. Bummer. Annoying as hell.

[chunkyfrog]

No problem with the 4 year old at&t tablet (on spectrum wi-fi),
but the 2 year old Verizon tablet (same wi-fi) gives me nothing but grief.
Both tablets are Samsung--and I suspect spectrum is throttling my wi-fi.

[Pugsy]

Well.....what a PITA this is. I pretty much have to do the robot thing and a captcha thing with anything I try to do here.
Sometimes making the captcha robot happy lets me get through and sometimes I get caught in a never ending loop.
I have done it no less than a dozen times in the last 2 hours alone.

I am beyond frustrated. I pay $80 bucks a month for an internet that is reasonably fast but then I waste time here doing the robot captcha thing repeatedly slowing me down and I can't use it to access only this forum. I have no problem anywhere but here.
BUT....I could use my cell phone account but damnit....it's a lot slower and I don't like slower and I shouldn't have to.

It's a PITA to part of the time use hughes net and part of the time use the cell phone wi fi. I shouldn't have to do this. I don't like using the cell phone for other internet stuff....it's just slow and I shouldn't have to do this.

So.....I will log in twice a day and approve new account posts so people can get help and that's going to pretty much be it for right now.
Hell...I can't even open my own private messages and read them without the damn robot causing that never ending loop.
I get the robot with anything I do...even trying to access a new account post to approve it or not.

I have a life outside this forum that I need to attend to....I can't keep wasting my time fighting something that I shouldn't have to fight.

It's beyond frustrating and right now I am so pissed that I just want to walk away.

Oh....watch the new account posts closely folks. I am seeing a lot of new account posts that are benign but then once approved the poster is coming back in and editing their posts to add spam links. Just had another one today....link for internet speed test which this person has been caught doing in a past screen id account and they got blocked once caught.
I can't review old posts for edits easily....so you guys have to be on the look out. Flag them if you see them and when I log in I will take care of it.

The damn robot is messing with my ability to watch for spammers and that pisses me off as well.

[chunkyfrog]

Maybe the virus is in the FORUM SOFTWARE.
Revenge of the G-D chinese spammer.
This could kill the forum altogether.
(Writing from my as-yet uninfected tablet)

[ezduzit_inSeattle]

Does anyone actually manage or troubleshoot this forum? The site is NOT SECURE!? URL is not https: anyone can see any info including passwords.... how can we fix this.
I have not posted for a long time; just came back today to post nasal cushions I have to exchange and my virus software popped up that the site is NOT SECURE
Has it always been that way and just that new software is just now deteting that?
Yes it is slow, you have to wait a long time for your post to show up.

[khauser]

Yes it has always been that way. We don't exactly store credit card information here though.
You should never, ever use the same password, or even a variant of another password on multiple sites. That's asking for trouble. You can use a password manager to create and site unique and very complex passwords for each site. I believe Google is building one in to Chrome as well.

So, why not https? Money. It requires a unique certificate that has to be paid for and managed. It's not really expensive, but the forum has zero ads and makes no money for the sponsor (at least not directly). Most don't know who the sponsor even is. So it's hard to demand it be secure. I think we'd get a very secure solution when it disappeared altogether. That would not be a good day.

[Pugsy]

There's nothing here worth stealing. It doesn't need to be secure. Who cares what my password is for my Pugsy account?????
I have zero personal information listed anywhere in my account information and I even use a throw away email address for registration so if someone steals it...they don't have anything of great value.

It has always been this way. This website is totally separate from cpap.com where personal information is stored.
Likely your own personal security software is just now alerting to it for some reason.

For people to want to steal something they need to be able to make money somehow and there's nothing in our accounts here worth stealing.

Does anyone actually manage or troubleshoot this forum? The site is NOT SECURE!? URL is not https: anyone can see any info including passwords.... how can we fix this.
I have not posted for a long time; just came back today to post nasal cushions I have to exchange and my virus software popped up that the site is NOT SECURE
Has it always been that way and just that new software is just now deteting that?

[Pugsy]

Well last night (after fighting with the damn robot all day) someone suggested I try a VPN and see what happens.
So I got a free trial of a VPN offered through my AVG anti virus program. It's a week trial before I would have to decide to pay.
So far...no robot this morning and I guess it is working. I haven't decided if I want to keep it or just use my Verizon IP because the VPN also is slower than using hughes IP direct. Web pages with images are a bit slower to load and videos start and stop more often but they weren't great even with hughes. So I lost some speed. I can't decide which slower speed is worse...phone or VPN.

If I have to use my phone....I don't suppose I really need hughes so maybe I need to eliminate it but then if I ever figure out how to live stream TV, and make my TV a real smart TV, I don't know if piggy backing off my phone IP would be an option. We just last week upgraded our Dish TV service to make it easier to live stream but I haven't figured out exactly how to accomplish that feat just yet.
I need a teenager here.

[zonker]

Well last night (after fighting with the damn robot all day) someone suggested I try a VPN and see what happens.

well, that's a step forward. at least the captchas are gone.

if i understand correctly, a vpn isn't going to make things faster and CAN reduce speed. i reckon what it's doing in this case is masking the fact that you are on hughesnet, which something here on the forum doesn't like. aliens?

i've used and still use(not as much as i used to) nord vpn. can't remember the price but i know it was reasonable or i wouldn't have gone for it. and it's reliable and doesn't slow my internet speed. don't know what avg is offering but you might want to consider nord.

at any rate, anything that can give you a bit of relief!

[Pugsy]

i've used and still use(not as much as i used to) nord vpn. can't remember the price but i know it was reasonable or i wouldn't have gone for it. and it's reliable and doesn't slow my internet speed. don't know what avg is offering but you might want to consider nord.

I saw the mention of Nord VPN but didn't investigate cost. Looks like maybe AVG is 1.99 a month or that's what I was prompted at the time I activated the 1 week free trial. I didn't want to commit or pay until I saw if it fixed my robot issues or not and also checked to see how much it might slow down things. I did compare a before and after VPN install internet speed test and the difference was significant.
Hughes isn't always super fast but it is always faster than my phone IP. I do understand that sometimes crap happens and we have slower speeds everywhere. Atmospheric conditions especially when running off a satellite dish...and how many people are using will also affect speeds. In my situation both the phone and the hughes end up running off satellite....so it is what it is.

I have a week to make a decision and do more research. So I have a to do list anyway.