PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

TheCotMan · October 17, 2011, 21:32

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

Update:

Jeff was up late tonight (East-Coaster) and had time to check and test this. He has made a change, and now all of the cases I had for tests to fail reliably are not longer failing.

If you were having troubles but find access to the forums is working now, could you let us know if it is fixed for you now?

If one method of access worked, but another did not, could you let us know which one still does not work?

(I don't control the firewall or its rules, but am happy to gather information about what works and what does not so I can try to reliably replicate the problem, and help with testing to diagnose the cause of trouble with good tests.)

TheCotMan · October 17, 2011, 19:35

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

Some new problems have appeared when accessing content on the Defcon websites if https is used.

As far as I know, this first appeared last week around Wednesday, and was reported. After some checks, Jeff decided to reboot the equipment associated with the firewall, and once it came back, all of the OS+Browsers I was able to duplicate the problem with before the reboot were working fine. It seemed the reboot removed whatever uncommitted change had been applied, meaning there was a problem with the live config, but not a problem with the base settings of the firewall.

Within 24 hours, similar problems returned, and were reported by different people.

The problems reported fall into two basic categories:
1) Blacklisting of IP:
* Access of http-only content at *.defcon.org works fine from any specific IP address.
* Attempting to visit any https content (such as when javascript is enabled, and a browser is directed to ask for information on "recent forum discussion" and connect to the forums using https, or clicks on any "media.defcon.org" which are by default written as https links, not http, result in the connecting IP being blacklisted.
* Once blacklisted, previous visits to non-https content at *.defcon.org no longer is reachable from the same IP until the blacklist entry expires.
* For testing this, a "safe" file to download from http that is http-only without javascript directives for your browser to download https content is: http://www.defcon.org/robots.txt (you can use this for https-only or http-only if you want)

2) Cert error:
* Cert Expired: "sec_error_expired_certificate"
* Cert Format error, handshake error, version error "Error 113 (net::ERR_SSL_VERSION_OR_CIPHER_MISMATCH): Unknown error."

I've been able to reliably duplicate it with a VM that is running Windows 7 (64-bit) and the latest stable MSIE 9.

If you have found you are able to duplicate these errors on one browser, but are able to get to the forums with another browser/OS, would you please let us know which OS-version and Browser(s) and version work and do not work? If I can reliably duplicate the same problem you are seeing, then Jeff will have a better chance at identifying the cause and fixing it.

TheCotMan · September 7, 2011, 18:44

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

"Ride and Room Sharing" forum has been idle for about 1 month, and it has been about 1 month since Defcon ended. It has been closed and moved back into the "Contests/Events/Parties/Social Gatherings" forum in the near-end category for "other" forums.

The Pre-Defcon 19/Defcon 19 Planning forum has been close for about 1 week and has now been moved into the Defcon 19 archive under the forum for past Defcon/archived content.

Calendar access to the Public calendar has been changed to allow L3 users to post events for DCG. Previously, only L4 or those with more access than registered users could post events. We'll test this out and see if it causes us problems.

TheCotMan · September 3, 2011, 21:10

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

Some time on Sunday or Monday, we will be performing maintenance on the Forums, The Test Forums, Defcon Pics server, and Tamper Evident Wiki.

Work will be done in serial, and down-time for each service may be 1 to 2 hours.

When I have a more specific window of down-time, I'll post another announcement about it.

TheCotMan · September 1, 2011, 22:50

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

It has been nearly a month since Defcon ended, and those few threads in [forum=536]DEFCON 19 Planning[/forum] with activity since Defcon have been copied forward to the forum [forum=610]DEFCON 19 And beyond[/forum] and left opened there.

The forum [forum=536]DEFCON 19 Planning[/forum] is now closed to new posting. If you find there is a thread you would like to see copied forward to [forum=610]DEFCON 19 And beyond[/forum], please reply to this post with a link to the thread and why you want it copied forward.

In a few weeks, the [forum=536]DEFCON 19 Planning[/forum] forum will be moved into the [forum=124]Past Defcon Content[/forum] forum archive, and away from the top level.

TheCotMan · September 1, 2011, 18:03

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

Forum user BluKnight has passed mod review process to become "Forum Leader/Organizer" which applies to any forums for contests/events he may be a leader or organizer. This means he has been added as a Forum leader/organizer to the forum "SkyTalks" for Defcon 19, and will get this same status when the Defcon 20 forum for Skytalks is rolled out.

(I was supposed to do this a week or two ago, but forgot about it. Sorry about the delay. Good luck!)

-Cot