Category: Software and Computers

OsCommerce 2.2 Download Mod – Problems with:

1. Download Expires Tuesday December 1999″
2. Download link not showing (not clickable linking – no link) after approval of payment.

I’m posting this here off the support forums because the search functions wouldn’t allow me to search and find this fix, I had to find it on Google. Assuming others are doing the same, here it is. Keyword help to find this: Osc MS2, Super Download Mod, error, problem, downloads expiry, no link not showing unable to download.

Within download.php in modules I changed the following:

FROM:

$downloads_query = tep_db_query(“select o.orders_status, date_format(o.last_modified, ‘%Y-%m-%d’) as date_purchased_day, opd.download_maxdays, op.products_name, opd.orders_products_download_id, opd.orders_products_filename, opd.download_count, opd.download_maxdays from ” . TABLE_ORDERS . ” o, ” . TABLE_ORDERS_PRODUCTS . ” op, ” . TABLE_ORDERS_PRODUCTS_DOWNLOAD . ” opd where o.customers_id = ‘” . (int)$customer_id . “‘ and o.orders_status >= ‘” . DOWNLOADS_CONTROLLER_ORDERS_STATUS . “‘ and o.orders_id = ‘” . (int)$last_order . “‘ and o.orders_id = op.orders_id and op.orders_products_id = opd.orders_products_id and opd.orders_products_filename != ””);

TO:

$downloads_query = tep_db_query(“select o.orders_status, date_format(o.date_purchased, ‘%Y-%m-%d’) as date_purchased_day, opd.download_maxdays, op.products_name, opd.orders_products_download_id, opd.orders_products_filename, opd.download_count, opd.download_maxdays from ” . TABLE_ORDERS . ” o, ” . TABLE_ORDERS_PRODUCTS . ” op, ” . TABLE_ORDERS_PRODUCTS_DOWNLOAD . ” opd where o.customers_id = ‘” . (int)$customer_id . “‘ and o.orders_status >= ‘” . DOWNLOADS_CONTROLLER_ORDERS_STATUS . “‘ and o.orders_id = ‘” . (int)$last_order . “‘ and o.orders_id = op.orders_id and op.orders_products_id = opd.orders_products_id and opd.orders_products_filename != ””);

Its actually a very small change: Within the quiry I changed “o.last_modified” to “o.date_purchased”.

Found a great file compare program called WinMerge. It’s available for free download. Google it or checkout download.com. Use it to see two files side by side as it highlights the code differences between the two files.

Great for adding mods and updates to software. I’m using to modify new software releases with older version mods. It’s saving countless hours in php coding. Highly recommended.

The Japanese have taken spam to new heights and made it into an art forum. We’re all tired of the same old spam emails, but take a look at how beautiful this spam from Japan is:

“#”#”#”#”#”#”#”#”#”#”#”#”#”#”#”#”#”#”#”#”#”#”#”#”#”#
â– Â â– â– â– Â â– â– â– â– â–
■■■■■■■■■■■■■　　 â– â– â– â– â–
■■■■■■■■■■■■■　 　■■■■â–
â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â–
■■┏━━┳┓　┏┓　　┏━━┳━━┓┏━━┳━━┳━━┳━━┓ â– â–
■■┃┏┓┃┃　┃┃　　┗┓┏┫┏┓┃┃━━┫┏┓┃━━┫━━┫ â– â–
■■┃┏┓┃┗━┫┗━┓┏┛┗┫┗┛┃┃┏━┫┏┓┫━━┫━━┫ â– â–
■■┗┛┗┻━━┻━━┛┗━━┻━━┛┗┛　┗┛┗┻━━┻━━┛ â– â–
â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â–
■　┏┓　　┏━━━┓┏┓　┏┓┏┓┏━┓　　┏━━┓┏━━━━━━┓
■┏┛┗━━┓━━┓┃┃┃　┃┃┃┃┗━┛┏┓┃┏┓┃┃┏━━━━┓┃
■┗┓┏━┓┃　　┃┃┃┃　┃┃┃┃　　　┃┃┃┃┃┃┃┃┏━━┓┃┃
■　┃┃┏┛┃　　┃┃┃┃　┃┃┃┃　　　┃┃┗┛┃┃┃┃┃┏┓┃┃┃
■　┃┃┗━┛　　┃┃┃┃　┗┛┃┃　　　┃┃　　┃┃┃┃┃┃┃┃┃┃
■　┃┗━━┓　┏┛┃┃┗━┓┏┛┃┏━━┛┃　┏┛┃┃┃┃┗┃┃┃┃
■　┗━━━┛　┗━┛┗━━┛┗━┛┗━━━┛　┗━┛┃┃┗━┗┛┃┃
■　　　　　　┃┗━━━━┛┃
■　・・・………━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┗━━━━━━┛
â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â–
â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â–
■■■■　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　■■■â–
■■■■　　　　 　　　　 â– â– â– â–
■■■■　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　■■■â–
â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â–
â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â–
■　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　■■■â–
■┌───────────┐　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　■■â–
■│ 　　　 │┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
■││┃　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　┃
■└───┐┌──────┘┃ ┃
■　　　　││　　　　　　　┃ 　　　　　 ┃
■　　　　││　　　│＼　　┃　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　┃
■　　　　││　　　│　＼　┃ ┃
■　　　　│└───┘　　＼┃ 　　　　　 ┃
■　　　　└────┐　　／┃　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　┃
■　　　　　　　　　│　／　┃ ┃
■■　　　　　　　　│／　　┃ 　　　　　　　　　　 ┃
■■■　　　　　　　　　　　┃　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　┃
■■■■　　　　　　　　　　┃　　┃
■■■■■　　　　　　　　 ┃　 　 　　　　　　　　　┃
■■■■■■　　　　　　　　┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â–
â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â–

┏━━┓　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　┃┃┃┃┃┃
┃＼／┃　　　　　　　━┛━┛━┛━┛━┛━┛
┗━━┛━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━………・・・
┏━┫　　　┏━━┳━┳┓┏┳┓
┃□┃━━┓┃┏┓┃┃┃┃┃┃┃
┃==┃＼／┃┃┗┛┃┃┃┃┣╋┫
┗━┛━━┛┗━━┻┻━┛┗┻┛

┏━━┓　　　　┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
┏┛　━┻━━┓　┃　　　　　　　　　　　　┃
┛　　━┳━━┛　┃　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　┃
━┫　　　　┃　 　　┃
━┓　━┫　　　　┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
┗━━┛
・・・………━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

┃┃？┃Ｓ┃Ｔ┃Ｅ┃Ｐ┃
━┛━┛━┛━┛━┛━┛━┛────────────────────
▼▲▼▲▼▲▼
▼▲▼▲▼
▼▲▼
â–¼

┏━┓
┏━━┳━━┳━━┳━━┓┗┓┃
┃┏━┻┓┏┫━━┫　□┃　┃┃　　　　 ┗━━┃┃┃┃━━┫┏━┛┏┛┗┓┏┓　　　　　 ┗━━┛┗┛┗━━┻┛　　┗━━┛┗┛
￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣
┌┐　　　　　　┌┐　　　　　　┌／　　　　　　┌┐
└┘

┌／　　　　　　┌┐　　　　　　┌┐　　　　　　┌┐
┘

┏━━┓
┏━━┳━━┳━━┳━━┓┗━┓┃
┃┏━┻┓┏┫━━┫　□┃┏━┛┃　　　 ┗━━┃┃┃┃━━┫┏━┛┃━━┓┏┓
┗━━┛┗┛┗━━┻┛　　┗━━┛┗┛
￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣

───────────────
│＼　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　│＼
┌┘　＼　　　　　┌┘　＼　 └┐　／　┌───────┐　　　└┐　／　　┌──┐
│／　　│　　　　　　　│　　│／　　　│　　│ └───────┘　　　　　　　　　└──┘

────
│＼　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　│＼
┌┘　＼　　　　　　　　┌┘　＼　 └┐　／　┌───────┐　　　└┐　／　　┌───┐
│／　　│　　　　　　　│　　　　│／　　　│　　　│
└───────┘　　　　　　　　　└───┘

┏━━┓
┗━┓┃
┏━━┳━━┳━━┳━━┓┏━┛┃
┃┏━┻┓┏┫━━┫　□┃┗━┓┃
┗━━┃┃┃┃━━┫┏━┛┏━┛┃┏┓　 ┗━━┛┗┛┗━━┻┛　　┗━━┛┗┛
￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣
┏━━━━
┃┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
┃┃　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　┃
┃┃　　　　┃
┃┃　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　┃
┃　　　　 　　┃
┃　　　　　　　　　　┏┓　　　　　　　　　　　　　┃┃
┃　　　　　　　　　　┃┃　　　　　　　　　　　　　┃┃
┃　　　　　　　　　┏┫┣┳┳┓　　　　　　　　　　┃┃
┗━━━━━━━　　┃┫┃┃┃┃　━━━━━━━━━┛┃
┃　　　　┃ 　　　　 　　━━━━┛
┗┓　　┏┛

If you do any sort of interactive web design then you definately know about Spambots. So here’s a picture of one!

With mods and tweaks I’ve been able to eliminate most all (have only seen one in the last six weeks) of the spambot activity on my websites. Most frustrating is when people interact with the spambot thinking it’s a real person.

A spambot is an automated script that will post to forums, wikis or comments to blogs like the one you’re currently reading. They post links to try and increase their website ranking on search engines like Google. Since it’s automated, it’s sad that they do get quite a few out there that work short term.

How bad is comment spam on blogs and forums? My little blog here gets around 400 spam comments from bots PER DAY. Unless you have automated features in place to combat it, your site becomes trash in a matter of days.

What can you do about it? If you’re using WordPress, then just activate the Akismet spam plugin (Akismet comes bundled with WordPress). If you’re running phpbb, there are many mods you can do to cut down spam. The most effective mods are:

1. Users cannot post links until they have 10 posts and have been a member 10 days.
2. On registration, hide some of the non-essential account creation fields, like occupation and city. If someone tries to fill in that field, you know it’s an automated bot! I have my forums set to auto-IP -ban anyone (any bot) that does that.
3. Authorize private message access only after a member has x amount of posts. I have this set from 3 to 50 depending on the community.
4. I block the root url domain of any non-US email provider where I get the heaviest spam from. I even keep a list on my website of these domains, search my website for “phpbb spam domain list”.

If you’re interested in more info on spambot related issues, search my website for “seo”, “blackhat” and “spam”.

Have other steps you take to combat spam on interactive sites? Would be much appreciated if you let me know about them here as a comment. Thanks!

 This is the list of the top 40 cities that visit my website here.

1. YOU! – Your Town
2. Seattle
3. Los Angeles
4. London
5. Calgary
6. New York
7. Atlanta
8. Chicago
9. Phoenix
10. Irvine
11. Toronto
12. San Francisco
13. Houston
14. Washington
15. San Diego
16. Sydney
17. Orlando
18. Miami
19. Tampa
20. Melbourne
21. Salt Lake City
22. Portland
23. Boston
24. Dallas
25. Richardson
26. Denver
27. St Louis
28. Pleasanton
29. Manchester
30. Elmhurst
31. Â Louisville
32. Â Indianapolis
33. Â Singapore
34. Â Minneapolis
35. Â Birmingham
36. Â Brentford
37. Â Brisbane
38. Â Las Vegas
39. Â Philadelphia
40. Â Montreal

Screenshots of PHPBB 3.0 admin control panel (ACP) and user administrations. Click on images for full size view.

How to backup large databases or all databases on your server using just PhpMyAdmin:

1. Click the Export tab

2. Under Export, choose “Select All”

3. Under Structure, only select “Add DROP TABLE”, “Add AUTO_INCREMENT value”, and “Enclose table and field names with backquotes”

4. Under Data, only select “Complete inserts” and “Use hexadecimal for binary fields”

5. Check “Save as file”, choose compression and click GO!

 *NOTES*: You may have to replace quotation marks entry with fresh keystrokes. Also be sure the database you are importing matches the software version you are importing into. Many errors happen from people updating and trying to import older databases.

HOW TO IMPORT MYSQL PHPBB DATABASE
(Go to SSH command screen)
(Entre location of folder with DB)

cd /home/sites/domainname/www/
(this is home directory for site on server)

MANUALLY GO TO PHPMYADMIN AND DROP DB

NOW, RECREATE SAME DATABASE NAME

(Import the backup)
mysql -u root -ppassword “dbname” < dbname.sql > /dev/null

Here just on my personal website I have reached the 40,000 spam milepost. Over forty thousand spam comments have been filtered and deleted. Thanks to the Akismet plugin it is all automated and I don’t have to do anything. That’s one of the main reasons I chose WordPress over other blog platforms.

Network wide the spam blocks run into the tens of millions. From what I’ve read most spam is generated by a handful of people. The people that generate the spam don’t make money directly, they make money selling the service to other webmasters who think it will increase their rankings.

The recent proliferation of spam is in part from amateur spammers now using automated programs like Xrumer. My original article on Xrumer, which is quoted as a source now on Wikipedia, can be found here: Xrumer Link Scam Article.

Everyone’s tempted to make money – but do this one thing before you think about investing in an automated link spam program. Take any of the spam links you have seen generated by the program in the past and do a search on their anchor text or keywords. You’ll find they don’t rank. They are quickly banned. The money is not in the links, the money is in SELLING the service – which doesn’t work for long term SEO.

Someday I’ll post the gruesome details of my own experience and over zealous, xenophobic SEO. It doesn’t work anymore. And I’m glad it doesn’t. The web is much more useful now that most pedestrian black hat SEO has been fielded out.

I can tell you it is MUCH more enjoyable now to work on genuine service, than just trying to manipulate SERPS. It is never satisfying enough, you always need a little more. But helping people out, like this post here, is enjoyable on a minute to minute basis.

In a person’s last minutes of life, they will not think of how much money they made….