Uploading attachment pics failing..

[BadgerDog]

Hello everyone ... :)

I'm not sure if this is the right place or not, but I thought I'd start here ...

I've been trying to troubleshoot an issue for some time now and I need some help ...

Our site is a bunch of worldwide retired military veterans (about 27,000 members) who collect old militaria and we've been operating for about 10 years now. We're using vBulletin 4.1.3 Patch Level 8, but before everyone jumps all over me and says we need to upgrade... please don't as for a wide range of reasons, we need to stay frozen at this release level until all of us die... :D

Anyway, the site runs fine with no problems at all, except for one.

Some members experience issues with uploading files to attach to their posts. I've tried to duplicate the problem myself, but I can't get the issue to happen for me.

It appears to be an issue with the "Enhanced Attachment Uploading" option turned ON. Essentially, they select their files and begin their upload. See attached pic from a member who is experiencing a problem. It begins the process (it some cases it doesn't even start), then just freezes their computers?

File size and type of file seems immaterial ....

A typical comment from one member with this problem .. "I have had the issue as well from time to time. The main time is crops up is when trying to upload images. The site will time me out for a couple of hours or until I get a new IP address."

What's interesting is that if many of the members who have this problem change "Enhanced Attachment Uploading" option to OFF, thereby just using the BASIC mode, it seems to solve their problem?

So, my question... can someone here explain to me what vBulletin PHP files, or even other types of program files, are involved in the upload attachments process, both "Advanced Mode" and "Basic Mode".?

Maybe if I understand what's going on with the process, I can better troubleshoot it...

I should note that a few months ago, we started using Sucuri's Cloudproxy Firewall (https://sucuri.net/) system and I have to say, it's been a remarkable improvement for us in both site performance and eliminating hacker and spam attacks.

Having said that and since we started with it, I think there may be a correlation between the time we started routing all our site's data through their firewall and an increase in some member's complaints about having issues uploading attachments. Some of those complaints have come from members who never had a problem before we implemented Sucuri's Cloudproxy Firewall (https://sucuri.net/).

One member who is a bit technology savvy said:

"I almost predictably encounter this problem with my "This day in history" uploads, and the next attempt I will screenshot my work as I go, and it if fails I will forward the requested information to you for troubleshooting. I usually have no troubles with this or any other forums and am respecting the upload file size limits when doing so, but I will try my best to help out with finding the root cause which may lead to a fix.

Wild speculation:

My upload is being interpreted as some sort of "cyber attack" to the site and my IP is being blocked for a timeout period to protect the site.

Crude work arounds include:

1. Using another device on the same network for accomplish the task, (mobile smartphone via tapatalk app)
2. Waiting 1-2 hours until the site responds and allows me to view the site and resume viewing and uploading. (2nd try of the exact same task is always successful)
3. Re-setting my modem, and reconnecting to my ISP. (Allows instant restoration of site access.)"

My apologies for the lengthy post, but if any of you can provide me with some education on how the upload attachments works and perhaps some guesses as to why it's failing predominately with the "Enhanced Attachment Uploading" option turned ON mode, I'd sincerely appreciate it.

Thanks .. :up:

Regards,
Doug

ps: I added a pic of my diagnostics test, just in case it was necessary ...

[BadgerDog]

Anyone?

Thanks .. :)

Regards,
Doug

[webmastersun]

Have you check group/attachment permissions for uploading images?

Do you have any screenshots what error are you getting?

[BadgerDog]

Thanks for replying .. :)

All group/attachment permissions for uploading images are fine and haven't changed in years..

See screenshot in first post from a member. There doesn't appear to be any error messages with any of these failures reported by members.

Their uploading process just freezes and the the user has to close the window and re-log back in.

Regards,
Doug

[Lynne]

If you turn off the firewall for a few days, do your users still have the same issue? That is the easiest way to find out if the two are related.

Also, I wonder what version of PHP and MySQL are on the site? That could have an effect also if your version isn't confirmed to work with that version of PHP. As far as I know, the latest version of PHP that is confirmed to work with vB4.1.3 is PHP5.3.

(I'm not sure what your reason's are for staying with vB4.1.3, but you do know it isn't the most secure version, right?)

[webmastersun]

If you turn off the firewall for a few days, do your users still have the same issue? That is the easiest way to find out if the two are related.

Why firewall can affect this?

Also, I wonder what version of PHP and MySQL are on the site? That could have an effect also if your version isn't confirmed to work with that version of PHP. As far as I know, the latest version of PHP that is confirmed to work with vB4.1.3 is PHP5.3.

(I'm not sure what your reason's are for staying with vB4.1.3, but you do know it isn't the most secure version, right?)[/QUOTE]

I think this is the reason, maybe he missed some configs on the server.

[BadgerDog]

Uploads were working fine with vB4.13 patch 8 for years. Unfortunately, due to customization over the last 10 years, I can't upgrade our site easily and have no need to. We do not have a security problem and never have so far. Maybe hackers have a soft spot for a bunch of old retired veterans and have left us alone, I don't know .. :D

So, for sake of argument, let;'s assume that the vBulletin version is not the issue..

I also can't see the firewall causing this...

Requested information..

PHP Version 5.3.3
SQL version: 5.0.95 (not sure if this is the number you're looking for?)

Regards,
Doug

ps: a follow up... I received this message from a long time member using Windows 10 who said this:

"I performed the browser cache clearing thing as recommended but it doesn't seem to have helped things. Had troubles while trying to post a photo earlier tonight. Computer freezes and I have to shut it down and restart to get it going again. Why would it have had to do disc damage repairs during the restart? That can't be good. I had the same thing happen last year, except the computer I had then ended up crashing shortly afterward."

[Lynne]

Why firewall can affect this?

I don't know. But, in his original post he said "I think there may be a correlation between the time we started routing all our site's data through their firewall and an increase in some member's complaints about having issues uploading attachments". So, I was recommending he turn it off to see if there really is a correlation.

What if you set AdminCP > Settings > Options > Attachment Options > Asset Manager - Enable to Yes, Flash Upload by Default. Does that make a difference.

Is there anything in your error_logs (if you don't know where they are, ask your host) at the time the users have problems uploading?

Are attachments stored in the file system or database (admincp > Attachments > Attachment Storage Type)?

[BadgerDog]

I had Sucuri Cloud Firewall tech support do extensive testing and they couldn't duplicate the problem, yet I sense it started when that intermediate cloud security measure was added to our site.

I even white listed on the Sucuri firewall settings at their host end, the newattachment.php code file used by vBulletin to handle the file management function and uploading, but that didn't seem to help at all.

Flash enabled by default.. (see attached pic)

Nothing unusual appears in error logs..

Attachments are stored in file system...

Here's another report by a long time members who's never had problems before.

The following is a typical complaint from a member.

I appreciate you taking the time to assist me in figuring out what the problem. Please understand that I'm probably the most illiterate person your likely to deal with when it comes to computers, so bear with me.

First of the step by step sequence of what I'm doing... I type the reply, click ''manage attachments'', click ''add files'' then ''select files'', double click chosen photo(s), click on ''upload files'' and this is when the trouble starts.

After this happens I can't get the photo to load and if I try to delete and start over or click the ''back'' button a circle runs in the top left corner of the screen for 10-12 seconds and error message reading'' sorry, can't access this page''.

Refreshing the page does no good and I can't access anything without the error message appearing. I have to shutdown and restart to get things working again but can't access the site for varying lengths of time, in some cases nearly a day!

Requested info:

Adobe Java Software... checked that and it says...In windows 10 the edge browser does not support plug ins and therefore will not run Java. Switch to a different browser(Firefox or Internet Explorer II) to run the Java plug in.

Adobe Flash Software: up to date and current

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0(Windows NT 10.0; Win64;x64) Apple Webkit/537.36(K HT ML,like Gecko) Chrome/46.0.2456.0 Safari/537.36 Edge/13.10586

Computer: HP 15 Notebook PC
Operating System Version: Windows 10 Home 64-bit
Browser: Microsoft Edge,
Version: ?
Memory: 4GB

It should be noted that I set his default method of uploading from Advanced to Basic and it seemed to work for him.. see his response...

I managed to post a photo on the forum using the new method you set up for me. Took a bit to get it figured out but it went off without a hitch.

As far as trying a different browser, no I have not but after learning I don't have JAVA or at least the latest version I plan to remedy that shortly. Thanks for taking time from your busy schedule to help me out

So, why would using the Basic method work and the Advanced method not?

I have suggest that other members who started to experience this problem try switching to the Basic method, but it hasn't solved the issue for every situation.

Thanks for any additional help here .. :)

Regards,
Doug

[Lynne]

Have you asked the users for the type of attachment they are trying to upload (jpeg, png, gif, etc) and the width, height, and filesize of these attachments? Perhaps they are too large? Also, these server settings may also effect your attachment upload limits:

PHP Settings:
max_execution_time
memory_limit
post_max_size
upload_max_filesize
max_input_time

MySQL Settings:
max_allowed_packet
wait_timeout

What do you have set for these on the server? And have they changed recently?

[BadgerDog]

Thanks for following up Lynne...

Here's my current values ...

*PHP Settings:* Local and Master

max_execution_time 120 120
memory_limit 134217728 64M
post_max_size 3M 3M
upload_max_filesize 3M 3M
max_input_time 80 80

*MySQL Settings:*

max_allowed_packet 16777216
wait_timeout 28800

To my knowledge, they have not changes in recent memory, unless our tech support did so for some reason without my knowledge..

Does this help?

Regards,
Doug

[Lynne]

Those look fine to me.

How about my first questions regarding the attachment type and sizes?

[BadgerDog]

Sorry.I missed that Lynne...

Attached is pic of those settings...

The issue happens on PNG's and JPG's, as our members rarely, if at all, upload anything else...

Regards,
Doug

[Lynne]

I am really not seeing anything obvious here. I would say you should upgrade because I do recall there were some image issues with earlier versions of vB4, but I know you don't want to do that and I honestly don't know if that would really fix the issue for you. Usually when you get an error when uploading an image, there is something in the error_logs, but you said there was not. You *may* want to try setting an upload_tmp_dir for the server, but I'm not sure if that will fix the issue either.

What about mod_security or suhosin? Are either enabled on the site? You may want to try disabling them and see if your users still have the issue.

[BadgerDog]

Lynne ...

Thanks again for all your attempts to help ... much appreciated..

I checked again and there's no errors in the logs.

I really don't know anything about about mod_security or suhosin, so I can't tell you if they're enabled or not. Are they part of vBulletin?

A question ... why would using the Basic method of uploading work for some of these people experiencing these failures and the Advanced method not?

Do they use different background code to handle the selection and uploading of files?

Regards,
Doug

[Lynne]

The two methods of uploading definitely use different code. I believe they were even pretty much written by different sets of developers also since the vB3 team was different than the vB4 team and the Basic method is from vB3 and the Advanced method is from vB4.

As for mod_security and suhosin, they are server applications that some hosts install. So, you would need to ask your host if either is installed and if you are able to disable them yourself (usually via .htaccess).

[rohirrim]

that issue can be related with browser. recently i faced such problem and that's was only me. Anyway I realised that it's because firefox latest update. I unistall latest version then install old version 37. it works. then ı updated this old one via firefox self update. and the issue fixed.
Ask members if they use firefox

[BadgerDog]

that issue can be related with browser. recently i faced such problem and that's was only me. Anyway I realised that it's because firefox latest update. I unistall latest version then install old version 37. it works. then ı updated this old one via firefox self update. and the issue fixed.
Ask members if they use firefox

Thanks, but the problem seems to independent of the type of browser the member is using,

I think I have the answer, so read the next post I leave for Lynne ..

Regards,
Doug

--------------- Added 1463678505 at 1463678505 ---------------

Lynne.... :)

I had Sucuri tech support (the cloud firewall vendor) track this one down on their end ?

They said: "That IP was blocked on our internal system for making too many requests in a small period of time. There were 53 requests in 4 seconds, which is a lot, so what I would recommend doing is configuring an option to only allow 8-10 images at the most per reply in a thread or 8-10 images for a new post/topic on the forum and that should fix the issue to prevent this from happening."

Unfortunately, the member told me that they were only trying to upload a few pics, so either there must be something weird about vBulletin?s upload code used in asset.php, or the way Sucuri?s IDS (Intrusion Detection System) interprets what?s happening.

I think I may have to find a coder to look at asset.php and see if he can create a pause between the upload of every pic, when a member is using the Advanced Uploading Method.

Thanks for all your input in attempting to help us .. much appreciated.. :up:

Regards,
Doug