I've now got access back into the ACP by removing all references to cookies in the inc/settings.php file (using VIM as editor). I've also removed my external address for the forum and the forum now works okay via the local network address. So, can anybody assist with how I set cookies for my second forum running on a different port under the same IP for external access? I'm going through one of Matt's cookie postings to see if there are references to this sort of install but not found anything yet.
Oops, I see G33K has replied whilst I was typing my last message so I'll check on his advice. Thanx.
I will start a new thread question on this as the problem is now not related to Admin Login. Thanks to G33K and others for help so far.
Let me see if I can outline this for you.
- Setup the new forum on the new port. If you prefer to set it up on the internal network go ahead and do that.
- Once its all setup go to admincp and change the board url to the external iip:port, change the cookie domain to .externalip and cookie folder to the folder its going to be in, and cookie prefix to something unique like mybb2_
- Save the settings. You should now only access your forum using the external ip:port and not the internal ip since you can bind the forum to only one domain(or ip) at a time.
It also does not hurt to clear your browser cache and all the cookies as it will remove the old invalid cookies and you will be less prone to errors.
Keep in mind that you should only resort to making changes in the settings.php file as a last resort when you can not access the admincp. Also, whenever you make any changes in the settings.php file you have to make the same changes in the admincp too as soon as you get access back otherwise the values in settings.php will just revert to the old ones.
Okay, thanks for this clarification and I believe I have done all this correctly as you have explained. I am also only editng the settings.php file when I end up locked out of ACP (and also set the values back in ACP when I get access back!) The plus side of all this is that I'm learning a lot and I'm now suspecting my router which may be locking up the port. In order to progress this, I am going to release a simple service on the same device that I'm running myBB on as I can make other arrangements for that. This will release a port that I know is directed correctly and working well. I will then alter the second myBB forum to work externally via this port and report back my findings. This may have to wait until after the weekend if I can't find the time at the moment.
So I did find time today to check this and using a different port on the router, I get similar results to the previous report "Page not found error" which is coming from the device that I am running myBB on (it has a logo that identifies the device). I'm now wondering if a limitation is built into my device which is preventing the script from running but it runs on the local network okay? Here are details taken from the Dashboard in ACP: MyBB Version 1.6.4 - PHP Version 5.3.3 - SQL Engine MySQLi 5.1.49 - Server Load 0.8 - The device that I am running myBB on is a Synology DS211j which is "certified for myBB" and is running one version of myBB okay. Any further ideas?
Okay, further info on this after I have explored the workings of the DS211j - it seems that it only supports two ports. In the setup for the web applications, it supports the default port 80 and one other that can be specified. On this device, I don't use Port 80 (that is forwarded to my separate web server), but I have specified Port 83 which is used for the first application of myBB. I don't use Port 80 on this device and that cannot be changed so it seems that this is a limitation that I could do without. Anyway, this looks to be the cause rather than the way I have set myBB up. Thanks to everybody's efforts in pointing me in the right directions especially G33k and I've learnt a lot anyway.
I finally solved this issue by using Virtual Host function in the web server to set the ports correctly. However, I still had cookie problems with either an incorrectly displayed forum and/or inability to login to the forum, even though I could login to the ACP. Contary to advice normally given about cookies, I set the URL to the IP address and port number but NOT followed by the folder path. Also, I had to remove any reference to cookie path (I left it blank) but I did set a cookie prefix. It all then seemed to work. None of the above has seemed to affect my existing forum but the cookies are set differently to the second forum..........