CHAPTER 10 SECURING AND MAINTAINING PHPBB 301 (Web hosting service)
CHAPTER 10 SECURING AND MAINTAINING PHPBB 301 Caution Now is an excellent time to back up the files from your existing installation to a safe place (especially if modifications are installed), just in case something doesn t work out as planned. You may even wish to perform a database backup using the backup tool in the Administration panel for added safety, as discussed in the Backing Up and Restoring Your Database section later in this chapter (though phpBB point releases rarely, if ever, see any wholesale database changes). Backing up is a good habit to get into, and you re better off safe than very, very sorry later. I recommend creating a separate folder for the files you are about to expand. This helps you remember which files and folders have been updated and which ones haven t, saving you from possible confusion and uploading more than necessary. You won t expand everything in the package far from it. You will need to expand the install directory and its subdirectories, which contain the database upgrade script, and the appropriate 2.0.x_to_2.0.y.ziparchive, where 2.0.xis the version of phpBB you are running. For example, if you are upgrading a phpBB 2.0.13 to version 2.0.16, you ll choose the 2.0.13_to_2.0.16.zip file. This file contains all the changes between versions 2.0.13 and 2.0.16. The upgrade to the latest version of phpBB is cumulative; therefore, it is unnecessary to install 2.0.14 and 2.0.15 to upgrade to 2.0.16 from 2.0.13, for example. Considering Your Modifications If you haven t installed any modifications (discussed in detail in Chapter 11), you can safely skip this section. If you have, you must take into consideration the modifications you have installed. It is always a wise idea to check with the author s homepage or distribution site where you obtained your hacks to see if new versions are available for the upgraded version of phpBB. Although the members try to minimize disruption, sometimes the phpBB Group is forced to make a change between revisions that can have an adverse effect on an existing hack. Other times, an outdated version of a modification could introduce a security hole that the new release was supposed to fix, which would certainly be counterproductive! Fortunately, volunteers at various hack distribution points, such as phpBBHacks.com and phpBB.com, verify that the most popular modifications work with the new release within a day. Since the files in the changed files only package are clean, unmodified files, installing them directly over your modified board may produce adverse results of varying severity, depending on how many hacks you ve installed and the complexity of your hacks. You will need to reinstall any modifications you ve made to any of the changed files. If upgrades are available, reinstall the updated modification using the new files you ve just expanded. Uploading the Upgrade Now that you ve verified your modifications (if necessary), you re ready to upload the files to the server. Fire up the FTP program of your choice (I use SmartFTP, http://www.smartftp.com), connect to your host s FTP server, navigate to where your phpBB version is currently installed, and upload the files you extracted from the package to your server, overwriting anything with the same name (overwriting is not a risk as long as you ve backed up your files). This could take a few minutes, depending on your connection speed.
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