add IP logging back into 4.7.1 ?

JimJoe · 2018-08-15 21:17:00

I tried adding the case ip from txp_log.php from an earlier version of txp, but my IP address didn’t show up.

Is there a way to add it back in so when I check visitor logs the IP of the visitor will show ?

( I live in the United States. My web host is in Canada.)

Thanks.

JimJoe · 2018-08-17 22:58:26

I decied to roll back the installation to an older version and not use 4.7.1.

JimJoe · 2018-08-21 21:59:53

I have added this Privacy Policy notice to al of my sites>

Privacy policy: I track IP addresses and pages looked at out of a vague curiosity to learn what pages are looked at on my site. After a set period, this information is deleted. No personal information is permanently kept.

singaz · 2018-08-24 22:17:16

I support.
It is necessary to return the view of ip

towndock · 2018-08-25 12:53:52

This seems a reasonable question. Many Textpattern users are not operating sites based in or targeting a European audience. GDPR is not an issue.

Textpattern has always had the option to turn logging on and off. If turning logging on now means no IP addresses, should / could there be an option for IP’s or not?

I operate many Textpattern sites. I almost always have logging turned off. But on one site IP logging is a useful tool (along with Bloke’s smd_lately plugin.)

As long as logging IP’s can be turned off (and having that as a default setting) would Textpattern still be GDPR compliant?

JimJoe · 2018-08-25 13:19:41

Methinks the no logging of IP in GDPR is silly. Server logs and cpanel logs visitors. Grepping large server logs could be a pain, but it can be done.

The problem with not logging IP addresses is: How do you track bad people who copy your site ? Or bandwidth thieves ?

I have hot linking activated in my domain for every item type; png, html, etc. it still didn’t go down. I had to also block linking to svg, which as far as I know, I don’t have on any of my sites.

colak · 2018-08-25 14:09:58

Although I have learned to live happily without them, I’m not sure how difficult it would be to bring them back, with an option in the preferences to switch them on/off, for those who miss this feature.

jakob · 2018-08-25 14:47:31

JimJoe wrote #313637:

Methinks the no logging of IP in GDPR is silly. Server logs and cpanel logs visitors. Grepping large server logs could be a pain, but it can be done.

I know you don’t have a personal need for GDPR, but for those who want to or need to be compliant with GDPR, it’s also necessary to limit what the server/cpanel logs. Many hosts have now added the capacity to not log / log with anonymised IPs and to automatically delete after a set period.

The problem with not logging IP addresses is: How do you track bad people who copy your site ? Or bandwidth thieves ?

Bandwidth thieves is one aspect. Another is the ability to block spammers, attackers or bots. Whether you actually need to log in Textpattern or can get those logs via other means, e.g. the server, is another question. IP logging can’t stop people copying your site because anyone who visits your site downloads your files to their browser to view them. The only thing you can try and detect is mass-scraping but you need software that will halt that in the moment. By the time you look at your logs in Textpattern, the scraping will be long-finished.

That said, I don’t think it would be that hard to re-add IP logging but put it behind a switch that’s off by default. The commits for removing logging are comparatively compact and clean, so reintroducing them shouldn’t be that much of a job.

I have hot linking activated in my domain for every item type; png, html, etc. it still didn’t go down. I had to also block linking to svg, which as far as I know, I don’t have on any of my sites.

I guess you mean embedding html in an iframe. Surely hotlinking html is a contradiction in terms. Hotlinking images only stops people are loading your images directly from your site in their own sites. It doesn’t stop them downloading or scraping your images without your permission.

gaekwad · 2018-08-26 14:02:17

I’d be inclined to look at more robust logging/analysis solutions if you’re actively defending against dirtbags on the internet. New Relic (commercial), Piwik (open source), Google Analytics etc do a far better job of actual analysis. Heck, grab your server logs and run ‘em through Sawmill or similar if you want an archive of what’s what, from who and where in the world they’re doing it, and how. Or Logstash. Or the increasing mass of web stats libraries that do stats properly.

Logging in Textpattern was never much more than a list of stuff that people accessed that was hosted by Textpattern. If someone mooches files on your server that aren’t handled by Textpattern (say, some JS, images or whatever), then it won’t appear in the logs. And the logs are culled after n days of archiving, if you visit the logging area. And if you wait too long and forget, the logs stack up into a huge database table and then get culled when you visit the logging tab…with a substantial delay as MySQL clears up the culled logs from the table…which leaves a whack of empty space in your database until you repair or optimise it…which affects responsiveness.

If someone wants to steal your stuff, they’ll find a way, and the smart ones won’t ever get caught, unfortunately. I say this as someone who’s had a heap of things ripped off in the past, and I’ve accepted that these things happen.

I have vague memories of Jacques Marneweck mentioning some horrifically bloated logging area with years worth of unexamined logs, chewing up tons of disk space and resources.

All that said (and I’m really not a fan of Textpattern logging), I agree with jakob that it’s not a massive task to add it back in…so it sounds like plugin territory to me, if it needs to be a thing in Textpattern proper.

etc · 2018-08-26 21:45:42

gaekwad wrote #313643:

it sounds like plugin territory to me, if it needs to be a thing in Textpattern proper.

metoo

JimJoe · 2018-08-28 01:07:56

So which files, and where, do I edit to put IP address logging in 4.7.x ?

I don’t expect to stop them, I just want to know if it is happening. I did take down my drive-in movie theater site when I found out at least two sites were copying all of my files, and pretending they had built the site. One mentioned my site, but didn’t say I was the originator.

As for access to the server logs, while my web host likes me, I doubt they like me that much.

jakob · 2018-08-28 03:58:30

JimJoe wrote #313658:

So which files, and where, do I edit to put IP address logging in 4.7.x ?

The “commits” I linked to above show three fairly recent steps in which the code was removed, so that should give you a pointer on what to reintroduce. You may need to manually reinstate the removed database column.

As for access to the server logs, while my web host likes me, I doubt they like me that much.

Check with your host. Pretty much every host I have used provides the daily access logs in a folder in the root directory of my account, often in conjunction with a simple log file analysis package such as webalizer.

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#1 2018-08-15 21:17:00