ft chat backdoor and logging
 

I saw some folks talking about this on thursday night... what are they and what do they do?

I think this belongs in technical issues, not community, but I think I can take a stab at answering this one, Matt...

The "chat backdoor" was something that I setup on my website one time when FT's servers were going to be down for an entire weekend. Essentially, I copied the FT chat login screen to my site. The catch was, i did not have any way to check passwords, so you could log in as anyone (similar to when we have invited guests). Some people abused this system, so it was disabled when FT came back up. Furthermore, digichat now ONLY recognises logins orginating from *.flyertalk.com, so I could not set it back up even if I wanted to.

As for logging, I also know that chat is logged constantly (not sure about PMs). When we were having some problems with some members being offensive and using multiple 4-letter words, Randy was able to pull up a text log the next morning, and take action based on the exact words that were said. I assume that only Randy & his staff have access to this log.

I hope this clears up what you were asking about.

Scene Two. Matt Wald turns white. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Actually there are a number of members who might think about what shade they are. I've asked for a few nights of log files based on some tips and there are a few members who don't seem to beleive that chat carries any responsibilities. It does so let this serve as a gentle reminder that as long as ou are anywhere as a guest of FlyerTalk, it's not asking that much for members to be responsible for their comments and opinions.

Yes, Mark, last week (after FT switched servers or whatever it did), I couldn't get into FT through my fire wall and tried to go in through the "backdoor"--both the one you set up and just using the IP address and it did not recognize that approach as valid.

As Dan suggested, it just took some time for the new informtion to travel throughout the entire system. By Monday morning, we had no problem getting in through the firewall.

Randy, I agree that chatters sometimes get out of hand, but for the most part it is just fun. Out of curiosity, can you log "private" chat conversations? If so, I think that should be made perfectly clear as I often have private, "really private" discussions with close friends where I disclose information that is simply not meant for anyone else.

Punki,

On the internet nothing is REALLY safe, so if you conversations were very private I'd move them elsewhere, even if FT doesn't log PM it doesn't mean you are "safe"

[This message has been edited by ScottC (edited 07-02-2002).]

Just ask kanebear and mjm what happens when PM's go awry http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

HA!!!!!!!

Bannedsilvania, here I come.... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/rolleyes.gif