thanks to all for the private messages

[chrisNova777]

sorry im not able to respond to them in a timely manner
it would be best to just make your comments publicly on the site here

[smoot smooth.as.silk]

sorry im not able to respond to them in a timely manner
it would be best to just make your comments publicly on the site here

Here's the first public message.

Since you have a great forum,  I'd like to give you some free advice. I hope this is useful to you.

It's also a good idea to remove this advice from this forum, as others can see it too. There are bad people out there, after all. Hopefully, you have at least a backup. I hope this is helpful.

1. Complicated action:   https://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=555034.msg3934593#msg3934593

My advice is to secure this website with an SSL certificate. The reason for this is that if someone logs in here as a user, a hacker can intercept it. This is because it's not encrypted. SSL makes it safe, Consequently, it could be misused. You could use https://letsencrypt.org for this. But some caution regarding implementation is advised. You need a good backup, in case something goes wrong. Or, if this website is running on a VPS, you can clone it and test it first.

Indeed, it's all very technical, but that's the way it is.

2. Simple action: Firewall, and very effective

Also, you don't have a firewall running on your forum. Very dangerous. It will save you a lot of headaches and trouble. This isn't too complicated. The database, in particular, is open on port 3306.

For your website, you only need to open ports 80 and 443 SSL. Opening port 22 is very dangerous; this is the basis of the SSH CLI system.

Ask your administrator to arrange this.
It looks like this is your provider's address:

31.142.63.50.host.secureserver.net

Currently "open" isn't a good idea unless it's necessary. 80 and 443 are required for the website. Other options aren't.

Discovered open port 80/tcp on 50.63.142.31
Discovered open port 3306/tcp on 50.63.142.31
Discovered open port 110/tcp on 50.63.142.31
Discovered open port 25/tcp on 50.63.142.31
Discovered open port 995/tcp on 50.63.142.31
Discovered open port 587/tcp on 50.63.142.31
Discovered open port 443/tcp on 50.63.142.31
Discovered open port 143/tcp on 50.63.142.31
Discovered open port 22/tcp on 50.63.142.31
Discovered open port 21/tcp on 50.63.142.31
Discovered open port 465/tcp on 50.63.142.31
Discovered open port 993/tcp on 50.63.142.31

[chrisNova777]

i was using SSH in Slackware 3.0 in 95/96. when i was 18.
 

it took me two weeks to get it to install properly.
but yes... teach me about these things that i knew probably before you were born lol
;0
jokes

im not hosting my own website, that responsibility belongs to a large company. i think they should know what they are doing by now.