please already - forms acces restore normalcy for new people - broken

Tue Mar 29 04:27:12 UTC 2016

On Mon, 28 Mar 2016 21:53:32 -0400, anonymous wrote:
> why is it firefox 2.0, 5.0, now 20.0 cannot get onto freeBSD community 
> forums (whereas the same does access other sites ussing httpS)

The older versions of Firefox (as well as of other web browsers
or HTTP CLI clients) do not support current encryption and cert
technology.

> echo "GET http://forums.freebsd.org/index.html" | ./nc 
> forums.freebsd.org  80
> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0//EN">
> <html><head>
> <title>301 Moved Permanently</title>
> </head><body>
> <h1>Moved Permanently</h1>
> <p>The document has moved <a 
> href="https://forums.freebsd.org/index.html">here</a>.</p>
> </body></html>
> 
> i can't even trace down why because the web server is showing "." as the 
> altered location.

Thos three lines are the key:

> echo "GET http://forums.freebsd.org/index.html" | ./nc 
> <title>301 Moved Permanently</title>
> href="https://forums.freebsd.org/index.html">here</a>.</p>

As you can see, the new page is https (instead of http). The browser
needs to support HTTPS in order to display the page. Therefore it is
required to implement the "cipher suites" in use.

> there is no help on freeBSD about forum access difficulty i can find

There is. This topic has been discussed on this mailing list several
times. Check the web archive for more information.

> i have a box was just about to install freeBSD and wanted forum input on 
> which version

Usually the most recent release (which is FreeBSD 10.2) will be fine,
except of course you have valid reasons to run an older version.

> i shouldn't have to be running (newest) BSD to participate in talking to 
> other BSD users

This has nothing to do with the FreeBSD version, but with the web
browser, no matter on which OS it is running.

Additionally, using the currently supported version of FreeBSD is
often suggested. But as I said, you might actually have a valid
reason to use an older version - one that will be EOL soon, or
even one that isn't supported anymore. However you should know
what you're doing, as "EOL" and "not supported anymore" exactly
means that there won't be support for certain aspects of the OS,
which might be a problem.

> OR there should be an "try these BSD forums" if BSD people have opted to 
> work only with pay site GIT and do not wish to extend forums to new users.

FreeBSD uses SVN (Subversion) for managing source code. The code
is freely available and not subject to a "pay site".

> i tried Major Domo, but no one answers questions concerning forums by 
> email - or it gets lost in shuffle there are so many emails arriving.  i 
> dont watn to pester the patch people they want new patches and no talk, 
> not webadmin hastles.

Check out the various FreeBSD mailing lists. There is one that will fit
your needs. If you aren't sure which list to address, ask the question
as precise as possible on the general user questions mailing list.

http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/

> anway: asked before a couple times.  i KNOW other inet users are having 
> the same issues

Properly configuring the web browser usually solves those problems. :-)

-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...