Icy Phoenix :: FAQs
Icy Phoenix 1.3 FAQs
Table Of Contents

Here you will find some of the Frequently Asked Questions about Icy Phoenix. The list is not exhaustive, please refer to the Support Site for further details or help.


  1. I cannot install this software! What I can do?

    Please try to carefully follow the instructions in the install wizard, as there are many hints on how to properly install Icy Phoenix. Should you need further help, please refer to the Support Site and provide as much details as you can.


  2. According to viewonline a user is doing/reading something they should not be able to!

    No, they probably are not. Icy Phoenix uses sessions to keep track of users as they move between pages. The session information tells us who this user is. Therefore in order to determine what a user can do on a page we first need the session details. Once this data is available we can check whether the user is permitted to do whatever it is they are trying to do. This can result in it appearing as if a user is reading a topic in a forum they should not be able to access. Or perhaps viewing private messages when they are only guests, etc. In practice the user is not doing these things, they are viewing a "You are not permitted to do this" type message. The session data has simply been updated before we were able to determine what the user could or could not do.

    Of course this only applies where permissions have been set correctly!


  3. I keep getting Mail sending errors when me (or my users) post or send PM's

    This error will occur if Icy Phoenix cannot send mail. Icy Phoenix can send email two ways; using the PHP mail() function or directly via SMTP. Some hosting providers limit the mail() function to prevent its use in spamming, others may rename it or limit its functionality. In either case you may need to make use of SMTP. This requires that you have access to such a facility, e.g. your hosting provider may provide one (perhaps requiring specific written authorization), etc. Note that if your provider requires authorization we only support the simple AUTH method using plaintext username/password. We do not support secure sockets layer (SSL), POP3 send or any other method.

    If you do require SMTP services please do not ask (on our forums or elsewhere) for someone to provide you with one. Open relays are now things of the past thanks to the unthinking spammers out there. Therefore you are unlikely to find someone willing to offer you (free) services.


  4. I cannot see some characters in my posts!

    Please, try to change the charset used to output the content to the browser. This identifies the primary character set the user has selected, eg. iso-8859-1 for Western European languages (English, German, French, etc.), windows-1251 for Cyrillic alphabets (Russian, Bulgarian, etc.) and so on. You need to modify the $lang['ENCODING'] entry in the appropriate language file (lang_main_settings.php).


  5. I cannot search for certain words!

    Icy Phoenix uses a Fulltext search system, this has both advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that on large or busy forums it has far less impact on server load than standard search methods as used by many alternative forums. The disadvantage is that to reduce the size of the database (every post is examined and unique words stored in a table) we have to limit the size and type of words we store. By default words must contain at least three characters but no more than 25, they must be either alpha or combinations of alpha and numerals (numbers alone are not stored). In addition all non-alphanumeric characters are removed, eg. _, +, -, etc. This is standard practice for fulltext search solutions.

    A further downside is that non-latin alphabets, eg. Cyrillic, Greek, etc. require proper locale support to be compiled in and available on the server your board is running on. If this is not the case it is quite likely that words will not be properly indexed for storage.


  6. How do I use the avatar settings?

    There are three types of avatar; upload, remote and local.

    • Upload types require you to create a directory (the default is images/avatars) and to set this to public read/write (ie. chmod a+rw), users can then upload avatars (subject to width, height and size limits definable by you).
    • Remote avatars allow the user to supply a URI pointing to an image available on the internet, PLEASE NOTE that size limits do not apply to remote avatars!
    • Local avatars allow you to upload your own avatars to a set directory, users can then pick from this avatar gallery. The default location for this is images/avatars/gallery. PLEASE NOTE that avatars are categorised according to sub-folders in this location! ie. you MUST place your avatars in subdirectories, eg. images/avatars/gallery/cartoons, images/avatars/gallery/real-life, etc.

  7. How do I set forum permissions?

    You set forum permissions from the administration control panel » Forums » Permissions. This system has two modes of operation; Simple and Advanced. Simple uses a set of pre-defined authorization levels, these set each type of authorization setting to a specific level. Advanced settings allow you to specify individual levels for each operation in each forum. Experiment!


  8. How do I set users and groups permissions?

    These are set from Admin » Users (Groups) » Permissions. The system may appear strange but it's very powerful. When you look up a user or group it will give you basic information (at the top of the page) followed by the available forum listing and current settings for this user. You can assign moderator status to users and groups and if you have PRIVATE forums (or forums with any of their individual operations set to PRIVATE) you can also assign access.


  9. Me (or my users) cannot stay logged in to the forum!

    If you (or your users) are, after attempting a login, being returned to the index (or other page) without appearing to be logged in the most likely problem is incorrect cookie settings. phpBB 2 uses cookies to store a session id and a small amount of user data. For this data to be stored correctly the cookie domain, path and secure settings must be correct. You can check this in Admin » General Configuration » Cookie settings. Typically the cookie domain can be left blank and the cookie path set to / (a single forward slash). Do not set the cookie as being secure unless your board is running over a secure sockets layer connection, ie. https://

    If you still have problems try setting the cookie domain to your full domain name, eg. www.mysystem.tld, www.something.mydomain.tld. You must ensure the domain name contains at least two dots or browsers will be unlikely to recognise the cookie, eg. .mydomain.com, mydomain.com. Do not add http:// or anything else to the domain name!


  10. My users are complaining about being logged out too quickly!

    You can increase the default length of sessions (ie. how long before a users session is considered 'dead') in Admin » General » Configuration » Cookie Settings » Session Length. Set it to whatever value your users feel comfortable with, remember that security issues may affect your decision (ie. having too long a session may allow non-users to abuse your board should a user forget to logout or otherwise leave a current session on a public workstation).


  11. I am having problems with HTML!

    If you want to allow your users to make use of HTML in posts you need to do two things. Firstly enable HTML in Admin » General » Configuration. Secondly to need to make sure that the tags your users will post are in the Allowed HTML Tags field (again Admin » General » Configuration). If users post using tags not on this list they won't be displayed as HTML! eg. to enable someone to post Flash you could add the embed tag to this field. Be careful which tags you allow, it is very easy to break the boards own output if the wrong tags are used in posts.


  12. My question isn't answered here!

    Feel free to search our community forum for the information you require. PLEASE DO NOT post your question without having first used search, chances are someone has already asked and answered your question. You can find our board here:

    http://www.icyphoenix.com/






Copyright and disclaimer



This application is opensource software released under the GPL.

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