As many of you noticed, AEAuction has been down for a couple of days. The AEAuction server had a motherboard meltdown while
I was out of town this weekend. I was able to track down a replacement board and get the site back up and running this
morning. Everything should be running smoothly now.
2/24/09 - Hmm, something looks different
There is something different about the site, and I can't quite put my finger on it. Maybe the layout or colors
have changed or something. Anyway, if anyone has any problems with things not looking right in a particular browser
please use the Contact Us button on the Navigation Menu to let me know. Be sure to include the
URL of the problem page, and which browser you are using, including version. Also, if you find any pages that I missed,
please let me know as well.
2/19/09 - Site Changes
As some of you may have noticed, there have been some changes going on with the site. Both things that are visible, and
a few things in the background to make it easier for me to maintain.
One of the most obvious changes is the new tooltips, designed to look more like the in-game item tooltips. I have been
asked by several people if they could use these tooltips on their own site, and the answer is "yes, you can use them quite
easily". I will be adding a FAQ entry detailing the steps necessary to add these tooltips to your own site shortly.
Also, I have caught up on all pending database submissions, so please start submitting items. You can check the
FAQ Entry for details on uploading stats and images of items.
8/29/08 - Return of the hackers
Looks like our injection hackers found a small hole that allowed them to corrupt a single SQL table and insert their garbage.
I have plugged the hole, as well as tightening down my general monitoring for injection attacks. If anyone gets any warnings
from their Anti-Virus, please use the contact form and let me know immediately. I'm getting about 20-30 attacks on the server
per day from IP addresses around the world, so I'm guessing I got onto one of the big hacker/spammer gangs lists of servers
to test for vulnerabilities. I will continue to monitor the server, but so far it looks like my filtering is catching all
of their attempts now.
6/20/08 - Damn hackers
Apparently someone thought it would be cute to try injecting some malicious code via a SQL injection. I was able to track
down the hole they were using to inject their code and plug it. I also tightened down some of my own security filters that
I have written to detect those attempts in the future and automatically 403 any IP addresses involved. I have also reported
those IP addresses involved in this episode to their respective owners, though most are in LACNIC space, so I doubt very
much that they will do anything.
On that note, if your ISP is brasiltelecom.net.br, you aren't reading this, because their entire range of IP addresses
has been permanently banned. If you manage to read this from a friend's computer, please let your ISP know that I will
unban their IP range when they have a working abuse address that I can use to report hacking attempts like this in the future.
7/9/07 - Trading Security
There have been several cases recently where people in game have claimed to be the person winning an auction, and collected
the items, even though they were not the person that bid. To prevent this from happening, please DO NOT
trade with a character if that character's name is not listed in the buyers/sellers profile. Also, please be certain to keep
your profile updated with all your current character names.
1/25/07 - Character Planner
I see that several of you have already found the Character Planner that I have been working on a little bit over the
past few weeks. If you haven't found it yet, its under "My Account". Simply add your character, and then click on the
edit icon to enter the planner. Right now it doesn't do a whole lot. So far, this is what it does:
Lets you lay out what equipment you are going to want to use.
Helps you decide what orbs will be required to wear a particular set of equipment.
Shows you your total stat bonuses as well as current and future HP with the chosen equipment.
I would like to get some feedback on this to find out what kind of features you all might find useful, if any. Also
any suggestions on making it easy to navigate and use are also welcome.
2/6/06 - Donations, Database, and Bestiary
Donations
Since several of you requested it, I have added a donation button to the site so you can donate towards the cost of the
server an bandwidth if you want. If you find the site useful, and would like to donate to it, feel free to. If you find
the site useful and don't want to donate towards it, thats cool to. If I don't receive any donations, it doesn't cost me
anything, and you won't see any remarks on here about how expensive it is to run the site, or hear me gripe that I'm not going to
keep the site operating if I don't get donations. The site is not about making money, it is about providing a useful tool
for the AE community, and I will continue to make it available as long as you all continue to use it and find it helpful.
Item Database
On another note, I DO need more submissions for the database. If there is something listed under the "No Stats" category
in the database that you own, please take a screenshot of the stats and send it to me.
The database is rapidly approaching the thousand item mark, and I would like to see it hit 1000 items before the end of
February. If you take screenshots of items for me to add the database pictures, please make sure you do it with the
transparent menus option in AE turned OFF so that things behind the pic don't bleed through.
Bestiary
I have begun writing the code to add a bestiary to the AEAuction.com database. This list of creatures found in the AE world
will contain complete stats on the creatures, as well as some useful notes. It will also be cross-referenced with the
existing drop information that is already in the database. At this point, this is just an announcement, please do not start
submitting creature information to me at this point, as I have a lot of my own already collected, and need to get it
compiled and entered into the database before I am ready to start accepting submissions from others. Hopefully I should have
initial pages of the bestiary up by the end of this week. I will let you all know when I am ready to start accepting
creature submissions.
