If it worked earlier, and if it doesn't work now, and if you didn't change the files, it's the server side issue.
May be the server stopped to handle sessions properly, may be it gives kind of error upon generating the image. Without debugging, it's difficult to say what's wrong...

I see... yes I remember now.. the last user registered in forum was 2 days ago, that day server stopped and site went down, after rebooting server I didn't see any user registering any more.. then found out the Captcha won't work.. so I should look into that.

Thanks!

I realized some hosts (especially the biggest ones) have started to take 'server security' the easy way (for THEM at least). What they do is to block any 'suspicious' operations (when you run a script it gives you 403 - forbidden error), even very simple operations that should normally work. Then when you are mad what's going on, it turns out they ask you to send you link to the link to the script so that they could manually whitelist it. It's their approach to security.

Maybe this information will save somebody hours of frustrations I had to go through recently.

tom322
Reminds me issues with the Search some users are having and we had too, while I've been hosting miniBB on hostgator. Not remember precisely what was it about, but for some requests the script just redirected to the main page.

Not a wonder that happens. Public hosting is a mess, it's hard to control it other way than that.

By 'big' host I meant exactly that one indeed ;). Now I know if there's an unexpected problem with script - open a ticket first to save your time.

As you know, on miniBB forums you may get my free recommendation about that, because sometimes there really may be software bugs.

Exactly, But most of them would say: "Please check with your developer!"
After I explained for them It was working and I didn't have any problem with it and didn't change anything at all.. but they would say again: nothing that would cause the script to behave as it is.
Here we go.. :)

I find browser error consoles very useful if nothing else helps - they would give you server responses like 403 (forbidden) and then you can see what's going on (otherwise, if server blocks your script you cannot visually see it because blocking happens in the background).

Unfortunately, that's true... I've passed through it myself.
Even regarding the program I wrote myself, and which I'm sure has less bugs than they can imagine.

I couldn't solve the problem with that one.. and they just blame developers and couldn't find out what was the problem but I changed the server and with new server in other company it is working now! :)

I've tried to instal the captcha addon.
But i get these errors

Warning: Unknown: open(/var/lib/php/session/sess_6i1gp3l0vd7ohfh69jroh681e4, O_RDWR) failed: Permission denied (13) in Unknown on line 0 Warning: Unknown: Failed to write session data (files). Please verify that the current setting of session.save_path is correct (/var/lib/php/session) in Unknown on line 0

What is the problem??

You have to try your hosting admin for this trouble.
Obviously the script tries to set the session but there is something wrong with the server config so it cant.

The problem is resolved.
My host has the problem solved.
I do not know what he did, but everything works fine now.

Hello Paul,
last two years captcha ran without problems (and solved a lot of problems).
Since Feb. 2012 I get complaints that the characters in the captcha box are no longer visible. On our side nothing (minibb/captcha) has changed.
Versions:
GD: bundled (2.0.34 compatible)
FreeType: 2.4.8

You can check the page here: ambachtengereedschap.nl/forum/index.php?action=registernew

If further info or access is needed please provide an email adress.

Hope you can help,

Sincerly
Arne Suverein
A&G

Check with your host first. It's almost sure it's server problem (maybe they don't have GD2 installed correctly)..