I have a board that was once running on UBB Classic 6.3.1.1 but has since been upgraded to something much better and newer. I only keep a copy of the old one around for posterity.

One of my users is asking for access to the admin console for that old instance, as well as the files. He wants to know who logged into a certain user account several years back and sent a private message on behalf of another forum member who was actually deceased at the time. I have told him that the information he is looking for does not exist, but he doesn't seem to believe me.

The user in question thinks he can submit queries or browse log files in particular, but it is my understanding that UBB Classic 6.3.1.1 does not actually keep a running log of events of this nature at all, anywhere, and that there is zero chance that the info he is after exists in any form. I know this from correspondence with Infopop support as well as from poking around in the files and on the console myself.

The only theoretical option I can think of, which itself would have also been a real stretch, would have been to correlate the private message sent/received timestamps with IP addresses logged on the web server (apache2). But of course the events in question took place so long ago that the server logs for that time period no longer exist (this is confirmed with the host).

So in short, I think this person is completely out of luck, but I wanted to triple check here just in case I have missed an option somewhere.

I believe this is a complete no-hoper.

If someone logged in as this user they would (to all intents and purposes) 'be' this user. Without server logs, there is no way to tell where the login came from.

And as you mention this was several years ago - there is a very real chance the user was using a dial-up connection and almost certainly didn't have a static IP.

Thanks, driv.

Just to re-confirm what I have seen and what I've been told, what exactly is happening "under the hood" when a person logs in and sends a private message under UBB Classic 6.3.1.1?

My understanding is the login event is recorded only in the "last-logged-in" profile field and that the message itself is saved to a flat file with no extraneous info recorded anywhere. It would be helpful if you could help me re-confirm this understanding.

Well, that's really a question for one of the developers.

But as far as this goes... "no extraneous info recorded anywhere"

I can't imagine why it would be. Data files are data files and server logs are server logs.

IP addresses were recorded for pm's, but I'm not sure if they went all the way back to 6.3.x - you can look at the pm file itself and see.

Not to mention, I highly doubt that (even if the static ip still belongs to that isp) the IP will give you any valid or valuable information in such a long period of time...

Great info, Allen. Are you referring to a file such as http://www.examplesite.com/cgi-bin/Members/pm_topics/U/00000123.cgi? This appears to be the PM thread in its entirety but lacks IP-related information. Anywhere else I might look, or does this confirm that UBB Classic 6.3.1.1 wasn't storing IPs anywhere yet?

The only place that the IP addresses were stored is with the message board post's in that UBB version.

The Private Messages did not store IP addresses at all in Classic.

6.3.1.1 has been a while back... that's nearly the "Earthquake Edition"