Secure site
#1
Just as a heads-up, we are making some changes to Big Blue, just a little at a time. Our first one is that we will now be on a secure server. We are going from, "http://", to "https://" starting today. We still have to make a redirect, but you can find us either way. As soon as we add the redirect, you will notice a green lock on our site address at the top of your browser.

Why are we doing this? Well, we've never been hacked, but, like the flu, it's going around and we need to take precautions so that we don't get it. It's too late about the flu for some of us, but not to secure our site from someone getting access, locking us all out and making off with passwords and email addresses. We are doing this at an extra cost to us, but highly recommended by our server host, Go Daddy.

Other changes are in the works, and we'll let you know well in advance, but just in case you are concerned, we are keeping our pledge not to get hooked up with ads or a sponsor. Those are why we started Big Blue in the first place, Mikey and I plus all our moderators at the time, were fed up with not having any control over the old site as it was passed down from one owner to the next and each one added their own flair for gaining advertising income. We will not go down that path, but we do have some exciting changes in store, so keep tuned....
Don (ezdays) Day
Board administrator and
founder of the CANYON STATE RAILROAD
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#2
Kudos for proactive measures as well as making the site safer for donations (mine is coming after Valentine's Day). If you did advertising (more along the lines of Joe Fugate at MRH), I wouldn't be upset, but it definitely makes downloading the page easier.

While you guys make absolutely no profit from this website/forum, you go out of your way to make this, in my humble opinion, my favorite forum (and the only one that I donate to) on the web. Thank you for all that you do and keep on trucking.
Mike Kieran
Port Able Lines

" If the world were perfect, it wouldn't be " - Yogi Berra.
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#3
Thanks Mike!!!!

That's because it's our favorite forum too!!!

The staff and members make this a great place to be!!

Oh yeah and of course then there's Racin'!!!!
<!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="http://bigbluetrains.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=9556&p=171067#p171067">viewtopic.php?f=29&t=9556&p=171067#p171067</a><!-- l -->
~~ Mikey KB3VBR (Admin)
~~ NARA Member # 75    
~~ Baldwin Eddystone Unofficial Website

~~ I wonder what that would look like in 1:20.3???
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#4
Smart move indeed, how much cost do you think it is?
Mike

Sent from my pocket calculator using two tin cans and a string
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#5
Negligible compared to what we are paying now.

Don's apparently a deal maker Smile Worship Worship
~~ Mikey KB3VBR (Admin)
~~ NARA Member # 75    
~~ Baldwin Eddystone Unofficial Website

~~ I wonder what that would look like in 1:20.3???
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#6
Tyson Rayles Wrote:Smart move indeed, how much cost do you think it is?

You can access us now using :
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://www.bigbluetrains.com">https://www.bigbluetrains.com</a><!-- m -->
We still need to implement the redirect for http users. I've trie both, one way I get an unsecured connection, the other way shows as secure.

Cost-wise, we did get a deal for three years, the hosting went down a lot from what it would have been, but we're doubling that by adding the security. So basically, we've got a secure site for less than it would have cost to stay with the old hosting service. As part of the deal, we will have to change over from the old hosting to the new between now and June, just that they have the security added immediately. We are not ready to migrate over to the new hosting service yet, we're leaving that all to Packey to do that along with the other changes. All-in-all, we have more features available to us now at less cost. Thumbsup Thumbsup Thumbsup

Oh, without being more specific, it still is in the many hundreds of dollars.
Don (ezdays) Day
Board administrator and
founder of the CANYON STATE RAILROAD
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#7
As of 11:47 AM CDT the above link is not active yet. I get a 404 error.

Tom
Life is simple - Eat, Drink, Play with trains

Occupation: Professional Old Guy (The government pays me to be old.)
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#8
Try:
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://www.bigbluetrains.com/forum/">https://www.bigbluetrains.com/forum/</a><!-- m -->

That seems to work OK. We have to fix using just bigbluetrains.com to get here. I's been a problem in the past and hasn't seemed to resolved itself yet.
Don (ezdays) Day
Board administrator and
founder of the CANYON STATE RAILROAD
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#9
works for me
Reinhard
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#10
Just checked back in. Works fine now.

Tom
Life is simple - Eat, Drink, Play with trains

Occupation: Professional Old Guy (The government pays me to be old.)
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#11
We have a bit of work to do on the redirect, both for the base URL, and for the secure site. Using just bigbluetrains.com with any prefix (http, https or www) will get you a 404 error. Packey is aware that we need to fix that along with adding the non-secure URL to redirect to the secure one. Using the /forum in the URL works just fine.
Don (ezdays) Day
Board administrator and
founder of the CANYON STATE RAILROAD
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#12
I know that it automatically directs to the new web address because I have Big Blue on all of the time on my smart browser in Chrome on my smart phone and the address shows the green https in the address.
Mike Kieran
Port Able Lines

" If the world were perfect, it wouldn't be " - Yogi Berra.
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#13
Mike Kieran Wrote:I know that it automatically directs to the new web address because I have Big Blue on all of the time on my smart browser in Chrome on my smart phone and the address shows the green https in the address.

Thanks for the feedback. We still need some work to be done regarding redirects though since not everyone is getting them automatically. It might be a function of your ISP.
Don (ezdays) Day
Board administrator and
founder of the CANYON STATE RAILROAD
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#14
I've been using the new link but just tried the old one (bigbluetrains.com/forum) and did not get redirected. I'm using Win 8.1 with all the latest patches and Firefox 58.0.2 (64 bit).

Tom
Life is simple - Eat, Drink, Play with trains

Occupation: Professional Old Guy (The government pays me to be old.)
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#15
Just in case you hadn't noticed, you all are now on the secured Big Blue site. Packey, our webmaster, fixed a few things yesterday including the secure redirect.

One thing that's been a problem for a long time is that when you try to get here using just, "bigbluetrains.com", you would wind up with a "404 error", but not anymore. No matter how you try to get here, you should not get an error, and you will be directed to the secure, "https" with the green lock. If you don't, please let us know since you shouldn't be directed anywhere else. Any variation of the following should work:

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://bigbluetrains.com">http://bigbluetrains.com</a><!-- m --> (or https)
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.bigbluetrains.com">http://www.bigbluetrains.com</a><!-- m --> (or https)
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.bigbluetrains.com/forum/">http://www.bigbluetrains.com/forum/</a><!-- m --> (with or without the http or https)
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.bigbluetrains.com">http://www.bigbluetrains.com</a><!-- m -->
bigbluetrains.com (with or without the /forum/)

You don't have to change the way you have always gotten here, the redirect will always change it to the secure way or to save a few milliseconds, you can always use the https:// prefix, your choice.
Don (ezdays) Day
Board administrator and
founder of the CANYON STATE RAILROAD
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