Closed bzhfloriane closed 6 years ago
I think we will need the config file (with obvious sensitive data removed ) to help you any further.
@Half-Shot This is all my file homeserver.yaml :
# vim:ft=yaml
# PEM encoded X509 certificate for TLS.
# You can replace the self-signed certificate that synapse
# autogenerates on launch with your own SSL certificate + key pair
# if you like. Any required intermediary certificates can be
# appended after the primary certificate in hierarchical order.
tls_certificate_path: "/root/.synapse/nexus_chat1.nexus.tls.crt"
# PEM encoded private key for TLS
tls_private_key_path: "/root/.synapse/nexus_chat1.nexus.tls.key"
# PEM dh parameters for ephemeral keys
tls_dh_params_path: "/root/.synapse/nexus_chat1.nexus.tls.dh"
# Don't bind to the https port
no_tls: False
# List of allowed TLS fingerprints for this server to publish along
# with the signing keys for this server. Other matrix servers that
# make HTTPS requests to this server will check that the TLS
# certificates returned by this server match one of the fingerprints.
#
# Synapse automatically adds the fingerprint of its own certificate
# to the list. So if federation traffic is handle directly by synapse
# then no modification to the list is required.
#
# If synapse is run behind a load balancer that handles the TLS then it
# will be necessary to add the fingerprints of the certificates used by
# the loadbalancers to this list if they are different to the one
# synapse is using.
#
# Homeservers are permitted to cache the list of TLS fingerprints
# returned in the key responses up to the "valid_until_ts" returned in
# key. It may be necessary to publish the fingerprints of a new
# certificate and wait until the "valid_until_ts" of the previous key
# responses have passed before deploying it.
#
# You can calculate a fingerprint from a given TLS listener via:
# openssl s_client -connect $host:$port < /dev/null 2> /dev/null |
# openssl x509 -outform DER | openssl sha256 -binary | base64 | tr -d '='
# or by checking matrix.org/federationtester/api/report?server_name=$host
#
tls_fingerprints: []
# tls_fingerprints: [{"sha256": "<base64_encoded_sha256_fingerprint>"}]
## Server ##
# The domain name of the server, with optional explicit port.
# This is used by remote servers to connect to this server,
# e.g. matrix.org, localhost:8080, etc.
# This is also the last part of your UserID.
server_name: "nexus_chat1.nexus"
# When running as a daemon, the file to store the pid in
pid_file: /root/.synapse/homeserver.pid
# CPU affinity mask. Setting this restricts the CPUs on which the
# process will be scheduled. It is represented as a bitmask, with the
# lowest order bit corresponding to the first logical CPU and the
# highest order bit corresponding to the last logical CPU. Not all CPUs
# may exist on a given system but a mask may specify more CPUs than are
# present.
#
# For example:
# 0x00000001 is processor #0,
# 0x00000003 is processors #0 and #1,
# 0xFFFFFFFF is all processors (#0 through #31).
#
# Pinning a Python process to a single CPU is desirable, because Python
# is inherently single-threaded due to the GIL, and can suffer a
# 30-40% slowdown due to cache blow-out and thread context switching
# if the scheduler happens to schedule the underlying threads across
# different cores. See
# https://www.mirantis.com/blog/improve-performance-python-programs-restricting-single-cpu/.
#
# cpu_affinity: 0xFFFFFFFF
# Whether to serve a web client from the HTTP/HTTPS root resource.
web_client: True
# The root directory to server for the above web client.
# If left undefined, synapse will serve the matrix-angular-sdk web client.
# Make sure matrix-angular-sdk is installed with pip if web_client is True
# and web_client_location is undefined
# web_client_location: "/path/to/web/root"
# The public-facing base URL for the client API (not including _matrix/...)
# public_baseurl: https://example.com:8448/
# Set the soft limit on the number of file descriptors synapse can use
# Zero is used to indicate synapse should set the soft limit to the
# hard limit.
soft_file_limit: 0
# The GC threshold parameters to pass to `gc.set_threshold`, if defined
# gc_thresholds: [700, 10, 10]
# Set the limit on the returned events in the timeline in the get
# and sync operations. The default value is -1, means no upper limit.
# filter_timeline_limit: 5000
# Whether room invites to users on this server should be blocked
# (except those sent by local server admins). The default is False.
# block_non_admin_invites: True
# List of ports that Synapse should listen on, their purpose and their
# configuration.
listeners:
# Main HTTPS listener
# For when matrix traffic is sent directly to synapse.
-
# The port to listen for HTTPS requests on.
port: 8448
# Local addresses to listen on.
# This will listen on all IPv4 addresses by default.
bind_addresses:
- '0.0.0.0'
# Uncomment to listen on all IPv6 interfaces
# N.B: On at least Linux this will also listen on all IPv4
# addresses, so you will need to comment out the line above.
# - '::'
# This is a 'http' listener, allows us to specify 'resources'.
type: http
tls: true
# Use the X-Forwarded-For (XFF) header as the client IP and not the
# actual client IP.
x_forwarded: false
# List of HTTP resources to serve on this listener.
resources:
-
# List of resources to host on this listener.
names:
- client # The client-server APIs, both v1 and v2
- webclient # The bundled webclient.
# Should synapse compress HTTP responses to clients that support it?
# This should be disabled if running synapse behind a load balancer
# that can do automatic compression.
compress: true
- names: [federation] # Federation APIs
compress: false
# optional list of additional endpoints which can be loaded via
# dynamic modules
# additional_resources:
# "/_matrix/my/custom/endpoint":
# module: my_module.CustomRequestHandler
# config: {}
# Unsecure HTTP listener,
# For when matrix traffic passes through loadbalancer that unwraps TLS.
- port: 8008
tls: false
bind_addresses: ['0.0.0.0']
type: http
x_forwarded: false
resources:
- names: [client, webclient]
compress: true
- names: [federation]
compress: false
# Turn on the twisted ssh manhole service on localhost on the given
# port.
# - port: 9000
# bind_address: 127.0.0.1
# type: manhole
# Database configuration
database:
# The database engine name
name: "sqlite3"
# Arguments to pass to the engine
args:
# Path to the database
database: "/root/.synapse/homeserver.db"
#database:
# name: psycopg2
# args:
# user: star
# password:
# host: 127.0.0.1
# database: synapse
# cp_min: 5
# cp_max: 10
# Number of events to cache in memory.
#event_cache_size: "10K"
# Logging verbosity level. Ignored if log_config is specified.
verbose: 0
# File to write logging to. Ignored if log_config is specified.
log_file: "/root/.synapse/homeserver.log"
# A yaml python logging config file
log_config: "/root/.synapse/nexus_chat1.nexus.log.config"
## Ratelimiting ##
# Number of messages a client can send per second
rc_messages_per_second: 0.2
# Number of message a client can send before being throttled
rc_message_burst_count: 10.0
# The federation window size in milliseconds
federation_rc_window_size: 1000
# The number of federation requests from a single server in a window
# before the server will delay processing the request.
federation_rc_sleep_limit: 10
# The duration in milliseconds to delay processing events from
# remote servers by if they go over the sleep limit.
federation_rc_sleep_delay: 500
# The maximum number of concurrent federation requests allowed
# from a single server
federation_rc_reject_limit: 50
# The number of federation requests to concurrently process from a
# single server
federation_rc_concurrent: 3
# Directory where uploaded images and attachments are stored.
media_store_path: "/root/.synapse/media_store"
# A secondary directory where uploaded images and attachments are
# stored as a backup.
# backup_media_store_path: "/root/.synapse/media_store"
# Whether to wait for successful write to backup media store before
# returning successfully.
# synchronous_backup_media_store: false
# Directory where in-progress uploads are stored.
uploads_path: "/root/.synapse/uploads"
# The largest allowed upload size in bytes
max_upload_size: "10M"
# Maximum number of pixels that will be thumbnailed
max_image_pixels: "32M"
# Whether to generate new thumbnails on the fly to precisely match
# the resolution requested by the client. If true then whenever
# a new resolution is requested by the client the server will
# generate a new thumbnail. If false the server will pick a thumbnail
# from a precalculated list.
dynamic_thumbnails: false
# List of thumbnail to precalculate when an image is uploaded.
thumbnail_sizes:
- width: 32
height: 32
method: crop
- width: 96
height: 96
method: crop
- width: 320
height: 240
method: scale
- width: 640
height: 480
method: scale
# Is the preview URL API enabled? If enabled, you *must* specify
# an explicit url_preview_ip_range_blacklist of IPs that the spider is
# denied from accessing.
url_preview_enabled: False
# List of IP address CIDR ranges that the URL preview spider is denied
# from accessing. There are no defaults: you must explicitly
# specify a list for URL previewing to work. You should specify any
# internal services in your network that you do not want synapse to try
# to connect to, otherwise anyone in any Matrix room could cause your
# synapse to issue arbitrary GET requests to your internal services,
# causing serious security issues.
#
# url_preview_ip_range_blacklist:
# - '127.0.0.0/8'
# - '10.0.0.0/8'
# - '172.16.0.0/12'
# - '192.168.0.0/16'
# - '100.64.0.0/10'
# - '169.254.0.0/16'
#
# List of IP address CIDR ranges that the URL preview spider is allowed
# to access even if they are specified in url_preview_ip_range_blacklist.
# This is useful for specifying exceptions to wide-ranging blacklisted
# target IP ranges - e.g. for enabling URL previews for a specific private
# website only visible in your network.
#
# url_preview_ip_range_whitelist:
# - '192.168.1.1'
# Optional list of URL matches that the URL preview spider is
# denied from accessing. You should use url_preview_ip_range_blacklist
# in preference to this, otherwise someone could define a public DNS
# entry that points to a private IP address and circumvent the blacklist.
# This is more useful if you know there is an entire shape of URL that
# you know that will never want synapse to try to spider.
#
# Each list entry is a dictionary of url component attributes as returned
# by urlparse.urlsplit as applied to the absolute form of the URL. See
# https://docs.python.org/2/library/urlparse.html#urlparse.urlsplit
# The values of the dictionary are treated as an filename match pattern
# applied to that component of URLs, unless they start with a ^ in which
# case they are treated as a regular expression match. If all the
# specified component matches for a given list item succeed, the URL is
# blacklisted.
#
# url_preview_url_blacklist:
# # blacklist any URL with a username in its URI
# - username: '*'
#
# # blacklist all *.google.com URLs
# - netloc: 'google.com'
# - netloc: '*.google.com'
#
# # blacklist all plain HTTP URLs
# - scheme: 'http'
#
# # blacklist http(s)://www.acme.com/foo
# - netloc: 'www.acme.com'
# path: '/foo'
#
# # blacklist any URL with a literal IPv4 address
# - netloc: '^[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+$'
# The largest allowed URL preview spidering size in bytes
max_spider_size: "10M"
## Captcha ##
# See docs/CAPTCHA_SETUP for full details of configuring this.
# This Home Server's ReCAPTCHA public key.
recaptcha_public_key: "YOUR_PUBLIC_KEY"
# This Home Server's ReCAPTCHA private key.
recaptcha_private_key: "YOUR_PRIVATE_KEY"
# Enables ReCaptcha checks when registering, preventing signup
# unless a captcha is answered. Requires a valid ReCaptcha
# public/private key.
enable_registration_captcha: False
# A secret key used to bypass the captcha test entirely.
#captcha_bypass_secret: "YOUR_SECRET_HERE"
# The API endpoint to use for verifying m.login.recaptcha responses.
recaptcha_siteverify_api: "https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api/siteverify"
## Turn ##
# The public URIs of the TURN server to give to clients
turn_uris: []
# The shared secret used to compute passwords for the TURN server
turn_shared_secret: "YOUR_SHARED_SECRET"
# The Username and password if the TURN server needs them and
# does not use a token
#turn_username: "TURNSERVER_USERNAME"
#turn_password: "TURNSERVER_PASSWORD"
# How long generated TURN credentials last
turn_user_lifetime: "1h"
# Whether guests should be allowed to use the TURN server.
# This defaults to True, otherwise VoIP will be unreliable for guests.
# However, it does introduce a slight security risk as it allows users to
# connect to arbitrary endpoints without having first signed up for a
# valid account (e.g. by passing a CAPTCHA).
turn_allow_guests: True
## Registration ##
# Enable registration for new users.
enable_registration: False
# If set, allows registration by anyone who also has the shared
# secret, even if registration is otherwise disabled.
registration_shared_secret: "J#_C.ouEJL&SO2qnP4djPItKgH+WyH=A,DuW.k1fI=lMg~nHa@"
# Set the number of bcrypt rounds used to generate password hash.
# Larger numbers increase the work factor needed to generate the hash.
# The default number of rounds is 12.
bcrypt_rounds: 12
# Allows users to register as guests without a password/email/etc, and
# participate in rooms hosted on this server which have been made
# accessible to anonymous users.
allow_guest_access: False
# The list of identity servers trusted to verify third party
# identifiers by this server.
trusted_third_party_id_servers:
- matrix.org
- vector.im
- riot.im
# Users who register on this homeserver will automatically be joined
# to these rooms
#auto_join_rooms:
# - "#example:example.com"
## Metrics ###
# Enable collection and rendering of performance metrics
enable_metrics: False
report_stats: True
## API Configuration ##
# A list of event types that will be included in the room_invite_state
room_invite_state_types:
- "m.room.join_rules"
- "m.room.canonical_alias"
- "m.room.avatar"
- "m.room.name"
# A list of application service config file to use
app_service_config_files: []
macaroon_secret_key: "@0lv,RWcz9I9rsiFQ-K_5EIyT:_Rli;Ig2JfVJq68MS3SUKVF3"
# Used to enable access token expiration.
expire_access_token: False
## Signing Keys ##
# Path to the signing key to sign messages with
signing_key_path: "/root/.synapse/nexus_chat1.nexus.signing.key"
# The keys that the server used to sign messages with but won't use
# to sign new messages. E.g. it has lost its private key
old_signing_keys: {}
# "ed25519:auto":
# # Base64 encoded public key
# key: "The public part of your old signing key."
# # Millisecond POSIX timestamp when the key expired.
# expired_ts: 123456789123
# How long key response published by this server is valid for.
# Used to set the valid_until_ts in /key/v2 APIs.
# Determines how quickly servers will query to check which keys
# are still valid.
key_refresh_interval: "1d" # 1 Day.
# The trusted servers to download signing keys from.
perspectives:
servers:
"matrix.org":
verify_keys:
"ed25519:auto":
key: "Noi6WqcDj0QmPxCNQqgezwTlBKrfqehY1u2FyWP9uYw"
# Enable SAML2 for registration and login. Uses pysaml2
# config_path: Path to the sp_conf.py configuration file
# idp_redirect_url: Identity provider URL which will redirect
# the user back to /login/saml2 with proper info.
# See pysaml2 docs for format of config.
#saml2_config:
# enabled: true
# config_path: "/root/.synapse/sp_conf.py"
# idp_redirect_url: "http://nexus_chat1.nexus/idp"
# Enable CAS for registration and login.
#cas_config:
# enabled: true
# server_url: "https://cas-server.com"
# service_url: "https://homeserver.domain.com:8448"
# #required_attributes:
# # name: value
# The JWT needs to contain a globally unique "sub" (subject) claim.
#
# jwt_config:
# enabled: true
# secret: "a secret"
# algorithm: "HS256"
# Enable password for login.
password_config:
enabled: true
# secret: "a secret"
# algorithm: "HS256"
# Enable password for login.
password_config:
enabled: true
# Uncomment and change to a secret random string for extra security.
# DO NOT CHANGE THIS AFTER INITIAL SETUP!
#pepper: ""
# Enable sending emails for notification events
# Defining a custom URL for Riot is only needed if email notifications
# should contain links to a self-hosted installation of Riot; when set
# the "app_name" setting is ignored.
#
# If your SMTP server requires authentication, the optional smtp_user &
# smtp_pass variables should be used
#
#email:
# enable_notifs: false
# smtp_host: "localhost"
# smtp_port: 25
# smtp_user: "exampleusername"
# smtp_pass: "examplepassword"
# require_transport_security: False
# notif_from: "Your Friendly %(app)s Home Server <noreply@example.com>"
# app_name: Matrix
# template_dir: res/templates
# notif_template_html: notif_mail.html
# notif_template_text: notif_mail.txt
# notif_for_new_users: True
# riot_base_url: "http://localhost/riot"
# password_providers:
# - module: "ldap_auth_provider.LdapAuthProvider"
# config:
# enabled: true
# uri: "ldap://ldap.example.com:389"
# start_tls: true
# uri: "ldap://ldap.example.com:389"
# start_tls: true
# base: "ou=users,dc=example,dc=com"
# attributes:
# uid: "cn"
# mail: "email"
# name: "givenName"
# #bind_dn:
# #bind_password:
# #filter: "(objectClass=posixAccount)"
# Clients requesting push notifications can either have the body of
# the message sent in the notification poke along with other details
# like the sender, or just the event ID and room ID (`event_id_only`).
# If clients choose the former, this option controls whether the
# notification request includes the content of the event (other details
# like the sender are still included). For `event_id_only` push, it
# has no effect.
# For modern android devices the notification content will still appear
# because it is loaded by the app. iPhone, however will send a
# notification saying only that a message arrived and who it came from.
#
#push:
# include_content: true
# spam_checker:
# module: "my_custom_project.SuperSpamChecker"
# config:
# example_option: 'things'
# Whether to allow non server admins to create groups on this server
enable_group_creation: false
# If enabled, non server admins can only create groups with local parts
# starting with this prefix
# group_creation_prefix: "unofficial/"
# User Directory configuration
#
# 'search_all_users' defines whether to search all users visible to your HS
# when searching the user directory, rather than limiting to users visible
# in public rooms. Defaults to false. If you set it True, you'll have to run
# UPDATE user_directory_stream_pos SET stream_id = NULL;
# on your database to tell it to rebuild the user_directory search indexes.
#
#user_directory:
# search_all_users: false
@bzhfloriane
## Registration ##
# Enable registration for new users.
enable_registration: False
should be set to True
Also your config appears to be leaking secret tokens, I'd edit and remove the config so it isn't used against you.
@Half-Shot Thanks for your answer.
How I edit and remove this config .. ?
Find your message, ✏️ icon on the top right.
Select the whole config and delete it :).
@Half-Shot
Thanks :)
Sorry to ask you this here, but I have another problem. I can not get my two servers to synapse with each other. For that, do I have to do the [setting-up federation] (https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse#setting-up-federation)? Because for inttsnat I did not configure my DNS.
I am not too sure, and I think you have issue #2945 for that. I'd wait for someone to respond.
@Half-Shot Thanks for your answer.
How I edit and remove this config .. ?
@Half-Shot i have the same confuse
@newheek you should create a new issue rather than using a closed one.
@bzhfloriane
## Registration ## # Enable registration for new users. enable_registration: False
should be set to
True
Also your config appears to be leaking secret tokens, I'd edit and remove the config so it isn't used against you.
Hello @Half-Shot, I've set enable_registration to True which allows users on the desktop application and the website to register perfectly fine. However, when users attempt to register on mobile devices via the Android and iOS app (after entering the captcha) there is an error stating registration is disabled on my HS (the variable has been set to true and registration works on the web-ui and desktop app).
Your help would be greatly appreciated.
@SamuelBeguiristain You should make a new issue rather than commenting on an old closed one. This bug seems like a problem with your mobile clients, not with synapse. I suggest you open a bug on those repositories first.
Thank You! It's worked for me too.
Why does is say "If set, allows registration by anyone who also has the shared secret, even if registration is otherwise disabled."? I have the same problem. I'm expecting a prompt for the secret key but I get, "Registration has been disabled on this server" in the Element's "Create Your Account" GUI.
## Registration ##
# Enable registration for new users.
enable_registration: False
# If set, allows registration by anyone who also has the shared
# secret, even if registration is otherwise disabled.
registration_shared_secret: "J#_C.ouEJL&SO2qnP4djPItKgH+WyH=A,DuW.k1fI=lMg~nHa@"
Why does is say "If set, allows registration by anyone who also has the shared secret, even if registration is otherwise disabled."? I have the same problem. I'm expecting a prompt for the secret key but I get, "Registration has been disabled on this server" in the Element's "Create Your Account" GUI.
## Registration ## # Enable registration for new users. enable_registration: False # If set, allows registration by anyone who also has the shared # secret, even if registration is otherwise disabled. registration_shared_secret: "J#_C.ouEJL&SO2qnP4djPItKgH+WyH=A,DuW.k1fI=lMg~nHa@"
You may have solve your problem since then but for me the answer was just to restart synapse by doing
sudo systemctl restart matrix-synapse.service
I use Debian 11 and config with traefik proxy, I can do register_new_matrix_user -c /etc/matrix-synapse/homeserver.yaml http://127.0.0.1:8008, but when I enable user registration will fall to start the matrix-synapse service, can someone tell me why?
My config:
pid_file: "/var/run/matrix-synapse.pid"
listeners:
- port: 8008
tls: false
type: http
x_forwarded: true
bind_addresses: ['::1', '0.0.0.0']
resources:
- names: [client, federation]
compress: false
#database:
# name: sqlite3
# args:
# database: /var/lib/matrix-synapse/homeserver.db
database:
name: psycopg2
txn_limit: 10000
args:
user: synapse_user
password: *****
database: synapse
host: localhost
port: 5432
cp_min: 5
cp_max: 10
log_config: "/etc/matrix-synapse/log.yaml"
media_store_path: /var/lib/matrix-synapse/media
signing_key_path: "/etc/matrix-synapse/homeserver.signing.key"
trusted_key_servers:
- server_name: "matrix.org"
#suppress_key_server_warning: true
# Allows users to register as guests without a password/email/etc, and
# participate in rooms hosted on this server which have been made
# accessible to anonymous users.
#
allow_guest_access: false
registration_shared_secret: ********************************************
## Registration ##
#
# Registration can be rate-limited using the parameters in the "Ratelimiting"
# section of this file.
# Enable registration for new users.
#
enable_registration: true
I have the same issue on Ubuntu 22.04, @CRK1918 have you managed to find a solution?
I have the same issue on Ubuntu 22.04, @CRK1918 have you managed to find a solution?
Yes, enable captcha it worked out for me. Attacks can be prevented. This is the new version requirements. See: https://matrix-org.github.io/synapse/latest/CAPTCHA_SETUP.html
Other methods can also configure mail for registration.
I have the same issue on Ubuntu 22.04, @CRK1918 have you managed to find a solution?
Or this
Hi, I been successfully able to install and run the Synapses server in CentOS 7. But after when I am trying to register a new account in the page http://localhost:8008/_matrix/client/#/register facing one error. I have this error : "Registration has been disabled (M_UNKNOWN)"
Error :
register-controller.js:151 Registration error: {"data":{"errcode":"M_UNKNOWN","error":"Registration has been disabled"},"status":403,"config":{"method":"POST","transformRequest":[null],"transformResponse":[null],"url":"http://192.168.0.162:8008/_matrix/client/v2_alpha/register","params":{},"data":{"username":"testtest","password":"testtest","bind_email":true},"headers":{"Accept":"application/json, text/plain, */*","Content-Type":"application/json;charset=utf-8"}},"statusText":"Forbidden"}
And the logs :
2018-03-05 11:16:00,310 - synapse.access.http.8008 - 59 - INFO - OPTIONS-1560- 192.168.0.119 - 8008 - Received request: OPTIONS /_matrix/client/v2_alpha/register 2018-03-05 11:16:00,311 - synapse.access.http.8008 - 91 - INFO - OPTIONS-1560- 192.168.0.119 - 8008 - {None} Processed request: 1ms (0ms, 0ms) (0ms/0) 22B 200 "OPTIONS /_matrix/client/v2_alpha/register HTTP/1.1" "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/64.0.3282.167 Safari/537.36" 2018-03-05 11:16:00,320 - synapse.access.http.8008 - 59 - INFO - POST-1561- 192.168.0.119 - 8008 - Received request: POST /_matrix/client/v2_alpha/register 2018-03-05 11:16:00,321 - synapse.http.server - 124 - INFO - POST-1561- <SynapseRequest at 0x5b5d908 method=POST uri=/_matrix/client/v2_alpha/register clientproto=HTTP/1.1 site=8008> SynapseError: 403 - Registration has been disabled 2018-03-05 11:16:00,322 - synapse.access.http.8008 - 91 - INFO - POST-1561- 192.168.0.119 - 8008 - {None} Processed request: 2ms (1ms, 0ms) (0ms/0) 80B 403 "POST /_matrix/client/v2_alpha/register HTTP/1.1" "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/64.0.3282.167 Safari/537.36"
Any help is appreciated..