The LNER Encyclopedia

As a general note, it shouldn't be possible to decrypt a stored password.

Passwords should be stored with a one-way encryption. Then when a password is tested, it is encrypted first: do the two encrypted passwords match?
A two-way encryption system is considered very insecure, because the password file can be stolen and decrypted, revealing everyone's passwords.

Perhaps the website in question allowed you to test possible candidates against the encrypted password?

Thanks for the comments/hints Richard.

Actually, on reflection, I don't think I managed to under stand this 'de-cryption' website sufficiently to get anything valid out of it.
The encrypted password supplied by Fotopic was a meaningless mix of numerics and letters about 16 or 20 characters long.
There was nothing that could really be compared with something else : I just variously tried my correct username, with, in turn, either the encryption or whatever I did get out if it from the so-called de-cryption; - and with original, correct password, but no luck.

Having given up on ideas of image retrieval from Fotopic after attempts at using what chances of doing so previously offered were unsuccessful, I was surprised to receive the following email yesterday, which was 'out of the blue' as far as I was concerned, and which I copy below in case it's useful info to others :

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" From: Fotopic <downloads@fotopic.net>
Date: 24 Oct 2013 13:26:59 +0100
Subject: Fotopic Picture Access

Dear xxxxxxx,

After a series of technical issues the facility for users to download their Fotopic pictures has been re-opened. In order to avoid overloading the system we are opening up the system on a rolling alphabetic basis of username only. We have re-opened in reverse order as many users at the end of the alphabet have not yet had the chance to access their pictures. Currently open are any usernames starting with q - s. The access window for these users is from now up until the 7th November.

Please be patient with the process. It can take up to an hour to create 100 zip files, so for users with a large number of pictures this process may take a number of hours. Clicking "Re-Create your Zip Files" whilst the process is still running may cause you problems in downloading the resulting zip files. Once created your zip files must be downloaded within 48 hours as they are automatically deleted after that time.

For users with large collections we are offering an option to have their collections provided on a CD with image file metadata for approx. £50 (+VAT). The exact price has yet to be decided as this is a time-consuming and manual process.

Please note the following:
Whilst we do have the majority of users’ pictures not all of them (only 99%) are able to be retrieved, so unfortunately even though the percentage of unretrievable pictures is less than 1% there will be a few disappointed users.
Retrieval of pictures after the 7th November will incur a fee.
Update messages are posted on http://www.Fotopic.net and we recommend all users to read the message from the team recently posted.
As a reminder, you must log in using your existing Fotopic user name:

Website: http://www.Fotopic.net
User name: (your email address)
Password: your original password (an encrypted version is: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx which can be un-encrypted on this website: http://www.md5decrypter.co.uk)


Kind regards

Your Fotopic Team
http://www.Fotopic.net


Sent from Fotopic "

Just to let you know i got my pics back from Fotopic.They have sorted their problems,and downloading them took no time at all.

Thanks FF.

Meant to report that, yes, I also had success, downloading mine quickly (all 5 of them ) without problem on 7th Nov.

Having had a dalliance with fotopic, then fl***kr, I ended up at Ipernity.
There were some problems in 2016/7 but the good news is that Ipernity is now owned and run by the members.

Ipernity, after a rough period when it almost closed, is now converted to a community owned organisation. It is steadily improving with an increase in paid memberships, a new membership structure and is also removing "dead wood" from the database (ie material that is not accessible to public view from inactive accounts, specifically the old "free" accounts).

a recent newsletter can be found here ... http://www.ipernity.com/blog/team/4722252