Unofficial Tex Murphy

I know they haven't been posting, but the name of the web site link that the newest one has is pretty awful. Where is the line here? I mean the casino ones were fairly inoffensive, but yikes, I don't like where the trend is going.

Jen

Which posts are you referring to, Jen? I haven't run across any so far.

[EDIT:] Whoop... never mind. Found it. Deleted.

James, FYI:

The following members of the Unofficial Tex Murphy Message Baord are spambots:

Stanley27620242
Garry25332637
Spikehks666
uapromotion
Chesser21131651
Hockersmith24675374
knee82946
leg23432
station55487
Nevaeh66293
fedorovych
shelf232


Phpbb not only had a ban and remove fature but it has an IP blocker feature. Before you remove the above members, note each of their IP addresses down and then ban them. Follow this up by adding all your collected IP addresses to the IP block feature in your members tools.

I would also suggest keeping the PHPBB software up-to-date...

Check out this page on the PHPBB website for a list of modifications you can add to the board to protect it against spambots: http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/catdb.php?cat=57

The third one down ('disable spambots') is pretty effective. But by far the most effective is the visual confirmation addon. The one where a new user must re-type a series of numbers that appear in an image as part of their signup. However, according to PHPBB, if you are runnning version 2.0.11 or later you will automatically have this feature, So I would suggest upgrading to the latest PHPBB version, and getting the 'disable spambots' plug-in.

-Cub. =o)

Is blocking IPs any good? Since IPs aren't always static (therefore they can easily change IPs) and unless I'm wrong, won't someone innocent potentially get that same IP at a later date and find themself banned? Not sure. Would appreciate knowing since I sometimes need to ban people off my listings etc.

Cubase wrote:James, FYI:

The following members of the Unofficial Tex Murphy Message Baord are spambots:

Stanley27620242
Garry25332637
Spikehks666
uapromotion
Chesser21131651
Hockersmith24675374
knee82946
leg23432
station55487
Nevaeh66293
fedorovych
shelf232


Phpbb not only had a ban and remove fature but it has an IP blocker feature. Before you remove the above members, note each of their IP addresses down and then ban them. Follow this up by adding all your collected IP addresses to the IP block feature in your members tools.

I would also suggest keeping the PHPBB software up-to-date...

Check out this page on the PHPBB website for a list of modifications you can add to the board to protect it against spambots: http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/catdb.php?cat=57

The third one down ('disable spambots') is pretty effective. But by far the most effective is the visual confirmation addon. The one where a new user must re-type a series of numbers that appear in an image as part of their signup. However, according to PHPBB, if you are runnning version 2.0.11 or later you will automatically have this feature, So I would suggest upgrading to the latest PHPBB version, and getting the 'disable spambots' plug-in.

-Cub. =o)

Yeah, right! James, ban this scum!

Well Sai, the odds of having the same IP AND the same internet gateway address as another user on the same forum are pretty much close to nothing, so it is not really an issue.

And there is really no way to completely obliterate spambots, but I found that on another board which I managed spambots seem to all come from similar addresses so you can simply block the range.

-Cub. =o)

Thanks for the information Cub, glad to hear its not a problem.

Good point, Sai. Some larger 'marketing' companies use transparent proxies that rotate the IP address on a given period of time. ISPs like NTL use the same method to sheild their networks from attack.

Sai wrote:Thanks for the information Cub, glad to hear its not a problem.

Oh, it is a problem. It always will be, but it can be kept under control if you are on the ball.

-Cub. =o)

Thanks for the ideas, Cub. I will look into it as soon as I can.

Damn, guess I shouldn't have brought it up.

Look what the bot brought in?

Cause Always yours, AlanStormCrew looks like our newest!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

really?
_________________
Always yours, AlanStormCrew

You're right Jen, AlanStormCrew is also a bot.

-Cub. =o)

This is spooky! I am on another forum and AlanStormCrew was banned literally yesterday for being a spammer!! He got as far as doing a triple post of the same thing in 1 thread. Was just about to report him but thought I'd check this thread first.
Hope I'm not being followed! (But they would have had to be desperate since its not like I have this place linked from that forum! Only on my site... which isn't really linked on that forum either)
I think I am just lucky enough to be able to view his wonderful posts many times in various places then

That would be AS, I suppose. Artificial Stupidity.

Cubase wrote:

Sai wrote:Thanks for the information Cub, glad to hear its not a problem.

Oh, it is a problem. It always will be, but it can be kept under control if you are on the ball.

-Cub. =o)

Ah yeah sadly bots will probably always find ways around everything.
But I more meant that it was good to hear from you that banning an IP doesn't run much of a risk of banning someone else at the same time. Thanks for the tip.

i'm_melting_i'm_melting wrote:That would be AS, I suppose. Artificial Stupidity.

Certainly looks like it