Problems with spammers!

[Arty]

or are these instructions extremely outdated???

Those instructions are outdated. Visual confirmation is built-in in 2.0.11, so all you have to do is login as admin and in admin control panel in general configuration enable visual confirmation.

[Stacy]

or are these instructions extremely outdated???

Those instructions are outdated. Visual confirmation is built-in in 2.0.11, so all you have to do is login as admin and in admin control panel in general configuration enable visual confirmation.

I don't see where to enable this. I just updated from 2.10 to 2.11


nevermind... I had to close the browser and reopen to get a good refresh.

[KingOfChaos]

Hey...I am still using 2.0.6. If I simply install the files from 2.0.11 over the ones in 2.0.6 will it give me this feature? If so, which files do I need to replace?

[Synon]

Hmm... It's not there(or in any other admin section). I updated to 2.11 from 2.06 using the patch, is there a chance it didnt change it?

[Graham]

Depends what template you are using. Try switching to subSilver and seeing if you can see it. Many templates need updating to support this option in the Admin panel.

[gubmints]

I've had the same type of spammers hit my message board. There doesn't appear to be any type of legitimate email address. My spammer was using cjb.net for their email, so I banned all of cjb.net emails, then deleted the accounts, at the time it was 1, the it went to 2. Now just yesterday I had 4 new accounts after I changed the forum to user activation via email. Now I just made it so I have to approve the memberships until I can sort this out. I currently have 10 members, but it's a public board, but I have devoted readers to whatever is submitted.

I have went through my raw log files. Somehow they are going around the raw log files for IP #'s. But after I activated user activation via email, then I got 4 new accounts, with all the same information, even same account name. I don't know how to research the passwords, but I did try searching the raw log files for topace's reference to the password being the same. Found nothing.

This is what recovered from my raw log files:

210.0.200.2 - - [26/Nov/2004:14:01:54 -0600]
"POST /forum/profile.php HTTP/1.0" 200
12976 "http://www.website.com/forum/profile.php"
"Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1)"

210.212.204.241 - - [26/Nov/2004:14:01:55 - 600]
"POST /forum/profile.php HTTP/1.0" 200 2976 "http://www.website.com/forum/profile.php"
"Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1)"

209.12.132.243 - - [26/Nov/2004:14:01:56 -0600]
"POST /forum/profile.php HTTP/1.0" 200 12976 "http://www.website.com/forum/profile.php"
"Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1)"

81.117.88.91 - - [26/Nov/2004:14:02:02 -0600]
"POST /forum/profile.php HTTP/1.0" 200
22581 "http://www.website.com/forum/profile.php"
"Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1)"

I'm not quite sure blocking IP #'s will work unless we know for sure which IP is doing this. I suspect they have some sort of program to scramble IP numbers, along with some sort of automated emailer. Since this person would have to hit the link. Wondered why the flood control didn't kick in. Maybe this is only for messages. If there was a flood control for making new accounts, it would make this more managable, if I have to keep deleting accounts. I suppose I could always change the directory name to the forum, but that may cause confusion amongst my AOL readers.

From reading this thread it looks like it's best to upgrade to 2.0.11.
I'm currently running 2.0.8.

Had anyone had success from upgrading to 2.0.11 for the visual verification?

thanks

gubmints

[gubmints]

one other thing I noticed after studying the raw log files is that every time the accounts were created, the following IP's were logged, but link back to msn * hotmail.

207.46.98.68
207.46.98.69
207.46.98.70

as appears in my raw log files.

"msnbot/0.3 (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)"

I know there is a html way to block robots from retrieving information from your site, but can't remember what html site (if that was it was) that talked about it. Now I can't find it.

thanks again,
gubmints

[Arty]

I know there is a html way to block robots from retrieving information from your site, but can't remember what html site (if that was it was) that talked about it. Now I can't find it.

File is called "robots.txt" and this tutorial explains how to use it: http://www.searchengineworld.com/robots ... torial.htm

[KingOfChaos]

Hmm... It's not there(or in any other admin section). I updated to 2.11 from 2.06 using the patch, is there a chance it didnt change it?

If you uploaded the template file that came with the upgraded files from 2.06 to 2.0.11 then it SHOULD appear in the Configuration area of the administration center.

[KingOfChaos]

I know there is a html way to block robots from retrieving information from your site, but can't remember what html site (if that was it was) that talked about it. Now I can't find it.

These guys aren't real good at 'following the rules' so more than likely their bots don't recognize the robots.txt file. In fact, many legitament search engines don't recognize it, either.

[wobo]

Had anyone had success from upgrading to 2.0.11 for the visual verification?

Not me. I updated my 2.0.8 to 2.0.11, checked both files for the proper entries (listed in the README of the /contrib directory). all entries are there, the database is there (user_confirm), it has the right fields. But everytime I want to activate that bugger the I save my ACP and when I look again, the visual confirmatione is de-activated again.

No chance! I've been working on that now for more than 4 hours, I think I've checked everything 3 times and more.

I did a clean install of 2.0.10 just 2 weeks ago and there the visual confirmation works. So there must be something in the old 2.0.8-files which prevents it from working in the 2.0.11 now. But what and where?

wobo

[Graham]

Try running the following query in your database

Code: Select all

INSERT INTO `phpbb_config` VALUES ('enable_confirm', '1');

[wobo]

Try running the following query in your database

Code: Select all

INSERT INTO `phpbb_config` VALUES ('enable_confirm', '1');

I know this advice and I tried it already, thanks anyway.

No, the solution was, I downloaded the full package and replaced all files with the new version. After that VC worked. A sure sign that at least one changed file is missing in the "Changed files only" package.

wobo

[Synon]

Well, I finally broke down and just wiped my patched version of 2.0.11 and installed the full version of 2.0.11 and it fixed the problem. The patch does NOT add the visual confirmation function in configuration, I patched from 2.0.6 to 2.0.11 and it did not add it. You have to wipe it out and start fresh.

[vrflyer]

How do I control spam e-mails though...

I guess my HOST is telling me I am spamming others with e-mails ? Is my host on crack > ?

How's this possible w/o any weird registrations on my memberlist....

I'm currently still using v2.0.4 with many hacks and also using v2.0.6 emailer.php.