Hello.

I'm a moderator of a site using UBB software and we've run into a bit of a problem. We keep getting spammed by people using proxies, so ban one account and six more pop up.
I'm ignorant of the scripts and things we use, when it comes to programming I know basic html, but in discussing with the more educated fellows one of them showed me this.

http://zeus.osix.net/modules/article/index.php?id=765

It detect proxies for PHP-based sites, so I'm thinking if I can find a version of this for UBB it might solve our Spam issues.

I'll dig around on your site and see if I can dredge up something, but if someone can suggest something to me, that would be splendid.

Sorry for the "newbish" question, but when it comes to programming I'm the first to call myself a newb.

thanks for the help

~Hated One

Welcome

The first step to stop spammers is to turn on 'flood control' in the control panel. Set it to at least 20 seconds, 30 seconds or more is preferable

The second step would be to go to 'registration settings' and check the top 4 checkboxes - that will slow spammers wwaaayyy down and most eventually tire and move on.

Start there and let me know how things are going

Thanks, but a few things.

Our flood control is currently at 63 seconds.
And the registration is an iffy issue.
See the owner of the site cannot be contacted. (He is unreliable.)
Even if we could, he would not allow the registration to be deactivated.
Now if the admins could just shut off the reg, we'd be fine.
But since our fearless leader doesn't want that, we're put in a stick situation.

He wouldn't have to turn it off, but he would have to be around to sort through new registrations. At the very least he would need to turn on 'verify email addresses' and 'limit one email address per registrant'. That would cut out the sloppy spammers and not slow down the legit users.

I don't think the email verifyer would do it. The spammer has been using more than one email address and switches for every new account. (Forgive me if I did not understand your suggestion.)

possibly, but it at least eliminates one method and gives the user another hoop to jump through (with several smaller hoops with each new email address to aquire).

There's no fool-proof anti-spam methods for the eejit with time on their hands, all you can do is put up more roadblocks and eventually they tire and move on. If the admin isn't willing to put some of those roadblocks up for you, then it may be time to find a new site.

Well, thanks for the help mate.

Hopefully we can awaken the owner and push him to make the changes to the site.
Thanks for being so speedy in your reply. I'm used to waiting for reply on most forums and just getting an insult at best.

Hey Allen, I've talked to you before about problems that we were having on our bbs. I'm not sure if you remember or not, but it was a few years ago. My friend Suzie knew you a lot better, but I'm not sure what she posted as here.

Anywho, I'm currently running the bbs on the site that's being spammed. The main problem that we're having is people using proxies to evade IP bans. I was wondering what the possibility of adding some sort of proxy detection script to the bbs would be. I know the world of proxy detection is fairly limited, but if you know of a method that would work well without slowing our server to a dead stop, it would be infinitly helpful.

hehe, I've talked to a few in the last few years I do remember a Suzie, but vaguely

I am not familiar with proxy detectors, I really don't see how they could be anything more than a stop-gap. If someone is determined to get around current methods, the next best solution is to turn on registration moderation - most spammers are too dense to not choose different enough login names/ public names/ passwords - not counting the extra time it takes to get in after registering... First step would be to check the top 4 boxes in the registration settings page tho - they do help some

In reading the site linked to concerning the proxy-detector, people comment that there are already ways around it - whatcha gonna do?

Eeep, Zok found me.

Allen, I get spam too, how do I get info about an IP ( 81.95.146.162)? all the sites I checked dont give me any info on this. Also, how is that posible, I disabled REPORT POST TO MODERATOR and I still get reports? I am talking about 30-40 reports a day, that is a lot of email/day. Imagine what if I go in vacation and dont check my email for two weeks? How can I stop that?

Thanks
Felix

What version are you running?

You might consider turning off the email features.

6.3.1

but that means nobody from the board can email me plus Lost Password, Email Verification etc.....
I blocked him on the server, lets see if that works. Is there a way to block IP from accessing the board not only posting?

you can use an htaccess file to block his ip

http://www.ubbcentral.com/support/version.php?product=UBB.classic#6.3.1

Your version is 4 years old, lots of security exploits have been found and fixed since then. The 'report post' link was new to your version, I would imagine it's been fixed since then.