Getting spammed on PHP BB

[Phronesis]

I have a PHP BB forum website that is only used for a local private homeschooling group. You can't post anywhere on the site without being a member and your membership must be approved by the admin (me). Every day I have 2 or 3 new accounts sign up from places like Spain, Latvia, Austria, etc. I check their profile and it's clear they are there to spam the board with signatures like BEST PHARMA SITE and crap like that. Are they using some kind of software to find my site and automatically register? I have other forums that are inactive but well indexed on the SERPS that get none of this garbage. There's no harm done because they can't post anything but its a pain to have to sort through new registrations and figure out who is genuine and delete the rest. Is there something inherent in PHP BB that's drawing these people like flies to poop?

 

[Barrucadu]

1) Turn on email validation
2) Turn on image validation

That should stop 99.9% of spambots

 

[Phronesis]

1) Turn on email validation
2) Turn on image validation

That should stop 99.9% of spambots

Thanks for the reply. I don't see either option in the general configuration. I'm running version 2.0.20. Are those features in a later version? Or could the style I'm using prevent those features from being available?

 

[Barrucadu]

Dunno, could be, here is mine from the configuration:

Enable account activation	None   User   Admin
Enable Visual Confirmation
Requires users enter a code defined by an image when registering.	Yes   No

 

[apexad]

I recently had some spam happen on my site that is for members of my family only. I was allowing guests to post. I fixed that.

But surprisingly, even with the image validation, I had a 'johndoe###' try and register.
So, I think that stat is more like 99%, but still turning those options should help.

 

[yeppers]

1) Turn on email validation
2) Turn on image validation

That should stop 99.9% of spambots

Do waht Mikor said :P

1) Turn on email validation
2) Turn on image validation

That should stop 99.9% of spambots

Thanks for the reply. I don't see either option in the general configuration. I'm running version 2.0.20. Are those features in a later version? Or could the style I'm using prevent those features from being available?

Yes it is available in version 2.0.20 for sure!

Just login to your admin panel, click on General Configuration. Then you should find those options in there, if you can't see them, just search the page (CTRL+F) for 'Visual' and 'image' and you should find those options.

Best of luck,
Rhett.

 

[netzilla]

On a side note...yahoo and some other webmail services treat the signup confirmation email as spam and file it as such so be careful about turning that option on.

 

[Phronesis]

Just login to your admin panel, click on General Configuration. Then you should find those options in there, if you can't see them, just search the page (CTRL+F) for 'Visual' and 'image' and you should find those options.

Thanks. I tried that but it's not there. The style I installed must have that feature omitted I'm guessing.

 

[yeppers]

Just login to your admin panel, click on General Configuration. Then you should find those options in there, if you can't see them, just search the page (CTRL+F) for 'Visual' and 'image' and you should find those options.

Thanks. I tried that but it's not there. The style I installed must have that feature omitted I'm guessing.

Yep I'd say that's your prob.

Just change the design back to the default subSilver and change it back once you've changed the settings, it'll work just fine.

 

[Eric]

You could add the options to the skin yourself.

To do that, open templates/{templatename}/admin/board_config_body.tpl and find:

	<tr>
		<td class="row1">{L_SITE_DESCRIPTION}</td>
		<td class="row2"><input class="post" type="text" size="40" maxlength="255" name="site_desc" value="{SITE_DESCRIPTION}" /></td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
		<td class="row1">{L_DISABLE_BOARD}<br /><span class="gensmall">{L_DISABLE_BOARD_EXPLAIN}</span></td>
		<td class="row2"><input type="radio" name="board_disable" value="1" {S_DISABLE_BOARD_YES} /> {L_YES}  <input type="radio" name="board_disable" value="0" {S_DISABLE_BOARD_NO} /> {L_NO}</td>
	</tr>

After add

	<tr>
		<td class="row1">{L_ACCT_ACTIVATION}</td>
		<td class="row2"><input type="radio" name="require_activation" value="{ACTIVATION_NONE}" {ACTIVATION_NONE_CHECKED} />{L_NONE}   <input type="radio" name="require_activation" value="{ACTIVATION_USER}" {ACTIVATION_USER_CHECKED} />{L_USER}   <input type="radio" name="require_activation" value="{ACTIVATION_ADMIN}" {ACTIVATION_ADMIN_CHECKED} />{L_ADMIN}</td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
		<td class="row1">{L_VISUAL_CONFIRM}<br /><span class="gensmall">{L_VISUAL_CONFIRM_EXPLAIN}</span></td>
		<td class="row2"><input type="radio" name="enable_confirm" value="1" {CONFIRM_ENABLE} />{L_YES}   <input type="radio" name="enable_confirm" value="0" {CONFIRM_DISABLE} />{L_NO}</td>
	</tr>

 

[Phronesis]

Yep I'd say that's your prob.

Just change the design back to the default subSilver and change it back once you've changed the settings, it'll work just fine.

Yep, that was the problem. Thanks.

You could add the options to the skin yourself.

To do that, open templates/{templatename}/admin/board_config_body.tpl and find:

	<tr>
		<td class="row1">{L_SITE_DESCRIPTION}</td>
		<td class="row2"><input class="post" type="text" size="40" maxlength="255" name="site_desc" value="{SITE_DESCRIPTION}" /></td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
		<td class="row1">{L_DISABLE_BOARD}<br /><span class="gensmall">{L_DISABLE_BOARD_EXPLAIN}</span></td>
		<td class="row2"><input type="radio" name="board_disable" value="1" {S_DISABLE_BOARD_YES} /> {L_YES}  <input type="radio" name="board_disable" value="0" {S_DISABLE_BOARD_NO} /> {L_NO}</td>
	</tr>

After add

	<tr>
		<td class="row1">{L_ACCT_ACTIVATION}</td>
		<td class="row2"><input type="radio" name="require_activation" value="{ACTIVATION_NONE}" {ACTIVATION_NONE_CHECKED} />{L_NONE}   <input type="radio" name="require_activation" value="{ACTIVATION_USER}" {ACTIVATION_USER_CHECKED} />{L_USER}   <input type="radio" name="require_activation" value="{ACTIVATION_ADMIN}" {ACTIVATION_ADMIN_CHECKED} />{L_ADMIN}</td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
		<td class="row1">{L_VISUAL_CONFIRM}<br /><span class="gensmall">{L_VISUAL_CONFIRM_EXPLAIN}</span></td>
		<td class="row2"><input type="radio" name="enable_confirm" value="1" {CONFIRM_ENABLE} />{L_YES}   <input type="radio" name="enable_confirm" value="0" {CONFIRM_DISABLE} />{L_NO}</td>
	</tr>

Awesome. That's great. Thanks!

 

[labrocca]

Umm..if your board config doesn't have the captcha setting then it's a good chance that neither do your forums signup. Double check.