How to stop spam bots?

[dnb8]

Hi,
Some time ago I opened one forum powered by Yabb 2.1 software
and now I have 230 registered members but I don't know if there is any real person, I think that all are spam bots! Every day I must delete 3 - 7 spam posts,
porn, viagra, cialis etc.. any one know how to stop this ?
thanks

 

[PolurNET]

YaBB is probably one of the least secure forums to use. Try using phpBB or SMF instead and install the available security mods from their website

 

[Matthew.]

PolurNET, you suggested phpbb for security? lol.

dnb8 stopping bots is one thing, enabling user activation, guest posting etc will get rid of the less determined ones, however there is this increasing trend of people being paid to post spam on forums...which is pretty hard if nigh on impossible to stop.

Follow what PolurNET said about changing forum softwares, last i heard yaBB is being worked on agai but it's still an old Perl written forum which i personally have never liked. You will find swapping to either SMF or MyBB will increase your functionality even if it does not help your spam problem

 

[PolurNET]

Well the suggestion for phpBB was the newer versions with appropriate security mods installed. Of course, being free, it is less secure than the commercial brands, but at least some sort of prevention for spam bots compared to YaBB. MyBB looks nice, but not sure about its security

 

[Matthew.]

MyBB looks nice, but not sure about its security

Yeah i have only just really 'noticed' it myself. (i knew about it but hadn't used it.)

Their latest version seems to have added a few nice features such as quick edit,improved rep system and multi-quote.

I am on one forum that uses it and it's definitely my second choice below SMF. I don't know about security that much however it's a good all round board and is used by many so i can't see it having that many security issues.

 

[RickM]

From experience, MyBB is not secure. We installed a security update and within an hour of installing it had our forum defaced...2 hours later, another security update was released...a few weeks later it got defaced again. It was not due to passwords getting out either.

PHPBB can be very secure if you take the right steps to protect it. Remember, its no more insecure than say...Invision.

 

[NightRider]

I use MyBB its very nice and its really secure, they have really great support and ACTIVE staff/members on their forums...Ive been using it for a long time and never once had problems with it, however with phpBB I've had MANY security problems with. My Crew and I decided after hearing rumors how long it would take to see forums get hacked, or someone try to...In our test we ran the following forums

MyBB
phpBB
IPB 1.3
YaBB
SMF
IkonForums
E blah
and many more..We found that

MyBB: Not Hacked (easy to install mods)
phpBB: Was hacked 3-5hours afterwards of having it
IPB 1.3: Surprise or not, it wasn't even touched
YaBB: Was attempted, but didnt happen however we did have problems with Spam Bots:
SMF: Wasn't touch, (easy to install mods)
IkonForums: Had problems getting to install
E Blah: Had problems getting to install

Also some background on my Crew and I, we are professional testers, pretty much we run a community and people tell us some problems they are having with forums software, free hosting companies and all that...What we do is try to help that subject (ex. forums, free hosting companies etc.) and if we find any problems we report it to those people...Our goals is trying to make the internet a little bit safer for all of us, so we post and advertise tons of "Companies" and see what happens..

 

[angisson]

well there are different ways, but a lot of people get spam bots, hell NP gets them all the time. Its hard to get rid of them like they said but there are ways, the best way so far is to put Captcha on your forum, turn on email vairifaciation.. or the other way is like Captcha but better, where you make a new field in the reg page and ask like "whats 2 +2" something only a human can anwser.

now like they said above some people still get paid to do it, so that won't always help but its a start