Namebio Captcha

[steven55]

Hello @Michael ,

The new captcha system is somewhat time consuming.
Could you please check a possibility to have a simplified one like addition of numbers etc,
Or are there any disadvantages to that ?


Thanks

 

[lambo.com]

the idea is to make you feel like an ape.

Captchas are dehumanising so I give namebio less of my time.

 

[Michael]

Hello @Michael ,

The new captcha system is somewhat time consuming.
Could you please check a possibility to have a simplified one like addition of numbers etc,
Or are there any disadvantages to that ?


Thanks

The disadvantage is that it would be easy for bots to get through it, and we have a pretty serious bot problem. All the major CAPTCHA services are doing these classification-type solutions anyway, since helping AIs learn is the only way they can make money from something like this.

I changed the window for how often it shows the CAPTCHA from once per day to once per week, hopefully that helps you. We'll see if that still keeps the bots away (I imagine it will) and adjust from there.

the idea is to make you feel like an ape.

Captchas are dehumanising so I give namebio less of my time.

The idea is to keep the bots away, because they're attacking us so hard and relentlessly that it is slowing down the service to a crawl. It's unfortunate we needed to do that, but the data is valuable so people will naturally want to take as much of it as possible. I changed the solve time to once per week instead of once per day.

 

[steven55]

@Michael Thanks for your reply..

 

[TheBuyerz]

I found a similar problem aswell.

Sometimes it takes me 3 retries to get in and compared to reCaptcha of Google, you have to select up to 5 and more images and if you miss one, you have to do it again and again.

Same thing with @namesilo tho

 

[steven55]

I changed the solve time to once per week instead of once per day.

Hello @Michael ,

It's not working. Within span of 2/3 hours it has asked me to verify the captcha again today..

 

[Michael]

Hello @Michael ,

It's not working. Within span of 2/3 hours it has asked me to verify the captcha again today..

It is based on your IP address, so your IP must have changed in that window. There's not much I can do about that. I tried a cookie-based approach already, but the attackers can fake the cookie. Also I would just get complaints every time someone clears their cookies instead of when their IP changes. Plus with the IP-based approach if you solve it on one device on your network you won't have to solve it on any other devices, which is not true if using cookies.

I mentioned this in another thread, but if you register on the site for free and PM me the email address you used, I can set up a free "Human Membership" for you where the only benefit is that you don't have to solve the captcha any more as long as you're logged in.

I also changed the captcha difficulty from "always on" to "easy" as a test, so that it would show easier puzzles or maybe not even show a puzzle at all. Seems to still be keeping the bots away so far.

 

[steven55]

but if you register on the site for free and PM me the email address you used, I can set up a free "Human Membership" for you where the only benefit is that you don't have to solve the captcha any more as long as you're logged in.

I also changed the captcha difficulty from "always on" to "easy" as a test, so that it would show easier puzzles or maybe not even show a puzzle at all. Seems to still be keeping the bots away so far.

Thanks for the clarification and also for other solutions to this issue.

 

[steven55]

Hello @Michael ,

Even after using logging into the system, the system is still diverting me to the captcha page ?!
After I login, it first shows me the membership packages screen.
And when I try to go to the Home page for searches, it still redirects me to the Captcha page!
I feel it is logging me out automatically when I try to go the home page.
Could you please check this.

This means that even the login feature does not prevent the captcha display.

I think, this was working ok a few days back.

 

[Michael]

You didn’t PM me your email address so that I could set up the free membership. Normally you need a paid membership to bypass the captcha, but for NP users I was making a free bypass.

Just registering on the site for free doesn’t do it, otherwise the bots will just register a bunch of free accounts. You need to PM me the email address you registered with.

 

[steven55]

Oh, ok, I will PM my email address.

 

[GoWeb]

You didn’t PM me your email address so that I could set up the free membership. Normally you need a paid membership to bypass the captcha, but for NP users I was making a free bypass.

Just registering on the site for free doesn’t do it, otherwise the bots will just register a bunch of free accounts. You need to PM me the email address you registered with.

Hello Michael, I am having to solve the captcha several times a day and it's extremely frustrating and annoying. I was looking for a NameBio Official thread, when I saw this. Please set me up as well, for a captcha-less experience. I am going to PM you my email address, thank you.

As for a solution to the bot problem, you can use a combination of captcha and cookies. Once a person solves a captcha (once a day), you can save two cookies on that person's browser:

1) one that contains a validation that the captcha was solved
2) second that contains the SHA256 hash of a string which is easy for your server-side to check. Like a combination of date / day / some serial number. Making that based on IP is a bad idea since most ISP IPs are not static in nature and can change multiple times a day.

Just my two cents.

 

[Michael]

Hello Michael, I am having to solve the captcha several times a day and it's extremely frustrating and annoying. I was looking for a NameBio Official thread, when I saw this. Please set me up as well, for a captcha-less experience. I am going to PM you my email address, thank you.

As for a solution to the bot problem, you can use a combination of captcha and cookies. Once a person solves a captcha (once a day), you can save two cookies on that person's browser:

1) one that contains a validation that the captcha was solved
2) second that contains the SHA256 hash of a string which is easy for your server-side to check. Like a combination of date / day / some serial number. Making that based on IP is a bad idea since most ISP IPs are not static in nature and can change multiple times a day.

Just my two cents.

I think I might need a combination of both, in an "either or" instead of "and" way.

The cookie approach was not without its share of issues. For example privacy settings on browsers blocking them, browsers not respecting the expiration date/time and either going past them or getting rid of them too early, people clearing their cookies, people switching around browsers or using multiple devices from the same network, and so on. We got more complaints about captcha frequency when using cookies than when using the IP approach.

That's really surprising to hear that your IP address changes multiple times per day, unless you're using cellular networks the leases are usually longer than a matter of hours. Mine pretty much only changes when I reset the modem. Thanks for the feedback and taking the time to offer solutions.

 

[GoWeb]

I think I might need a combination of both, in an "either or" instead of "and" way.

The cookie approach was not without its share of issues. For example privacy settings on browsers blocking them, browsers not respecting the expiration date/time and either going past them or getting rid of them too early, people clearing their cookies, people switching around browsers or using multiple devices from the same network, and so on. We got more complaints about captcha frequency when using cookies than when using the IP approach.

That's really surprising to hear that your IP address changes multiple times per day, unless you're using cellular networks the leases are usually longer than a matter of hours. Mine pretty much only changes when I reset the modem. Thanks for the feedback and taking the time to offer solutions.

Yes, you can implement that in any way which serves your purpose well.
I am located in India where most people use 4G data from their Reliance JIO / Airtel hotspots. There is broadband also but these cellular networks are also quite efficient.

 

[Michael]

Yes, you can implement that in any way which serves your purpose well.
I am located in India where most people use 4G data from their Reliance JIO / Airtel hotspots. There is broadband also but these cellular networks are also quite efficient.

Makes sense. I went ahead and implemented the cookies, so if you either have the cookies or your IP has solved the captcha in the last week, you won't be presented with it again. Hopefully that solves the problem for all our users on cellular data. Thanks again for the feedback and insights!