Ban Dial-Up users?

[Raine]

Well, the age-old question of how to ban dial-up users... is that the end of us?  I've several annoying users on my board that keep on coming back even after bannings because they're on dial-ups... is there nothing we can do?

I think this would be a useful tool included with the banning feature (if we don't have this already)...

I've tried searching, but haven't found anything about this.

[bostasp]

can't you find out that ISP's subnet and then ban that?

[Gobalopper]

Well you can ban using *, like this 192.168.*.*

[[Unknown]]

Here's the problem with that.

Let's say I'm on Prodigy Internet DSL. (I am actually.)

Next let's say my IP is 67.113.197.81.... in say three days it's very likely that another person in my region will have that IP and I will have a new one.

So, if you block my IP and I'm on dial up, you block other people.

What you can do is ban 67.113.*.* which will get me - and everyone within miles of me.

That said, banning is a lot better and has ranges (for example 67.113.190-199.*) - thanks go to Compuart.

-[Unknown]

[Tyris]

you can ban their ISP range... I -think- anyway...

usually just the first to sections of the ip...

so if you did
203.217
in the ban list... I think it would ban me and all people in my range... it could be first 3 sections... or something.. I dunno... try first 3... and if they come back try all four.
I once blocked an entire cable company (Telstra) including myself

*edit* whoa! lots of -quicker- replies

[David]

You can ban their entire netblock but then they can use a proxy.

[Raine]

Yeah... that's precisely the problem with the range banning, mainly because you tend to ban off an entire area... which results in some unhappy users...

I guess what I'm trying to get at is this - is there anyway of banning WITHOUT IP? 

[Tyris]

the only way really is to require that they provide a real email (email signup) and also activate admin aproval of all new registries... (SMF has that right...?)
(I originally thought you meant ALL dial-up users.. and was thinking "huh...? thats mean")

[David]

There really is no way to ban someone for good.  If you set a cookie to ban someone then they clear their cookies, use a different browser, disable cookies, etc.  Ban by IP they use a proxy or change their IP.  Banning by hostname can be much more precise as many ISPs break up their areas into different groups and thus you can, depending on the ISP, just ban a neighborhood if you wanted to.  Every method has a problem to it though.

[Tyris]

one method that can be useful, is to complain to their ISP with some threatening emails... (thats if the person is really doing something wrong). Coz most ISP's wont stand for people doing that kinda stuff.

[David]

one method that can be useful, is to complain to their ISP with some threatening emails... (thats if the person is really doing something wrong). Coz most ISP's wont stand for people doing that kinda stuff.

I've found quite the opposite to be true.  If it is a small ISP then they will normally listen but anyone that is large enough not to listen normally won't.  I have basically given up on contacting ISPs due to lack of action and it is not like I plan to take them to court anyway.

[Tyris]

mmm... yeah... I can understand what you mean about the larger ISP's... still.. it might be worth a try... I was gonna type "could be useful"... didnt for some reason

[James Woodcock]

I just ban email addresses and have registration set to auth via email address so they will soon run out of email addresses and with those you can report them to an ISP!

[Tyris]

that only really works if you ban all the free email providers.. which is pretty harsh =\

[James Woodcock]

Yes but free email providers have to contain details about users, eg IP, address etc so if they get past there system and you report them, there is a chance they can take steps