Simple Machines Community Forum

SMF Support => SMF 2.0.x Support => Topic started by: mayaof on February 26, 2016, 06:22:36 PM

Title: Guest users keep appearing
Post by: mayaof on February 26, 2016, 06:22:36 PM
Hi all,

I hope that this is not a breach of etiquette.  I've searched the manual and cannot find any information on the topic of random and plentiful Guest logins clogging my site.

Within the admin controls I have disabled guests from accessing the system, but it is still happening.  Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can stop this?

Thanks
Title: Re: Guest users keep appearing
Post by: br360 on February 26, 2016, 06:27:55 PM
Welcome to SMF. :)

When you say guest logins clogging up your site, does that mean that guests are registering for accounts and actually logging in? When you log out of your site, what do you actually see as a guest yourself? (any boards or topics visible)

Title: Re: Guest users keep appearing
Post by: aegersz on February 27, 2016, 02:53:36 AM
I also have many guests but I assumed they were bots for indexing searches etc.
Title: Re: Guest users keep appearing
Post by: WeWeF on February 27, 2016, 05:47:19 AM
Quote from: mayaof on February 26, 2016, 06:22:36 PM
Hi all,

I hope that this is not a breach of etiquette.  I've searched the manual and cannot find any information on the topic of random and plentiful Guest logins clogging my site.

Within the admin controls I have disabled guests from accessing the system, but it is still happening.  Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can stop this?

Thanks

You can allow or deny guest to see your boards, topics in boards etc, but, I think bots from fb, google ... can still view that boards like normal users..

Sorry for bad english, I hope u understand, U didnt say what about guests, what is your real problem, so, I suppose your problem is with google bots

I think, u can forbid their presence, but that is not recommended
Title: Re: Guest users keep appearing
Post by: Jade Elizabeth on February 27, 2016, 07:21:16 AM
Hey there!

Try installing this mod:
http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=1157

And try setting your forum to track search engines (in core features) and then in the search engine settings make sure you have "show spider names" set (or set for admin only). It should be the 3rd setting on the page if I remember right.

That will let you know if these are guests or spiders. You should also change your robots.txt to not index the login/register pages to keep them off them :D.
Title: Re: Guest users keep appearing
Post by: Kindred on February 27, 2016, 08:46:00 AM
Quote from: WeWeF on February 27, 2016, 05:47:19 AM
You can allow or deny guest to see your boards, topics in boards etc, but, I think bots from fb, google ... can still view that boards like normal users..

no and a thousand times no...

google and other search engines are treated like guests.  They see what a guest would see.
Doing anything else (like allowing google to see the registered user sections) would be a violation of the terms of service of the search engines and will get your site black listed.
Title: Re: Guest users keep appearing
Post by: mayaof on February 27, 2016, 10:22:35 AM
The real problem is that I have people that are legitimate users that are requesting accounts, but, because of all of the Guest (I think) accounts requesting to join I have a difficult time culling them.  I am getting on the order of 30 - 40 bougus account requests per day. 

I did not state the issue very well to begin with.
Title: Re: Guest users keep appearing
Post by: Jade Elizabeth on February 27, 2016, 10:58:04 AM
Install Stop Spammer, HttpBL, and ReCaptcha mods. You won't see any spam accounts after that :).

Title: Re: Guest users keep appearing
Post by: Kindred on February 27, 2016, 03:52:22 PM
http://wiki.simplemachines.org/smf/Spam_-_my_forum_is_flooded_with_spam,_what_can_I_do
Title: Re: Guest users keep appearing
Post by: SaltedWeb on February 27, 2016, 08:03:51 PM
Hmm the built in system works for me, I setup the capatcha and add a question or two
and nobody gets in . Sure I can see guest with IP from Chinese , or RU trying but they never get in.
The question option seems a great tool as you can make something only members might know.

Like a car club, who makes the powerglide transmission ? Chevy stuff like that works no mods or fancy stuff needed.
Title: Re: Guest users keep appearing
Post by: Kindred on February 27, 2016, 08:45:01 PM
Captcha is basically useless.

and your questions (if you actually only have "a few") will eventually get catalogued by the spammer-database.

several combined measures are usually the best option...    (and, for questions, having a list of 20 or so questions, asking 2-3 random ones will last you a pretty long time before they get catalogued.
Title: Re: Guest users keep appearing
Post by: mayaof on February 27, 2016, 09:31:56 PM
In reading the manual, I see:

A form of visual verification may be present in order to confirm that a guest is actually a person and not a bot. This verification may be requested in two ways - CAPTCHA and custom questions. The CAPTCHA method displays an image containing a random collection of letters, which a guest must enter into a text field. The custom questions method displays one or more relatively simple questions, which a guest must answer correctly. A forum may be configured to use both methods at the same time.

I'm in 2.0.6 and I don't have captcha as an option - I have fax #.
Title: Re: Guest users keep appearing
Post by: Kindred on February 27, 2016, 09:34:14 PM
Unless you have modified something, you do have both Captcha and questions...

Btw, you NEED to update your smf installation. You are several revisions behind, including security releases.
Title: Re: Guest users keep appearing
Post by: mayaof on February 27, 2016, 10:46:27 PM
I found the captcha setting, so I'll give that a shot and do the update.  Thanks veyr much.
Title: Re: Guest users keep appearing
Post by: Jade Elizabeth on February 28, 2016, 02:18:13 AM
I would also look into this Mayaof, it will help you in the long run and get rid of the captcha and questions. Your registering members will only need to tick the recaptcha and google will make sure they're not bots. Also if they do make it through because they're people spammers then stop spammer is likely to catch them out and let you make the call on letting them in or not.

Quote from: Jade Elizabeth on February 27, 2016, 07:21:16 AM
Hey there!

Try installing this mod:
http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=1157

And try setting your forum to track search engines (in core features) and then in the search engine settings make sure you have "show spider names" set (or set for admin only). It should be the 3rd setting on the page if I remember right.

That will let you know if these are guests or spiders. You should also change your robots.txt to not index the login/register pages to keep them off them :D.
Title: Re: Guest users keep appearing
Post by: aegersz on February 29, 2016, 03:43:28 AM
Quote from: Jade Elizabeth on February 27, 2016, 07:21:16 AM
Hey there!

Try installing this mod:
http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=1157

And try setting your forum to track search engines (in core features) and then in the search engine settings make sure you have "show spider names" set (or set for admin only). It should be the 3rd setting on the page if I remember right.

That will let you know if these are guests or spiders. You should also change your robots.txt to not index the login/register pages to keep them off them :D.

should anyone run this mod ? how am i impacted if i choose to uninstall AND why would one uninstall ? i'm not sure exactly what this does but i have heaps of guests too.
Title: Re: Guest users keep appearing
Post by: Jade Elizabeth on February 29, 2016, 05:14:15 AM
All it does is add some more spiders to the list so when they come to your forum your forum goes "oh, it's a spider!" and logs it correctly. It's not going to change anything visibly or set your house on fire. Once installed it can't be uninstalled but I can't imagine why you'd want to.
Title: Re: Guest users keep appearing
Post by: Illori on February 29, 2016, 05:20:44 AM
actually if you do uninstall that mod it does not actually remove the list of spiders that it added.
Title: Re: Guest users keep appearing
Post by: Jade Elizabeth on February 29, 2016, 05:21:44 AM
That's what I tried to say.
Title: Re: Guest users keep appearing
Post by: aegersz on February 29, 2016, 07:25:13 AM
Quote from: Jade Elizabeth on February 29, 2016, 05:14:15 AM
All it does is add some more spiders to the list so when they come to your forum your forum goes "oh, it's a spider!" and logs it correctly. It's not going to change anything visibly or set your house on fire. Once installed it can't be uninstalled but I can't imagine why you'd want to.

ok, done ... i installed it.

Quote from: Jade Elizabeth on February 27, 2016, 07:21:16 AM

try setting your forum to track search engines (in core features) and then in the search engine settings make sure you have "show spider names" set (or set for admin only). It should be the 3rd setting on the page if I remember right.

That will let you know if these are guests or spiders. You should also change your robots.txt to not index the login/register pages to keep them off them :D.

thanks ... i will fiddle and explore these Spiders some more ...
Title: Re: Guest users keep appearing
Post by: Jade Elizabeth on March 01, 2016, 05:06:02 AM
It's very helpful to know who's a guest and who's a spider. I have mine set to admin only so people think the forum is busier than it is lol.
Title: Re: Guest users keep appearing
Post by: Kiriakos GR on March 01, 2016, 09:08:05 AM
Regarding the Guest Mod this was lastly updated five years back.
It database this is tremendously old.

Only in the past six months Bing search engine added at least 200 new IP of search bots.
Google did that too,  new uncatalogued search bots from Russia, France and China, all of them copying and even printing, anything available to Guests.

My solution was to minimize to 10% what guests can see, and to add yearly subscription up front,  before any one makes any new membership request.
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