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Guest users keep appearing

Started by mayaof, February 26, 2016, 06:22:36 PM

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mayaof

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

br360

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)


aegersz

I also have many guests but I assumed they were bots for indexing searches etc.
The configuration of my Linux VPS (SMF 2.0 with 160+ mods & some assorted manual tweaks) can be found here and notes on my mods can be found here (warning: those links will take you to a drug related forum). My (House) music DJ dedication page is here

WeWeF

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

Jade Elizabeth

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.
Once proud Documentation Writer and Help Squad Leader | Check out my new adult coloring career: Color With Jade/Patreon.

Kindred

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.
Слaва
Украинi

Please do not PM, IM or Email me with support questions.  You will get better and faster responses in the support boards.  Thank you.

"Loki is not evil, although he is certainly not a force for good. Loki is... complicated."

mayaof

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.

Jade Elizabeth

Install Stop Spammer, HttpBL, and ReCaptcha mods. You won't see any spam accounts after that :).

Once proud Documentation Writer and Help Squad Leader | Check out my new adult coloring career: Color With Jade/Patreon.

Kindred

Слaва
Украинi

Please do not PM, IM or Email me with support questions.  You will get better and faster responses in the support boards.  Thank you.

"Loki is not evil, although he is certainly not a force for good. Loki is... complicated."

SaltedWeb

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.
Knowing your limitations makes you human, exceeding these limitations makes you worthy of being human.

Kindred

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.
Слaва
Украинi

Please do not PM, IM or Email me with support questions.  You will get better and faster responses in the support boards.  Thank you.

"Loki is not evil, although he is certainly not a force for good. Loki is... complicated."

mayaof

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 #.

Kindred

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.
Слaва
Украинi

Please do not PM, IM or Email me with support questions.  You will get better and faster responses in the support boards.  Thank you.

"Loki is not evil, although he is certainly not a force for good. Loki is... complicated."

mayaof

I found the captcha setting, so I'll give that a shot and do the update.  Thanks veyr much.

Jade Elizabeth

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.
Once proud Documentation Writer and Help Squad Leader | Check out my new adult coloring career: Color With Jade/Patreon.

aegersz

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.
The configuration of my Linux VPS (SMF 2.0 with 160+ mods & some assorted manual tweaks) can be found here and notes on my mods can be found here (warning: those links will take you to a drug related forum). My (House) music DJ dedication page is here

Jade Elizabeth

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.
Once proud Documentation Writer and Help Squad Leader | Check out my new adult coloring career: Color With Jade/Patreon.

Illori

actually if you do uninstall that mod it does not actually remove the list of spiders that it added.

Jade Elizabeth

Once proud Documentation Writer and Help Squad Leader | Check out my new adult coloring career: Color With Jade/Patreon.

aegersz

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 ...
The configuration of my Linux VPS (SMF 2.0 with 160+ mods & some assorted manual tweaks) can be found here and notes on my mods can be found here (warning: those links will take you to a drug related forum). My (House) music DJ dedication page is here

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