Stop Spammer

[snoopy_virtual]

Yes of course. That's obvious.

Most of the times you just uninstall a mod because you are doing some upgrades, so you are going to reinstall it again.

That option of deleting the data would be good only if you are uninstalling a mod because you are not planning to use it any more.

[SD-X]

Exactly what I was trying to say, thank you!

[zap275]

Well, Stop Spammer (nor httpBL) are working like the instructions show them to.  However, I've just been checking the IPs manually and that's working for now.  Thanks Snoopy for the help.

[snoopy_virtual]

Well, Stop Spammer (nor httpBL) are working like the instructions show them to.  However, I've just been checking the IPs manually and that's working for now.  Thanks Snoopy for the help.

None of them are working as they should? That's strange.

Do you have any messenger program? I use Skype, MSN and Yahoo and I have them open almost all day long.

If you have any of them let me know and I will try to contact you, so we can see what's the problem.

I suppose (if you haven't got too much experience installing mods in SMF) you may have done something wrong when you were installing those mods and it will take me only a few minutes to find out the error if we can talk directly through a messenger. (I hope).

[SD-X]

Well, Stop Spammer (nor httpBL) are working like the instructions show them to.  However, I've just been checking the IPs manually and that's working for now.  Thanks Snoopy for the help.

None of them are working as they should? That's strange.

Do you have any messenger program? I use Skype, MSN and Yahoo and I have them open almost all day long.

If you have any of them let me know and I will try to contact you, so we can see what's the problem.

I suppose (if you haven't got too much experience installing mods in SMF) you may have done something wrong when you were installing those mods and it will take me only a few minutes to find out the error if we can talk directly through a messenger. (I hope).

I've noticed that lately I haven't had anything pop up for StopSpammer for approving registrations. I'm not sure if it's because an additional mod I installed is catching everything before StopSpammer gets to it or not, but it seems fairly odd. I'll report back if I can track it down as I'm a bit suspicious on this myself.

Edit: Another forum I'm using last had entries for approval from the 29th, so I'm going to watch both and see if any new bot registrations come up. Given how often they register on the other forum, I'm quite surprised that there hasn't been any since then.

[snoopy_virtual]

For example mod httpBL and the Anti-Spam Questions both act before mod Stop Spammer. So if you have mod httpBL configured properly and at least a good Anti-Spam Question they will catch almost all the possible spammers, so none of them will ever reach mod Stop Spammer.

In most of my forums the last time mod Stop Spammer had to stop one was almost a year ago.

[SD-X]

For example mod httpBL and the Anti-Spam Questions both act before mod Stop Spammer. So if you have mod httpBL configured properly and at least a good Anti-Spam Question they will catch almost all the possible spammers, so none of them will ever reach mod Stop Spammer.

In most of my forums the last time mod Stop Spammer had to stop one was almost a year ago.

Well originally I had only Mod httpBL and StopSpammer, but believe it or not, StopSpammer was still catching a good amount of spammers every day with both mods active. My StopSpammer actually has about ten times the amount of spammers caught than Mod httpBL does, and they've been installed the same amount of time. My only curiosity is a new mod I installed that works similarly to them, querying another database, so I'm wondering if it's stopping them before they can even register. I also installed a ReCaptcha mod, but we all know that barely stops anything these days, and my other forum that has both your mods installed has it as well, and they still get through.

[snoopy_virtual]

Well originally I had only Mod httpBL and StopSpammer, but believe it or not, StopSpammer was still catching a good amount of spammers every day with both mods active. My StopSpammer actually has about ten times the amount of spammers caught than Mod httpBL does, and they've been installed the same amount of time.

It takes a lot of time studying the logs and understanding exactly how httpBL is working in every particular forum until you get the best configuration for that mod (to stop as many spammers as possible but don't cause any troubles to your legit members). But anyway what makes a big difference is the Anti-Spam Questions. You haven't got them activated?

You should. They are more effective than any captcha or than all the anti-spam mods put together.

I forgot what version of SMF you are using. Is it 1.1.14 or 2.0? You can activate the Anti-Spam Questions for both, but the way to do it is different.

My only curiosity is a new mod I installed that works similarly to them, querying another database, so I'm wondering if it's stopping them before they can even register.

What mod is that? The only other mod I am aware of, that query a different database is Akismet. Is there any other one?

I still have (hidden somewhere in my long TODO list) a plan to contact all the anti-spam modders to work together in a big "Super Anti-Spam mod" or at least be sure that all our individual mods are all compatible with each other, so every time I hear about a new anti-spam mod, I write it there in my TODO list to analyse it (to see what it does and how it does it) and contact the author.

I haven't talked about that with live627 yet (the author of Akismet) but we have been working together lately a lot in another big project and the relation between us is very good, so I suppose we will end up talking about that eventually.

[SD-X]

Well originally I had only Mod httpBL and StopSpammer, but believe it or not, StopSpammer was still catching a good amount of spammers every day with both mods active. My StopSpammer actually has about ten times the amount of spammers caught than Mod httpBL does, and they've been installed the same amount of time.

It takes a lot of time studying the logs and understanding exactly how httpBL is working in every particular forum until you get the best configuration for that mod (to stop as many spammers as possible but don't cause any troubles to your legit members). But anyway what makes a big difference is the Anti-Spam Questions. You haven't got them activated?

You should. They are more effective than any captcha or than all the anti-spam mods put together.

I forgot what version of SMF you are using. Is it 1.1.14 or 2.0? You can activate the Anti-Spam Questions for both, but the way to do it is different.

My only curiosity is a new mod I installed that works similarly to them, querying another database, so I'm wondering if it's stopping them before they can even register.

What mod is that? The only other mod I am aware of, that query a different database is Akismet. Is there any other one?

I still have (hidden somewhere in my long TODO list) a plan to contact all the anti-spam modders to work together in a big "Super Anti-Spam mod" or at least be sure that all our individual mods are all compatible with each other, so every time I hear about a new anti-spam mod, I write it there in my TODO list to analyse it (to see what it does and how it does it) and contact the author.

I haven't talked about that with live627 yet (the author of Akismet) but we have been working together lately a lot in another big project and the relation between us is very good, so I suppose we will end up talking about that eventually.

I'll just number this since you brought up a lot of good points :

1. I don't use the Anti-Spam Questions. I've found that with so many users trying different versions of the same answer, it's easy to cause them trouble when registering, and anything simple to answer only in one way would be math-related questions, and those are pointless now because most bots can do them just fine hahaha...
2. I'm using 2.0 Gold now. Your mods actually catch everything either at or before registration. They never go beyond that. I just added the third mod and re-added ReCaptcha to slow them down even further, even though I didn't really need to.
3. The mod is called Bot Buster.
It doesn't seem to have any compatibility issues, and the author even stated there were no known ones before I installed it. May add the one you mentioned as well just to "over-protect" myself. Still don't need that many, but it can't really hurt!
4. I think the Super Anti-Spam mod would be amazing. Honestly if you guys pull it off, you might even be able to get others to port it to other forum softwares, which could reduce the attacks for everyone even further. I know there's a PHPBB3 version of StopSpammer already out called Anti-Spam ACP. It's almost the same as your's, but obviously is made by someone else using different code. Works just as well also.
Thinking about what you just said though...all those databases combined into "Super Mods" could possibly put a big dent in the spammer/mal-bot community. With enough interest people may even consider doing the same outside of just forums, eventually implementing it on websites and email systems. Would be a pretty good defense if you ask me, especially with IPv6 coming to the internet as the new standard in the near future.

[snoopy_virtual]

I don't use the Anti-Spam Questions. I've found that with so many users trying different versions of the same answer, it's easy to cause them trouble when registering

Take a look for example at what I did in this forum:

http://www.snoopyvirtualstudio.com/tom-keenan-fans-club/smf/index.php?action=register

Note the big (green over black) sign I have put underneath the Anti-Spam Question.

That forum is dedicated to a famous country singer who died a few years ago when he was already very old, so most of his fans are very old people with very few computer knowledge and none of them had any trouble signing for an account, and the last time I had an spammer there was ages ago.

The mod is called Bot Buster.

I didn't know that one, and it's being there since 2009. Odd.

Well, if the author is the same Mike I think it is, you won't have any problems with that one, because he's very good with code. In fact I also collaborate a lot with this one in another different project and have been talking with him a lot lately. Funny enough he never mention he had this mod here. Maybe he thought I already knew ...

I will ask him. 

I know there's a PHPBB3 version of StopSpammer already out called Anti-Spam ACP

I am not very sure because I have never used phpBB, but when M-DVD and me started working in our first anti-spam mod, we did it copying some of the functions from a phpBB mod we had seen inside stopforumspam site, so in fact it can be the other way round (our mod a version of that phpBB mod you mention). Anyway that was so many years ago and we changed later our mod so much that it would be very difficult to tell for sure.

[SD-X]

I don't use the Anti-Spam Questions. I've found that with so many users trying different versions of the same answer, it's easy to cause them trouble when registering

Take a look for example at what I did in this forum:

http://www.snoopyvirtualstudio.com/tom-keenan-fans-club/smf/index.php?action=register

Note the big (green over black) sign I have put underneath the Anti-Spam Question.

That forum is dedicated to a famous country singer who died a few years ago when he was already very old, so most of his fans are very old people with very few computer knowledge and none of them had any trouble signing for an account, and the last time I had an spammer there was ages ago.

The mod is called Bot Buster.

I didn't know that one, and it's being there since 2009. Odd.

Well, if the author is the same Mike I think it is, you won't have any problems with that one, because he's very good with code. In fact I also collaborate a lot with this one in another different project and have been talking with him a lot lately. Funny enough he never mention he had this mod here. Maybe he thought I already knew ...

I will ask him. 

I know there's a PHPBB3 version of StopSpammer already out called Anti-Spam ACP

I am not very sure because I have never used phpBB, but when M-DVD and me started working in our first anti-spam mod, we did it copying some of the functions from a phpBB mod we had seen inside stopforumspam site, so in fact it can be the other way round (our mod a version of that phpBB mod you mention). Anyway that was so many years ago and we changed later our mod so much that it would be very difficult to tell for sure.

Very nice Anti-Spam questions. May give that a try if the bots get through, but your mod works so well right now I think I'll hold off. I don't mind approving or denying them since I have username matches turned out as well, and some of the forums I administrate have usernames that also match generic spammer names, such as people's real-life first names.

As for Bot Buster, I know what you mean. I literally just discovered it recently. I forget who brought it up, but someone very recently told me about it, so I figured I might as well use it too. It's very limited compared to your mod as everything is automated in the background, so there's no way to tell who is denied and who isn't, but unless something went wrong with the other mods, it's working VERY well, hence my curiosity in that other post regarding that user saying StopSpammer wasn't working.

P.S. Here's Anti-Spam ACP. The author started publishing updates on his own website instead because he only gives technical support if you pay, assuming it's not a bug in the mod itself.
http://lithiumstudios.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=941


Edit: Well, looks like you have some competition
http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=1519
http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=1849

Edit: Today, (a day later than this post's original date), I had one bot reach Stop Spammer and request admin approval, so it seems that it is working after all. I guess the other mod was just slowing them down so much it never made it that far!

[Rob Lightbody]

When using this mod, if I go to : Admin > Members > Awaiting Activation - and checkmark anyones name and click on the "Check these members" button, it fills up my error log with these messages  :

8: Undefined index: id
File: /www-data/example.com/forum/Sources/ManageMembers.php
Line: 736


I'm using the latest v2.3.9

I'm getting this too (on 1.1.14)    .  Apart from that, this mod is great.

[snoopy_virtual]

When using this mod, if I go to : Admin > Members > Awaiting Activation - and checkmark anyones name and click on the "Check these members" button, it fills up my error log with these messages  :

8: Undefined index: id
File: /www-data/example.com/forum/Sources/ManageMembers.php
Line: 736


I'm using the latest v2.3.9

I'm getting this too (on 1.1.14)    .  Apart from that, this mod is great.

That's a known bug of version 2.3.9. It will be sorted in the next version. It's not an important error though. Only annoying. The mod works OK even with that error.

[SilverLining]

Hi guys. Thanks for an awesome mod.

I have a question: I've noticed that a lot of the account this mod catch on my site are accounts with IPs that are already in my banned list! Is there any way to have these accounts get rejected automatically? It feels a bit silly to keep having to reject accounts that are already banned. I was surprised they could register at all, to be honest...

[SD-X]

If you ban the IP's route via your ban section in the Admin Control Panel, they won't be able to access the register URL. I'm guessing you're likely only banning the full IP's themselves. Try banning the route via "##.##.*.*", replacing the # symbols with the actual numbers, and leaving the *'s in there as they are wildcards.

[snoopy_virtual]

@SilverLining

If you do a quick search through this thread you will see all the times we have talked about "white lists", "black lists" "banning members" and the problems we can have with "false positives".

We have always reached the conclusion that doing any kind of automatic action with this mod could lead to disaster because you could stop accessing your forum honest members at the same time as spammers.

Banning members is not a good solution, because the spammers normally change their IPs too often. If you want to ban manually all the possible spammers in your forum you will have to do a lot of manual work and you will need a very big database.

What you need to add to mod Stop Spammer is one mod that make the spammers fall into traps so they ban themselves automatically, like mod httpBL. You can see more info in this tutorial I wrote some time ago:

http://www.snoopyvirtualstudio.com/tutoriales/index.php?estudio=httpBL_2;language=english

Be careful though if you are installing more anti-spam mods together with these mods Stop Spammer and httpBL. Some of them are compatible and others not, so you better ask first.

[SD-X]

@SilverLining

If you do a quick search through this thread you will see all the times we have talked about "white lists", "black lists" "banning members" and the problems we can have with "false positives".

We have always reached the conclusion that doing any kind of automatic action with this mod could lead to disaster because you could stop accessing your forum honest members at the same time as spammers.

Banning members is not a good solution, because the spammers normally change their IPs too often. If you want to ban manually all the possible spammers in your forum you will have to do a lot of manual work and you will need a very big database.

What you need to add to mod Stop Spammer is one mod that make the spammers fall into traps so they ban themselves automatically, like mod httpBL. You can see more info in this tutorial I wrote some time ago:

http://www.snoopyvirtualstudio.com/tutoriales/index.php?estudio=httpBL_2;language=english

Be careful though if you are installing more anti-spam mods together with these mods Stop Spammer and httpBL. Some of them are compatible and others not, so you better ask first.

Just quickly touching on that, I can confirm that Mod httpBL, StopSpammer, Bot Buster, and ReCaptcha For SMF are all compatible in SMF 2.0 Gold with one another and have no conflicts.

[SilverLining]

@SugarD-x, that's what I've been doing tough. Some spammers have come back on the same exact IP that's been banned, and some have come back on the same range as banned with the asterisk technique. SO I'll have XX.XX.XXX.* banned and still someone with that IP (and whatever numbers instead of *) turn up in the filter.

@snoopy-virtual, I am already doing a lot of manual work setting up IP bans. The problem is it's all for nothing because the next day the same IP (or an IP in the same range if I've banned with wildcards) has registered a new account and been caught by the filter again. I will have a look at the second mod though and see if it helps. Thanks.

Honestly, I'm starting to think it's useless to ban them at all if they can still register.

[SD-X]

Ban as XX.XX.*.* and not XX.XX.XX.* because otherwise you are not getting the full route

[SilverLining]

Either way if I ban XX.Xx.XX.* someone with XX.XX.XX.* shouldn't be turning up in my spam filter, should they? I mean, ban should mean banned, whether I use wildcards or not.