I can't ban some spammers/spambots

[day99]

Hello, I am having trouble banning some spammers and their IPs fom my SMF forum. I'm not sure what is happening here, whether my forum has been hacked, or not, but when I try to ban certain spammers I get this message:

"the name of this ban already exists".

I then need to delete them from the membership list, but the same spammers/spambots keep coming back with the same usernames and IPs.

I have Googled this term; "the name of this ban already exists" and there are only a few sites on Google where this term seems to be being discussed, and they all look like spammer/hacker websites.

Does anyone know how I could sort this problem out and stop spammers/spambots from accessing my forum.

Thanks in advance.

[YogiBear]

Hi day99,

If they're using IP addresses which are unlikely to be used by legitimate members you could try banning them in your cpanel.

[vbgamer45]

When adding a ban there should a title box that you name the ban. Give a unique name such as username+date

[day99]

Okay thanks. It doesn't seem to be a problem then. I was getting concerned that my forum had been hacked. Though I'm still a bit worried, but as long as I can get someone to sort things out for me, the forum should be okay, hopefully.

I went on a Romanian hackers forum earlier, going through the results of my Google search and found this below. Is this some sort of hack, and is it anything to worry about?

<?php
2       // Version: 1.1 RC3; Admin
   2   // Version: 1.1; Admin
3   3   
4   4   $txt[4] = 'Boards';
...   ...   
122   122   $txt['theme_admin_info'] = 'Setup and manage your themes and set or reset theme options.';
123   123   $txt['registration_center'] = 'Registration';
124       $txt['member_center_info'] = 'View the member list, search for members and manage not-yet-approved members and members that haven\'t activated their account yet.';
   124   $txt['member_center_info'] = 'View the member list, search for members and manage not-yet-approved members and members who haven\'t activated their account yet.';
125   125   
126   126   $txt['viewmembers_name'] = 'Username (display name)';
...   ...   
188   188   $txt['ban_name_exists'] = 'The name of this ban already exists. Please chose a different name.';
189   189   $txt['ban_edit'] = 'Edit ban';
190       $txt['ban_add_notes'] = '<b>Note</b>: after creating the above ban, you can add additional entries that trigger the ban, like IP addresses, hostnames and email adresses.';
   190   $txt['ban_add_notes'] = '<b>Note</b>: after creating the above ban, you can add additional entries that trigger the ban, like IP addresses, hostnames and email addresses.';
191   191   $txt['ban_expired'] = 'Expired / disabled';
192   192   // Escape any single quotes in here twice.. 'it\'s' -> 'it\\\'s'.

[busterone]

That is a portion of a simple text string language file.
It is from /Themes/default/languages/Admin.english.php 

It is in every install of SMF and harmless. It cannot be used to hack your forum.

[smartdeviceresource]

You can also add the spammer's username, or IP or email to as a trigger to the existing ban (we used this to clean up our bans by creating a Ban called spammers 2009 and and usernames and email to that ban as new ones came by)
IMHO IP bans are risky because a) you could be banning legitimate IPs and b)spammers will bounce from one IP to the next with proxys and what not.  Usually it is safe to ban IPs and Domains listed Here or by using one of the Anti-Spam Mods

[motivaras_kamlesh]

Hi all,

This is regarding my forum. I am administrator..I am using Blackrain version 1.1

Last  Few days  lots of spammer had posted in board.But i want to know can I banned with few words..I mean they use some specified words lots of time...

Also I got List of Banned IP Address  which i want to BAN how do i do that one at a time..Request to assist

Regards

[JimM]

@ day99 - Any update on this?  If this is solved, please mark it solved by clicking the Mark Topic Solved link at the bottom left.

@ motivaras_kamlesh - The ban system works off IP, user name, email address.  You can trigger on all or just one.  It has nothing to do with what is posted.  To add new bans go to Admin > Members > Ban List > Add New Ban.