Help Spammers are trying to move in on me

[newguy41]

Ok I am new to all this and my forum has been up 3 months tomorrow and I have over 2500 members. Up till a few days ago I have been able to manually check ip's and user names when members would join.

I mean I still can check that way but it's almost a full time job some days. I have had pretty much zero attacks from spammers till the last few days. Not sure what has happen but they are getting me now. It looks more like to me its people posting back links of sorts in there profile notes with a link that is going to looks to be harmless blogs.

I am using 2.0.1 Can you guys give me some advice or information on how I can secure my forum better than I am now.  I am using the "Are you Human" on the registration and I have it set to email activation before they can log in.

Oh last thing 99% of these ip's I am banning are all of course out of the US. 

Any HELP or suggestions would be most appreciated.

Thank You

[Illori]

are you using the built in anti-spam verification questions? have you looked into other anti-spam mods?

[newguy41]

I am using the built in one as well. I have looked at other mods on here but maybe i am just blind which is most likely the case. I could not find anything different or if i did i did not see anything for my version 2.0.1

[TheListener]

The bad behaviour mod is one you should be looking at.

[CYBERSMOKE]

This is what i aways have to also go thruogh everyday
this hacker keeps registering for some reason i dont know
and he has been the main reason why i have now changed my sites registration status
i tried banning de ip b4 upgranding a few weeks back but that didnt stop him
so i had no option than to change the registration process.
But if i may ask is there anyother way/method i can use to care  of this problem 1's and for all ?

[Illori]

please open a separate thread for your issue, this thread belongs to someone else.

[newguy41]

Ok I installed the new Bad Behavior mod but once that happen Nchat stopped working and my menu bar across the stop went vertical . So uninstalled that and we all back to normal going to read around now about those issues and see if i can get those bugs worked out.

A general question I have about SMF also is when you ban someone does it instantly kick them from the forum or not until the sign out? The reason I ask is the ones i am banning they seem to be staying on the forum for some time and this has been an issue for the ones that are talking smack in the NChat box. Which by the way i am trying to get uninstalled but I get total crash on the forum side when I uninstall it. This does not matter if I use the uninstall feature or manually uninstall it (Another thread I need to start as well but not sure where to start it at?).



Thanks again for your help on this. If there anything else anyone can add to this please do.

[CYBERSMOKE]

SIMPLE advice change ur registration method to ADMIN APPROVAL
that way can help so the spammer doesnt get in at all if u dont approve him
it can be hetic but its is de only way I ave found out to control mine that was wat i was tryna explain wid ma previous post and screen shot but
@Illori misunderstood me
here is where u can find this option dat is if u choose to enable it
#  Administration Center » Registration » Settings

[Illori]

that is why you use the anti-spam mods on the mod site so you dont need to manually approve every user.

[CYBERSMOKE]

I get u but see here is the case the spammer is just increasing the number of users on your site for no apparent reason 
by creating multiple user names for nothing. Can the anti spam bot stop that ?
Now that is wat I/we wanna stop.

[Illori]

the anti-spam mods can stop the users dead in their tracks.

[CYBERSMOKE]

Can u pls confirm for me if it is this 1 http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=2404

[Illori]

no that mod is for links, read the description of the mods they tell you what they do.

[CYBERSMOKE]

I got only 2 result when I searched    anti-spam mods 
the other 1 seems outdated here is the link
http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=1516
and it wasnt compitble with the SMF 2.0.2
so can i pls get a  link to the 1 u are talking about ?

[Illori]

http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?action=search;type=19

[newguy41]

Thank You for link above Illori very helpful

[CYBERSMOKE]

thnx u made my day
the link was a life saver

[newguy41]

I had mention above that I am having issues get the NChat mod removed from my forum. I have looked on the support for it but mod maker has stopped supporting it unless i was just looking in the wrong place.

Anyone have any ideas where i can post to make sure i am posting it in the right place to get some help removing this mod.

I have tried both ways manual and through the package manager

This is the error message i get when i tried to remove it:


Fatal error: require_once() [function.require]: Failed opening required '/NChat/NChatBoardIndex.php' (include_path='.:/usr/local/php5/lib/php') in /home/content/xx/xxxxxxxx/html/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxSTORE/xxxxxxxx/Sources/Load.php(2223) : eval()'d code on line 19

[Illori]

that can be resolved, but i would wait until you change your hosting was discussed in the help wanted board.

[newguy41]

ok thanks Illori talking with GC Solutions now