BotBanish Firewall Client

[delta5]

Ok, AT first there was a flurry of activity, now it seems to have slowed down a bit. I'm guessing your client just banned a bunch of bots?

[Randem]

That would be correct. The BOTs do consume a bunch of your bandwidth that your actual visitors should be using.

[delta5]

Update: no errors or crashes so far. Still seeing a few entries in the log, seems to be working fine. Is there anything a legit visitor or member could do to be mistaken for a malicious bot?

[Randem]

They could keep attempting to log on using the incorrect password lots of times instead of using the 'forgot password' link... Something a BOT would do. You should still see new entries in the log as new BOTs find your site... The better your ranking in the search engines, the better the BOTs can find you unfortunately... 

[delta5]

Update: Everything seems to be ok. Still seeing activity on the log. Gotta a question though. My webhost is trying to get me to buy their optional (and pricey) firewall for my forum. Would i really need that now?

[Randem]

Absolutely not!

A "real" firewall service should be included in hosting since it is their machine the hackers will be gaining access to.
Otherwise they are selling smoke using scare tactics...

You will see activity in the logs as long as there are BOTs on the web attempting to gain access to your system...

[Plus]

is it ban google bots ?

[Randem]

Only fake GoogleBots... Use the Goggle Search Console to verify that your account is being indexed.

[Randem]

BotBanish 3.2.01 has just been released.

BotBanish Release History

[Randem]

BotBanish 3.2.02 has just been released.

BotBanish Release History

[chadon]

Hi, is there any update planed to make it available for SMF 2.1  RC1?
I tried to install it but there are too many manual modifications to do and I am not sure of the result.

[Randem]

Aloha ForumMustang.com,

Yes, we were waiting for this version to settle down a bit before committing...
We will look into this.

[Randem]

ForumMustang.com,

We have a BETA for SMF 2.1 RC1. If you would like to see it let me know.

[chadon]

Hi. yes I would like to see it and I can test it for you if needed.

[Randem]

I have uploaded BotBanish 3.2.05 BETA which also works on SMF 2.1 RC1
to the MOD section - https://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=4158
and to https://botbanish.com. You can download from either location.

[TurtleKicker]

Obscure bug, but with this mod installed, you get a 403 error when trying to remove hooks using the function under SMF's Maintenance menu.

Can be worked around by temporarily uninstalling BotBanish, but thought I'd pass it along anyway. Thanks for updating for 2.1 RC1

[Randem]

You are welcome and Thanks for the feedback TurtleKicker,

I will try to replicate this. Which MOD did you have installed that had hooks that you wanted to remove. Removing BotBanish hooks would not be good for BotBanish and would cause unpredictable results.

[chadon]

I have uploaded BotBanish 3.2.05 BETA which also works on SMF 2.1 RC1
to the MOD section - https://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=4158
and to https://botbanish.com. You can download from either location.

Thank you. The mod was installed successfully without any error, there was nothing displayed in the error logs either but there as a conflict with Tinyportal which stopped work so we had to uninstall Botbanish.

[Randem]

Did you check the BotBanish Logs? If TinyPortal is being blocked by BotBanish, you can place it in the Do No Block table.
I haven't seen any new accounts hit the server. I will install TinyPortal to see what the conflict may be.

[Randem]

I installed TinyPortal After BotBanish and TinyPortal appears to work. What exactly stopped working? Can you give details?
Also why would there be a reason to remove intergration hooks?