forum hacked

[yh555]

someone has hacked my forum and all that comes up is this message now:

Sorry Guest, you are banned from using this forum!
This ban is not set to expire.

what can i do to fix this and get my forum running again?

i cant login or do anything

[lurkalot]

Are you sure you've been hacked?   It is possible to get yourself banned if banning via IP

Do you have any antispam mods installed?  Did you change anything, or install any mods prior to this happening?

[yh555]

no. and i didnt change anything prior to this happeneing

although i did ban a user

[Arantor]

Did you ban the user by IP address?

[yh555]

i dont think so

[Arantor]

So what ban criteria did you use? Because right now it looks like you banned the user and ended up banning yourself at the same time...

[yh555]

all i can remember is banning the user

[lurkalot]

So what ban criteria did you use? Because right now it looks like you banned the user and ended up banning yourself at the same time...

Does doesn't it. 

@ yh555 Do you have any other admins on your site?  Maybe they could check and un-ban you.

[yh555]

no, i dont

is there something i can edit in the dbase?

[lurkalot]

Unless you can change your IP address, maybe turning off your router / home hub and waiting a couple of minutes and turning it back on, should / might give you a new IP address.  But if that IP is covered by the ban you still won't get in.

Other than that it looks like you'll need access to your database, but if you don't know what you're doing then you could destroy your site entirely.  Backup your database is essential before doing anything.

https://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=549963.0

[yh555]

fixed it, it works now,

ty.

[lurkalot]

fixed it, it works now,

ty.

That's great, glad you fixed it.   For the benefit of others who might get into a similar situation, what did you do to fix it?  Did you use the methods outlined from that link I posted above, or some other method?

[Skhilled]

For future reference... Before you ban anyone, always check to see if any other user accounts are linked to the IP address of the user you wish to ban. Go to their Profile:

Profile -> Profile Info -> Track User... -> IP Address

This page will show you all usernames associated with the IP address of the person you wish to ban. If you were hacked your username should appear there as well. You should then ban by username only and try to change your IP address as lurkalot has mentioned above:

Unless you can change your IP address, maybe turning off your router / home hub and waiting a couple of minutes and turning it back on, should / might give you a new IP address.  But if that IP is covered by the ban you still won't get in.

For some ISP services you may have to use the reset button on the router to give you a new IP.

[SpacePhoenix]

I believe that at one time AOL used to give a new IP address for nearly every pae request. I don't know if they or any other ISP now do so

[yh555]

fixed it, it works now,

ty.

That's great, glad you fixed it.   For the benefit of others who might get into a similar situation, what did you do to fix it?  Did you use the methods outlined from that link I posted above, or some other method?

i just removed the user from the ban list