Odd banned issue

[CyberShadow]

I had a member reach out to me today, to say that he was unable to browse my forums as a Guest, as he was banned, and he sent me a screenshot of the message that he was getting.

I looked into the forum logs.

His banned message is there...

Sorry Guest, you are banned from using this forum!
spamban 29160628001
This ban is not set to expire.
?topic=5079.msg39945

However, when I go to the Ban List and browse the ban triggers, his IP is not listed as banned.

So, I went to the Ban Log, and I see the IP address list.... So I delete this ban..... And the user is still getting banned messages and the Ban Message Log keeps adding his banned messages to the list, for a ban that I removed and couldn't find in the usual places.....

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Are you running any anti-spam mods?

[Dena]

Bans can also be placed by host name, email address and user name. Host name is the most difficult one to track down but they can all be difficult to find if you have many bans and you have used wild cards to make an effective host block. Your best hope for finding it easily is to create bans with something unique such as the name of the ban included in the message to be sent to the member. If you have the name of the ban you could find it quickly. Unfortunately SMF doesn't do this for you so you need to do it when you create the ban.

[efk]

Bans can also be placed by host name, email address and user name. Host name is the most difficult one to track down but they can all be difficult to find if you have many bans and you have used wild cards to make an effective host block. Your best hope for finding it easily is to create bans with something unique such as the name of the ban included in the message to be sent to the member. If you have the name of the ban you could find it quickly. Unfortunately SMF doesn't do this for you so you need to do it when you create the ban.

Agree.
My advice is to go to the ban list and to check each ban individually. Find account from which you removed ban >>> talking about this ".... So I delete this ban..... " <<< and compare Hostname with other bans until you find it manually, then you can modify ban triggers.
Usually bans are given on email and username, so that means 2 triggers, and if you follow that default banning method then number of triggers should be 2. If its like that then it will be easy for you to find. If you find 3 triggers and 3rd is Hostname then that could be it. 4th trigger is IP and that is not recommended unless you are 100% sure that you know what you are doing, and even if you know with more bans will come more banned players by mistake.
So again, go to the Ban List/see triggers for each member and when you click on Modify you will be able to compare info about member in your case. If its not that, then answer on question

Are you running any anti-spam mods?

[CyberShadow]

Many thanks for the replies.

I recently reinstalled the boards and site (as a result of updating the server) so there are no anti-spam mods or extensions currently in action.

I can see how the ban may be across domains, email and IP (and username, but since this is Guest.....), but how can I find out? Most users wont know their domain and the ban message log only gives me the IP address.... My ban list has 49 pages! 

I do ask (!) my mods to write the IP address in the comments of the ban, and this has always worked in the past. Where we had a similar case, it was usually when a user logged in and they would get the information including the name of the ban, and we could trace their IP, and it was a simple matter to remove the ban across different triggers. This is the first time that I have had this problem, and the ban message is not helpful.... and not something that my mods would usually write. On top of that 'spamban 29160628001' doesnt seem to exist. I have arranged the bans in order of the comments and this one isn't on the list.

I will start to go through the details of the ban. This is a relatively new issue, so I assume that the ban was created in the last couple of days..... I hope!

Many thanks.

[efk]

If guest has problems, well tell him in private to use vpn when registering, or to use Opera browser with vpn just to register, he should make at least 1 post, then if awaiting on approval increase his post count and tell him to use regular browser without vpn and there maybe you can find something logged. Or even better, you create account for him, give him password of new account and tell him to log in and follow what will happen. Got that idea, not sure if it can help, but maybe can save your time.

[CyberShadow]

Ah. He has an account. He just couldnt get to it because the boards were off limits to him even as a guest.

But.... I FOUND IT!

I figured that the ban must have been initiated in the last couple of days and just started working backwards until I found the right comment message. It was the domain. I cancelled the ban and he has access again.

Many thanks for all of your assistance guys. Much appreciated.