This is getting off-topic. However, to answer your question, I'm using Spambot Stopper, v 1.1.1. I think you're using that other one that keeps changing names and having hissy-fits.

The other mod of the month one nothing's gotten through as yet. Yeah. Mainly because I paid to have it coded and released free to the community, and the first version of it was exactly as asked for.

Back on topic and sorry for the derail... But BoP5 it might be helpful to mention this really works alot better if folks do NOT use the word "register" in the new name, and if one changes the name of ALL images that link to the registration page, and all that have the word "register" in them.

Total BS. I had that one installed and bots still got through.

It's not BS on this end, I should have been more clear. I personally haven't had one get through as yet and it's reporting anywhere from 40 to 100s of attempts daily.

Awesome!

Installed & nominated.

Thank you

Turns out I have some very smart bots on my forum ... they're still getting through every now and then despite the renamed register.php :(

This is going to be every bit as good as the renaming we do. See some of the earlier posts.

Your also going to get a smart bot or two, now and then. Expect that as a norm.

But as an admin,... get used to juggling a dozen methods of preventing spam.

Some last and never need changing,... some or good only for a month or two.

But stick with what works and dump what no longer does.

Making sure register in not in the filename will help.

Another big help would be editing the register phrase to something else without the word register. if "bots" get through without the word register anywhere in the link or text they're probably not bots. Not all spammers are bots.

There are other phrases, for example in the Registration FAQ entry, that contain links to register.php that will need to have the anchor text changed. They also link to the newly named register.php after installing this mod.

Do a search for phrases containing the word "Register".

I first renamed it to registerforfree.php ... saw no decrease in "fake" registration attempts (about 200 a day)
Then indeed figured still having "register" in the filename may no be the smartest thing to do so I changed it to something else, but still no sign of a decrease in registration attempts.

Perhaps leaving a fake register.php on the server may also help ... those bots might be set up to only look for a registration url if what it considers default returns a 404

Gonna try that first, and if that fails I'll be editing the phrases as suggested.

We were getting hammered by China recently, eating up our server resources - even though we have all new registrations go into Moderation. The bots figured out what the answer was to our verification question. Once we changed the question and answer, all the bots stopped. We will continue to monitor the server for a while to see if they return - and if so, we will look at using this mod.

Thanks,

David

One of the best modifications, we required to stop SPAMMERS who are hammering register.php page.
Thanks BirdOPrey5

FYI - I had to manually change 5 more language phrases and 5 more places in my style to make this work on 3.x

If the phrases weren't email phrases the mod itself would normally take care of those changes without needing to manually edit the phrases. That is to say- I know register.php appears in a number of phrases/templates but they don't need to be changed.

Do you remember any of the 5 other places?

We installed this modification properly, but within few minutes those spammers have started hammering the new renamed register.php
Makes no difference..

Am i missing something ?

Then your spammers are either human or following links.

A couple of things-
1) Make sure register isn't in the new file name. make it just some random letters.

2) It has been suggested editing phrases with the word "Register" in it and change it to something else, perhaps an image of the word register instead- but again don't use the word in the file name.

Gland to know that my idea to rename register.php as anti-spam protection, became a mod after 3 1/2 years of my post (Jan 9th, 2010):
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=232624

Edited: If you want to extend it a bit to become 100% anti-robot safe, add the following code in the registration form:
and this code to php file (after form submission):
Bots used to read the page code and fill all fields. Non human can use this as it's hidden. So if this field gets value, means that it's a bot and he will be redirect to ...Disney.com

I'm using it for years and works 100% (always talking for bots).

Interesting stuff- never saw that thread before- or didn't recall it if I did. This came about I was talking with other vb support personnel and we had a ticket of someone complaining of having to delete register.php to stop some sort of "bot attack."

I know I had looked into renaming register.php several times over the years but the sheer number of replacements needed always put me off. Finally it clicked to basically use a replacement variable- and more or less that is what the mod does. But it does do a few more complex matches so that if someone links to some other site's register.php page or just types register.php in a post it does not get changed- which it would in a pure replacement variable scenario.

Finally I had to add some magic for links to work in the admincp as replacement vars don't work in the admin cp.

Bug in this add-on:

Clicking "Email Activation Codes" from the user panel in the AdminCP does not send the codes and does not give an error message. It just loads the smilies page.

What VB version are you using?

You sure you have downloaded the latest version of the mod?

vBulletin 4.2.1

Yes. Version 1.15 installed.

Thank you, signed up for your forum and left a post as well.

- Brian

Weird, working ok for me. I added code to fix this issue.


Please do this- in your admin cp, right click on the users link and choose to open in a new window.

Then try sending the codes again.

Let me know the URL in your browser on the smilie page. (you can remove your domain if you want)

I created a new dummy user (me-test) and then selected that new member profile in AdminCP.

I don't have an option to right click "send activation codes" and open in a new tab or window from the button at the top of the AdminCP page.

The button is titled "Email Activation Codes".

Using the Firefox Web Developer: Inspector feature, i can see that this fills in and submits a form. Here's the code:

Notice that it is still referencing register.php although that is no longer the correct name for the file.

1. I do use email verification and have made all the edits in the two indicated phrases.

2. I do not use Facebook Connect.

Hi POB5,
The mod looks interested to me, before installing this mod my question is will it effects vB update since it changes file name register.php ? and how do I uninstall if I won't use it in the future ?

installed easily and working great, thanks.
I can instantly see a big drop-off in cpu useage on our server (39% of all website traffic has been to our register.php recently!!)
I've put a dummy 'hello world' file in as register.php so the server's not serving up a load of 404s and it all seems happy :)
thanks again,.
James

After an upgrade you would need to rename register.php again to whatever the custom name you chose is.

If uninstalling just undo whatever manual changes you made. If you manually changed the phrases, change them back. If you manually changed the class_core.php file, change it back. Then just rename the register.php file back to normal and disable/install the mod. It should take just as many steps to install as uninstall.

Thanks. I can confirm this is working on 4.2.1 on my site, so I assume it must be due to some conflict on yours.

In the drop down menu there should also be an option to email activation codes, can you try there too.

I'm talking about the "Quick User Links" drop down.

The same thing except it opens a new blank window with the url

Again, notice it is referencing register.php, not the alternate filename.

I'm not sure what other plug-in could be interfering, or indeed what other plugin I have installed that even references register.php

It has nothing to do with register.php in terms of the plugin, in the Admin CP it's working directly on the PHP Output buffer, which I suppose if another mod is doing as well could cause issue.

Please go to the Admin CP -> Plugins & Products -> Plugin Manager

And see if any other plugins are on this hook: useradmin_edit_column2

Hint- if you have a lot of plugins press CTRL+F to open the "Find" function in your browser and paste in the plugin name to quickly search.

I did have one. However, I changed that to useradmin_edit_column1 and tried again. Same result.

Is the plugin "Send Activation Code Fix Part I" supposed to be disabled? Not that it made a difference when I enabled it but it seems to be unchecked by default.

I just tried this on a different forum with a new registration. There, I get an error message:

fyi...had to change the following phrases:

admin_required_register
you_lost_activation_code_or_username
coppa_rules_description
vb3_register
activate_deleterequest
invalidactivateid

and the following templates:

activateform
activate_requestemail

Update:
Seems to be working ok. I was able to register a new user without any issues. The various links are working as well.

Good mod! Thanks. Marking as installed.

I would suggest temporarily disabling the other plugin on the hook.

Yes this mod is supposed to have 1 disabled plugin.

Maybe you got a bad copy? Try re-downloadig.

Working fine on 4.2.1 :)

Thank you.

I disabled all products or plugins using that hook or anything using any useradmin_edit_? hook, including vBulletin Blog. No change.

Tried that. Downloaded and re-imported. No change. It is still trying to run register.php instead of the new name.

I installed it but it didn't work.
It went to the new path I had made but instead of going to the registration page it just sent to my home page.

I don't understand... Perhaps the file had a slightly different name then you entered in the mod?

Do you have VBSEO installed? It should still work but that is the only way I can think you'd be sent to the homepage instead of a 404 error.

FYI (to everyone)- for those not sure if this helps, some people here said it was no help, but at least one guy found it reduced his bandwidth usage by 80%.

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/forum...different-name

BOP5, any other ideas?