Im considering purchasing vB, but I need a board that can ban a user by host mask
 

Can vB do this either by default or through a hack? Thanks for your time.

you can ban ip-addresses and email-addresses, also whole emailservers like @gmx.com or such

Thank you for the response. I've found IP and email banning not very effective, was hoping to find a solution with vB + host mask, bummer :(

through a hack evene this should be possible, but not by default

I've looked and looked, but cannot find a hack that would allow this type of ban...are you saying one exists, or just that it would be possible?

i just said it's possible, i don't know if such a hack already exists :)

you can start a request after you've bought vb, can't help more..

why through vb? If you are on an Apache run server, just do it through .htaccess if on a Win II s server, you can set up banning by host through your configuration.

wizywyg2 is correct actually. You can do this using the .htaccess file.