Administrative and Maintenance Tools - Multiple account login detector (AE Detector)

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Same plug-in found here:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=125871

There are no differences as this plug-in works with the 3.5, 3.6 or 3.7 releases of vBulletin.

If you are like me and migrated from .threads, a common modification was an "AE detector", a simple mod that saved a cookie of a history of ids logged into on your site. If someone logged into more than one account, you got a PM letting you know that your site was being accessed from multiple accounts.

Over the years this was very helpful in identifying users who were posting under multiple accounts (alter-egos!) and users who would return after being banned.

You might be wondering why I don't use the vbcookie call - well, thats because on logout all vB cookies are cleared, so we need to store a cookie that is not effected by the login/logout process.

New Installation
1. Add New Product with attached XML
2. Go to vBulletin Options -> AE Multiple Login Detection Settings and set your specific settings.

Time to install: Easy - 2 minutes.

Upgrade
If you installed this as a Plug-in manually, you can delete that plugin and install this Product, just make sure to go into the Options and set them accordingly.

I hope you find this useful and will click INSTALL if you use it; should it prove useful to enough people I can look at making this installation more automated without the need for edits and an Admin Options page.

To upgrade you will want to reimport this XML file and edit your options accordingly.

1.0.3
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. Added a check to ensure that users weren't deleted when reporting violations
. added htmlspecialchars_uni call to username

Note: I am unable to get the call to construct_phrase with $vbphrase['multiplelogin_alert'] to work reliably, as such the $message variable is still set manually inside the plug-in and not via the phrase. If anyone has an idea of why this might not always work, I'm all ears.

1.0.2
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. Updated to include exclusion groups, users
. Changed so PM is sent by ae sender id

1.0.1
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. Released as a Product (thank you PHPGeek2k3 for your help)
. Added option to post to a forum versus send a PM (or both)
. All settings moved into Admin Option

1.0.0
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Initial release.

[flirtsnfriends]

Marked as installed

[YankForum]

how bad i found this so late , but i love it , simple but tricky

[SoftWareRevue]

Sorry for this n00b question, but I need to make certain this works like I think it works.

Am I correct in understanding that this sets a cookie when a member logs into my site? Therefore, if I get notice that thismember and thatmember are the same member (no soup for you!) it means that both usernames had to use the same browser? There's no way for them to dispute that?

Thanks for anyone that can set me straight.

[Videx]

Originally Posted by SoftWareRevue

Am I correct in understanding that this sets a cookie when a member logs into my site? Therefore, if I get notice that thismember and thatmember are the same member (no soup for you!) it means that both usernames had to use the same browser? There's no way for them to dispute that?

Yes, it sets a cookie. Yes, same browser, probably same machine (though I think some browsers now offer cookie sync?). No, that doesn't tell you that the same typist caused the trigger (for us, 99.9% of the time it's different typists).

[SoftWareRevue]

Originally Posted by Videx

... that doesn't tell you that the same typist caused the trigger (for us, 99.9% of the time it's different typists).

Thanks. I really appreciate.

By this statement though, you simply mean you can't tell if it's the same person at the same computer. Husband/wife, brother/brother, shill/shill, etc?

[SoftWareRevue]

some browsers now offer cookie sync?

Good point. Browsers that sync do sync cookies I believe. But that would still mean they were posting with "the same browser" of sorts. :thinking:

[Videx]

re: cookie sync - I was thinking about "the same machine". A very short time ago browsers on different computers kept different cookies, so the same typist might evade this mod. Now I have no idea.

The bigger problem for our small local forum was when the local fire house and library logged in. I had to quickly add them to the exclusion list. But yes, an incredible number of married couples use the same browser - a concept surely foreign to the admin types here.

[squidsk]

Originally Posted by Videx

re: cookie sync - I was thinking about "the same machine". A very short time ago browsers on different computers kept different cookies, so the same typist might evade this mod. Now I have no idea.

The bigger problem for our small local forum was when the local fire house and library logged in. I had to quickly add them to the exclusion list. But yes, an incredible number of married couples use the same browser - a concept surely foreign to the admin types here.

Yes and no. I'd argue that with people being more and more tech savy and all modern operating systems, whether linux, mac osx, or windows, all have easy user switching so different people are likely to have accounts on the same computer, for personal customization of the workspace if nothing else.

[Videx]

No no, you missed my point and maybe my sarcasm. To trigger this mod, they use the same browser on the same machine in the same account - literally using the same browser. Obviously the smarter ones use different user accounts when sharing a computer. Or maybe just the more paranoid, but that won't trigger since it's a different set of cookies.

Since you've got me going, a bigger peeve is when couples insist on using the same account. Makes it especially irksome when they start arguing with someone - difficult enough to argue with one maniac, much less two, and you never know who's typing when. Yes, we passed a rule against it, but if you push them they just leave.

[Alan_SP]

Originally Posted by SoftWareRevue

By this statement though, you simply mean you can't tell if it's the same person at the same computer. Husband/wife, brother/brother, shill/shill, etc?

Actually, there's no way you could know who really uses that computer. You can forget something like that. Maybe after some time and progress on Big Brother front, you'll know who really is logging on your site, but at the moment, you still can't.

But, you do know that some person(s) have more than one account on your site and access it from same browser/computer.