Administrative and Maintenance Tools - Multiple Account Detection & Prevention

It happens all of the time. Some members will make multiple accounts to back their own opinion or get an extra vote in a poll. Here's a modification that will detect and prevent multiple accounts, as well as notify the administration about multiple accounts. Inspiration for this modification came from the work of MPDev (creator of the Multiple Account Login Detector) and randominity (creator of the Multiple Account Registration Prevention). This is basically a combination of those two modifications but with new and improved functionality.

This is not an update to the "Multiple Account Login Detector (AE Detector)" nor is it an update to the "Multiple Account Registration Prevention." If you have either one of these (or both of them) installed, you should uninstall them before installing this modification.

With the initial release of Multiple Account Detection & Prevention, I believe that I have fixed previous bugs/complications as well as improved the efficiency and logic of the code. This is my first publicly released modification. I would appreciate any comments and suggestions!

Confirmed! This works perfectly on all vBulletin 3.6, 3.7, and 3.8 versions.

Unfortunately, I cannot give support right now. I may be able to help periodically, but until my schedule yields some more free time, I won't be much support. Please check back in a week or two.

Basic Details
File Edits: None
Template Edits: None
New Files: 6
Hooks/Plugins: 3
Global Phrases: 36
Install Time: 2 Minutes or Less
Install Difficulty: None, Very Easy

Features and Settings
- Login Detection
- Registration Prevention (Multiple Methods)
- Ignore Child Accounts
- Ignored Users
- Ignored Usergroups
- Ignored ISPs
- Prevention Usergroup
- IP Address Based Prevention
- Extended IP Address Prevention
- IP Address Time Inclusion
- Banned Account Check
- Primary Banned Usergroup
- Cookie Expiration Time
- Cookie Refreshing
- Cookie Name
- Cookie Reset
- Multiple Account Reporter
- Reports via PM
- PM Report Recipients
- Reports via New Thread
- Forum for Report Threads
- Verbose Mode
- BB Codes: LIST, URL, CODE

How it Works
With every newly recognized login/registration, an account-counting cookie is set (or added onto) with the member's User ID. Depending on the settings, Multiple Account Detection & Prevention will analyze the cookie during login/registration to see if there are any multiple accounts.

Login Detection offers cookie-checking and reporting. Registration Prevention offers the same thing, plus more advanced features. First of all, when it prevents an account from registering, it actually moves the registrant to the Prevention Usergroup so that the administration can review the case. This also allows for customized privileges for recognized multiple registrants. Registration Prevention also has IP address detection which finds out just as much information about users. Depending on an administrator's preference, this modification can also reban a new registrant if one of their previous accounts has been banned. In fact, if the administration wishes, multiple registrants can simply be denied registration all together.

Whenever there is a detection/prevention, the modification will report the information to the administration through private messages, a new thread, or both (depending on settings). The Multiple Account Reporter can be any valid user.

Known Issues
- vB Optimise users: Reporting via thread seems to get messed up by vB Optimise, so try reporting via PM instead.
- PhotoPost vBGallery users: The registration handling appears to not work properly when PhotoPost vBGallery is enabled.

From what I can tell, these known clashes have been caused by the other modification's coding. The author of vB Optimise will not even work with me to fix it. Until they improve their coding, I'm not sure if I can do anything about these issues. As far as I know, administrators that do not use the above modifications will not have any problems.

Installation / Upgrade
Unzip the package (madp.zip), upload the files to your forum location, and import the product file (allow overwrite if upgrading). Please read the ReadMe.txt file that is packaged with the modification for more information.

Please remember to mark this modification as installed if you use it!
If you like it, nominate it for the Mod of the Month!

Thank you!

[JesterP]

Ok, so nobody has integrated evercookie, a bummer to be sure.

Back to my original issue:

IP addresses are not being compared, the only way I am currently able to detect multiples is via cookie. IP detection worked perfectly for quite some time.

I believe my IP detection issues started when my webserver was converted to NGinx and the PHP-FPM/CGI. I could be wrong though.

Does anyone have similar experiences with this type of webserver? If I can confirm this issue with others, I will hire devs to figure the mess out. If that is not the issue, I guess I will remain at the mercy of banned members who figured out that all they need to do is clear cookies and re-reg.

Thanks for reading

Jester

[AThomas]

Happened to me once, did you try to re-install? worked after that for me.

[JesterP]

Originally Posted by AThomas

Happened to me once, did you try to re-install? worked after that for me.

I haven't, but I will be sure to. Did you remove it first or did you just do the product with overwrite enabled?

It works prfectly now, replaced all files and overwrote the product.

Thank you

[FreshFroot]

The author of vB Optimise will not even work with me to fix it. Until they improve their coding, I'm not sure if I can do anything about these issues. As far as I know, administrators that do not use the above modifications will not have any problems.

That is a lie.

I just talked to the owners at DBTech and they stated they are willing to give their files to you to get it to work properly.

Maybe they did this earlier off, but right now they have their hands full and are letting you take care of it.

[DragonByte Tech]

Originally Posted by FreshFroot

That is a lie.

I just talked to the owners at DBTech and they stated they are willing to give their files to you to get it to work properly.

Maybe they did this earlier off, but right now they have their hands full and are letting you take care of it.

Just popping in to confirm that we are indeed happy to give access to the necessary files, and that the author of this mod has never been told otherwise by anyone at DBTech.

Further - as normal post reporting works perfectly fine with vBOptimise the issue must lie within a change to that process cause by this modification - it's not something vBOptimise has "broken".

Iain

[Alfa1]

Come on people. No matter where the issue lies, its clearly an issue that many people would happily see resolved. Both addons are extremely popular. Please try to work this coding issue out in the spirit of the community.

Working together and giving their files are two different things IMHO.

In any case I'd be grateful if someone can take a look at it and try to resolve the coding problem.

[joshskeety]

Originally Posted by Megatr0n

I've got this done!

No one cares, unless you're here to share. It's not like anyone thought it was impossible to do, you're just thumbing your noses at people and boasting. Or, you're a complete liar and haven't done it.

Either way you're acting like a troll.

[Xerosis]

can you update please ? xD

[jluerken]

I want to know how I can change this
"Disallow Registrants, Except Banned Users" to an
"Allow multiple Registrants, Except Banned Users" function?

[kevin2007]

Originally Posted by white demon

works with 4.1.0.???

It is still working with 4.1.2