Anti-Spam Options - Rename register.php by BOP5

Brought to you by BirdOPrey5 / Qapla.com

It's great when you stop spam bots during registration but this mod gives you a chance to stop them BEFORE they even attempt to register.

I have received multiple reports from people who say their "register.php" was getting hammered with spam requests- so much so it was like a denial of service attack. Even if they disabled registration they would waste so much resources their site was slow or worse- had to be taken offline.

What this mod does is allow you to rename the register.php file- my theory is many of the vBulletin spamming bots are hard coded to look for register.php. Using a unique name will throw them off, at least for a while.

To manually change the name of register.php would have meant dozens, maybe hundreds of manual edits to files and templates previously.

This mod makes it as simple as possible. At worst you will need to edit 2 phrases and 1 file, and some people don't need to edit anything at all.

Compatible with VB 3.8.x (and 3.7, and 3.6 probably too) and all VB 4.x.x versions.

Basic Instructions
1) Import XML File
2) Go to mod settings in Admin CP
3) Rename your register.php file via FTP or some other means- make it a unique value but only use basic letters, numbers, underscores, or hyphens. Something like "joeregister999.php"
4) In the mod settings, set the value of register.php to the new file name you chose.
5) If you require email verification during registration follow the next setting in the Admin CP and edit the phrases listed (activateaccount and activateaccount_chnage phrases in Email Body)
6) Finally, if you use Facebook Connect on your forum make the manual file edit of class_bootstrap.php as instructed.

Now enjoy your new filename for register.php, I hope it reduces server load and spam in general.

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Please "Mark as Installed" if you use this.
Donations always appreciated. :up:
Nominate MOTM if you LOVE it!

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Note- if having problems sending activation codes or other Admin CP related activities use the solution in post #197.

[pjclas]

Originally Posted by hpidriver

If I install this on a forum that is Tapatalk enabled, are any modifications necessary? Just want to make sure it doesn't interfere with the Tapatalk in-app registration. Thanks

Yes, it has tapatalk enabled. Is there a conflict here I missed?

EDIT: I tried disabling tapatalk and it did not improve the situation.

[BirdOPrey5]

I do not believe there is any conflict with Tapatalk.

I am unable to replicate the issue of not being able to edit users in the awaiting email confirmation group. The plugin does use output buffering to make changes in Admin CP where by all logic no changes should ever be made so I would not be surprised if it doesn't play nice in some setups. you could disable the plugin that runs in the admin hooks but then you'll be unable to send password reminders and such.

[CAG CheechDogg]

I have tapatalk on my forums and it doesn't affect it at all, works perfectly fine!

[Disco_Dave]

In the tapatalk options menu, theirs an option to change it.

[DemOnstar]

BOP5 is quite busy at the moment, please be patient for the author to make his post..

There are 2 quality advisers around currently and they are very active. Hopefully they will pass by and help with most queries...

[BirdOPrey5]

I'm not really sure what the question is, Tapatalk shouldn't be affected by this mod, which is what I already posted.

VB.org advisers generally do not provide mod support unless it is their own mods. Not that there is any rules against it but generally they are in no better position than anyone else when it comes to how a mod works.

[freak46]

Thanks works fine for 4.2.1

[dizzynation]

BOP5 - Any chance you can make a GOLD version that will allow you to change the forum.php page?

I would really love to have the ability to have something different then forum.php

[BirdOPrey5]

Originally Posted by dizzynation

BOP5 - Any chance you can make a GOLD version that will allow you to change the forum.php page?

I would really love to have the ability to have something different then forum.php

I could make such a Gold version... but... it's actually built in to vBulletin.

Admin CP -> Settings -> Options -> Forum Home: Options -> Script Name for Forum Home Page

Default is: forum (for forum.php) - Rename it to anything then rename the forum.php file.

[dizzynation]

Thanks for that! I don't mean to highjack your thread but when I did that^ Im just getting a blank white page.

The forum is in a folder /client/ so before I could just go to mysite.com/client/ and it would show the forum, but now I have to do /client/support.php to see the forum.

Any thoughts?