Anti-Spam Options - vbStopForumSpam

vbStopForumSpam

Mod of the month winner October 2009.... That cant be bad :up:

Apologies in advance, this is a copy of the 3.6/3.7/3.8 mod that has been verified to work in 4.0 (its so that I dont get a billion PMs asking if it works in 4.0)

This provides access to a RBL type system for forum admins, listing known spam IP / email / usernames. The RBL database is provided by www.stopforumspam.com. You do NOT need an API key from the website in order to access the database. only to submit data if you should wish to do so.

At the point of user registration, the mod checks if the IP number / provided username / email addresses appear on a block list and can block the registration.

Whilst this isnt the most perfect way to stop all forum spam, its another step that spammers have to overcome.

What it does

It checks with a remote database of known forum spammers. Their IP number, email address and forum username are tested and based on your configuration, you can reject / log / accept user registrations based on what you get back.

This version doesnt have
- whitelisting or the ability to submit users to the database but it will within the next week.
- automatic user deletion / post / PM purging. There are good tools out there already, this does something else.

Instructions are included in the installation.txt file - PLEASE read it first and dont forget to actually upload the files in the upload folder, otherwise it WILL kill your registration progress and you wont see the log file options in admincp.

Changes to vB
- 3 new database tables
- 2 database table alternations
- No new templates.
- 2 Hook (register_addmember_process & register_addmember_complete)

Ive tested it but had feedback that it works with versions as old as 3.6.2... Support should go back to older versions, as long as they have hook support for register_addmember_process / register_addmember_complete

For code to submit spammers to the database, check this post for code changes
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=288

Reported to work
- 3.6.1, 3.6.2, 3.6.9, 3.6.10, 3.7.0, 3.7.1, 3.7.2, 3.7.3, 3.74, 3.80, 3.81, 3.82, 3.83, 3.8.4, 4.0beta3, 4.0 Gold, 4.2pl1,2

Installers should remember to refresh their ACP navigation window when they first install it so they can see the new log file menu item.

REQUIRES MySQL 4.1.1+

There is a small mod, coded by Wired1 that will allow you to submit spammer details to the database from the admin control panel, here https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=289 This relies 100% on javascript being enabled and makes no tests that it is enabled.

You need to have an API key from www.stopforumspam.com in order to submit data, its free and easy to get... You DONT need an API key in order to use this mod however, only to submit spammer data.

Issues are
- The usergroup permissions / view details etc DONT work. I jumped the gun and put the permissions controls in there before I put the code in. Please delete the includes/xml/bitfield_vbstopforumspam.xml file and rebuild your postbit

Installation
- Follow the instructions in the zip file, that includes the file upload the correct folders.

Please click Installed

The original thread is at https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=176481 where there is a wealth of knowledge about the mod, please ask questions in there.

[ShannonA]

Do you mean in the Options page for the add-on? api.stopforumspam.com doesn't seem to exist.

[Ski4People]

Originally Posted by simonhind

you need to update the api address from stopforumspam.com to api.stopforumspam.com the aapi is no longer updated from stopforumspam.com

Mine is not having any problem, and I didn't update any API...

[djbaxter]

Originally Posted by ShannonA

Well, things worked great for a bit less than 4 days, then I started getting:

And all the spam is flooding in again. What happened!?

That means you were unable to connect with the SFS database at the time. It may have been down temporarily or undergoing maintenance - this happens from time to time.

Originally Posted by simonhind

you need to update the api address from stopforumspam.com to api.stopforumspam.com the aapi is no longer updated from stopforumspam.com

The original seems to be working just fine for me.

[ShannonA]

Huh. I seem to be getting "rate limit exceeded". I guess they're not actually reliable for a large forum.

[TheSupportForum]

Originally Posted by ShannonA

Do you mean in the Options page for the add-on? api.stopforumspam.com doesn't seem to exist.

please read
http://www.stopforumspam.com/forum/v...ic.php?id=4653

it clearly states they migrated to api.stopforumspam.org in 2012
sorry i did put .com before

[TheSupportForum]

Originally Posted by LukeNet

Mine is not having any problem, and I didn't update any API...

read this post
http://www.stopforumspam.com/forum/v...ic.php?id=4653

[djbaxter]

Originally Posted by ShannonA

Well, things worked great for a bit less than 4 days, then I started getting:

And all the spam is flooding in again. What happened!?

Originally Posted by simonhind

you need to update the api address from stopforumspam.com to api.stopforumspam.com the aapi is no longer updated from stopforumspam.com

Originally Posted by simonhind

read this post
http://www.stopforumspam.com/forum/v...ic.php?id=4653

That doesn't tell me much and looking further into the SFS forum seems to imply that the api is for SUBMITTING spam data rather than checking existing entries in the database?

[TheSupportForum]

Originally Posted by djbaxter

That doesn't tell me much and looking further into the SFS forum seems to imply that the api is for SUBMITTING spam data rather than checking existing entries in the database?

the plugin does that, as long as you update the api link to submit it will work alot better, and this version isnt as reliable as glowhosts version which this developer did contribute work towards developing which is designed to look at the api once they attempted to register

[djbaxter]

Originally Posted by simonhind

the plugin does that, as long as you update the api link to submit it will work alot better, and this version isnt as reliable as glowhosts version which this developer did contribute work towards developing which is designed to look at the api once they attempted to register

Actually, I was using Glowhost and came back to this one because this one works better for me.

[ShannonA]

Originally Posted by ShannonA

Huh. I seem to be getting "rate limit exceeded". I guess they're not actually reliable for a large forum.

Turns out that this is a feature:
http://www.stopforumspam.com/forum/v...php?id=573&p=1

I've queried the folks running the site, since as far as I know we were making pretty normative use of things for a large site (albeit under a particular spam attack this morning).