Anti-Spam Options - Hostname or Useragent Registration Ban

THIS ADD-ON IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE AND IS NOT SUPPORTED

This is an add-on that is designed with vBulletin 4.1.5. It may not work on earlier versions of vBulletin. It is known to be working on vB versions 3.8.7, 4.0.7 and 4.1.5 through 4.2.0. I don't know if it is compatable with all versions of vB or not.

On my site, I receive quite a few PMs asking me how I prevent spam from being posted there. While I can't release everything I use because some of it is server based (external from vBulletin), I can release one of the lines of defense that I use.

This mod allows you to ban Hostnames and Useragents from registering on your site.

If a hostname or useragent contains any of the words you specify and they are trying to register, they are presented with an error telling them they are forbidden from registering on your site. And no registration screen ever appears.

In the event the hostname is blank, a WHOIS can be performed to establish the identity of the system being used to register.

The 'External Content' pulled by this mod is only the WHOIS information when that is enabled.

WARNING: This mod has the potential of banning humans from registering. Choose what words you use carefully.

Personally, I am not very concerned about banning an occasional human from registering. So, from time to time my system may ban a human that uses an anonymous proxy.

NOTE: This mod has a 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' clause. Please don't post telling people what words to ban. We don't need spammers getting around this mod by reading posts telling them what is being filtered.

REQUIREMENTS: In order for the WHOIS function used in this mod to work properly, your server must have OPENSSL installed.


* INSTALLATION *
---------------------
1) Upload the contents of the 'upload' folder to your forum's root.
(If your forum's location is http://www.example.com/forums/, the root is /forums/)

2) Import the product XML file (product-hostusercheck.xml) into the Product Manager in AdminCP.

3) Take some time to set the options in ACP->Settings->Options->Prevent Hostname or Useragent from Registering.

4) Be sure to turn on the mod when setting options in ACP->Settings->Options->Prevent Hostname or Useragent from Registering.



* History (Changelog) *
-----------------------------
1.0.3 (December 12, 2013)
- Fix hostname not being checked under certain circumstances.

1.0.2 (March 1, 2012)
- Fix error on registration page when Useragent or Hostname to ban is blank.

1.0.1 (February 24, 2012)
- Wrong hook being used for one of the plugins.

1.0.0 (January 22, 2012)
- Public Release

[nhawk]

Originally Posted by YOODA230

not working for me (vBulletin 4.2.0 Patch Level 2) help me !!

It does work on 4.2 PL2.

Make sure you've turned it on in ACP->Settings->Prevent Hostname or Useragent from Registering. And make sure you're entered the hostnames and useragents you want banned.

[YOODA230]

this is an image..

http://windos.me/test/pm-7RWQ.html

[nhawk]

rtrtr.com is neither a hostname or a useragent it is a TLD name.

If that is what is showing in the hostname or useragent in who's online, then just put rtrtr in the hostname or useragent box.

[lazytown]

Does this support wildcards? For example if I want to block any hosting ending with .ru, will this allow me to do it? Or will it wind up blocking things like 123.rummy.au ? Pretty important to know!

[nhawk]

Originally Posted by vissa

Does this support wildcards? For example if I want to block any hosting ending with .ru, will this allow me to do it? Or will it wind up blocking things like 123.rummy.au ? Pretty important to know!

If you ban ru, rummy will be banned.

I suggest using the full useragent or hostname minus any TLD extension such as .ru, .com, etc.

[lazytown]

I see, but I may *WANT* to ban something line .ru or .cn from registering.. That could be very effective for me. Seems to me it's just an issue of how the wildcards are set up (if the program accepts them, etc)..

[nhawk]

Originally Posted by vissa

I see, but I may *WANT* to ban something line .ru or .cn from registering.. That could be very effective for me. Seems to me it's just an issue of how the wildcards are set up (if the program accepts them, etc)..

This mod is not to ban TLDs.

What you enter is automatically wildcarded. That is why you can't enter .ru and expect .rummy not to be banned.

From the settings screen for the mod..

NOTE: You do not need to enter the entire hostname. A partial match will result in a registration ban. So if you enter 'proxy', a hostname with 'I am a proxy' will be banned from registering.

The same holds true for useragents.

EDIT:

As an example, let's use googlebot.
It has a hostname of..

crawl-66-249-72-133.googlebot.com

So, all you would enter is googlebot in the hostname setting. Then all hostnames that have 'googlebot' in them will be banned from registering no mattter what else in in the hostname.

[lazytown]

Thanks for your responses... Is there anyway for me to easily modify the code so that it only looks at the last part of the hostname? I've ok with PHP editing.

Is there a log in vbulletin somewhere that shows the useragent (and not who's online because I'm not online all the time)? Or do we have to go digging through raw http log files?

Thank you!!

[nhawk]

Originally Posted by vissa

Thanks for your responses... Is there anyway for me to easily modify the code so that it only looks at the last part of the hostname? I've ok with PHP editing.

Is there a log in vbulletin somewhere that shows the useragent (and not who's online because I'm not online all the time)? Or do we have to go digging through raw http log files?

Thank you!!

Again, this is not a mod to ban TLDs.

All of the code is in the plugins for the mod. However, I will not assist in changing the code for what you want to do. That is not the purpose of this mod.

You will need to look through your http logs. There's no log in vB of hostnames or useragents.

[Bruce1984]

Nice mod, thank you for releasing and your continuous work on it.

I have not downloaded/tested it yet, but I've got one little question; is it possible to like edit the message that will be shown once a username/hostagent has been blocked?

Basically, like you mentioned, it wouldn't be too bad if an occasional human would be prevented from registering. But if it would happen often, for example if you choose to prevent people using proxies when registering (but fine when browsing), the message could show something along the lines of "If you are trying to register and feel you are wrongfully being blocked, feel free to message support[at]host[dot]com"?

In the above case, you're not immediately allowing people to register anyway and can verify a 'legitimate' user by the correspondence with him/her. At least, that's what I'm thinking .