Who are guest?

[rtburk]

I have a "private" board or at least it suppose to be.
I have a member entry link on my homepage with assigned username and passwords.

After you get past this page you then have to naturally be a registered member on the board which is verified by the vbulletin software. Im running Vbulletin 3.0.6 and vbindex 3.0.0 RC5.

I dont have a site where non members of our organization would be running hacks and the like to try to break in and its not a high target board. More or less we use the double username and password method but really dont have known trespassers that would want to hack into our board.

With that said I notice pretty often in the Online Users Custom Block in Vbindex I use as the homepage for users that are logged in that it will shows guests. Naturally we dont have nay guests all of our users are members of our organization and I'm confused as to why this guest or guests keep showing up or why it is like that?

[Dan]

They are probably members of yours who aren't logged in currently.

[rtburk]

sorry im kind of a newbie at this...what exactly does that mean ...I have the board set to members only so even if they get past the normal homepage where the member entry link is with their assigned username and password....so there shouldnt be a way for them to even get to the vbulletin forum unless they have logged in ..once they get past the member entry page they would still have to log in at the vbulletin log in message page before they could gain entry to the forum....everything is supposes to be locked down which is why i cant figure out why I would have any guest

[Brandon Sheley]

Can guest view your url without logging in ? The only way to prevent this would be to use an .htaccess pop up that would require a login b4 viewing the url.. IMO

[rtburk]

No I don't beleive so its a member only site....for instance if you were a member and I assigned you a username and password this would be the steps for logging in.

1. go to homepage www.homepage.cXm <<<naturally this is public and anyone can go to but can access as I have password protected the directory with my hosting company.

2. click member entry link is prompts for a username and password which I have assigned to each member.

3. Vbulletin message requiring user to log in (or register) with his username and password (different than what is used or required in step 2. This is the first time they get to vbulletin software.

4. after they have logged in with vbulletin they are then directed to the forum homepage which is the vbindex page (different then the homepage in step 1) From here they can search forum etc.

I have not only made the site private where it requires you to be logged in with a valid username and password but no one can complete registration and view without me authorizing it in the admin cp.

Therefore I find it strange that I would ever have a guest as they would first have to get past the password protected member entry link and then get past the vbulletin software requirement to enter a username and password before logging in.

[Dan]

Seems someone has login info for the username and password box in number 2 probably and can SEE the accessed denied messages generated by vbulletin (which asks them to login) and if they don't login they will ALWAYS display on the WOL as "Guests"

[snakes1100]

As ppl have pointed out, even if your site is MEMBERS only, i can find your URL, doesn't mean i can view the content, they will show a red stop sign or yellow upside down yield sign, at the bottom of the who's online page, it will tell you what message they are seeing.

[Eikinskjaldi]

Originally Posted by snakes1100

As ppl have pointed out, even if your site is MEMBERS only, i can find your URL, doesn't mean i can view the content, they will show a red stop sign or yellow upside down yield sign, at the bottom of the who's online page, it will tell you what message they are seeing.

In addition web crawlers like googlebot count as guests.


Go to the whose online section and click on their ip addresses. it will do a reverse name lookup, and you can get some idea who they are.

[rtburk]

fair enough guys thanks a million for the help...just had me wondering as i have been asked this question by other members and really didnt have an honest answer i could give...thanks for the input.