failed login puzzle

[tinkerbell]

I have used vbulletin for a number of years now but this gliche has me baffled.

I have set up a message board to be used in secondary schools (high schools). Most of the time there is no problem but if I try to take a class into the computer area to use the message board, those with accounts cant login; they get the following message:

Wrong username or password. You have used up your failed login quota! Please wait 15 minutes before trying again. Don't forget that the password is case sensitive. Forgotten your password

Even I get this message if I try and I am the owner/admin of the board. To get past this I have to get the children to register junk accounts so we can use it for the lesson, at the end of the day I clean up and delete those accounts.

The details are entered correctly and if you do make a mistake you normally have 5 attemps, this is happening on the first attempt regardless as to whether the info is correct or not.

Does anyone know why this might be happening, it only happens when a lot of people are trying to access the board (a class full ie 25 - 30) although the affects can last a while. (I still cant get in after a couple of hours, it will be ok later though)

Has anyone seen this kind of behaviour before? or does anyone have any suggestions? I odnt even know where the problem is coming from:

School connections?
my web host?
vb programming gliche?

Not the same problem as this thread https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=177126

Tinkerbell

[Dismounted]

This is probably because all the computers use the same public IP address. Since they all use the same address, if 5 people enter a password wrong once each, it will lock out the IP.

[Alfa1]

Aah. That explains a lot. Is there a way to exclude admin IP's from this?

[Marco van Herwaarden]

Not really. You should ensure that each computer uses it's own IP and not hte IP of a proxyserver or such.

[Dismounted]

If all internet access is going out of one internet connection, the IP will be the same for all clients.

[Opserty]

You could disable the strike system, (it is under vBulletin Options somewhere)

[tinkerbell]

Funnily enough one of my year 11's (16 year old) suggested that at the end of the day, lol.
I have disabled the strike system and will try it next week in school.

Unfortunately since my clients are secondary school students and since when in school they all use one ip there is nothing I can do to give them all individual ips and switching the strike off is the only way if we want to use it during IT lesson time.

Thanks for the advice guys, it really did have me stumped.

Tinks