Administrative and Maintenance Tools - Multiple account login detector (AE Detector)

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Same plug-in found here:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=107566

There are no differences as this plug-in works with both 3.5 and 3.6 versions of vBulletin.

If you are like me and migrated from .threads, a common modification was an "AE detector", a simple mod that saved a cookie of a history of ids logged into on your site. If someone logged into more than one account, you got a PM letting you know that your site was being accessed from multiple accounts.

Over the years this was very helpful in identifying users who were posting under multiple accounts (alter-egos!) and users who would return after being banned.

You might be wondering why I don't use the vbcookie call - well, thats because on logout all vB cookies are cleared, so we need to store a cookie that is not effected by the login/logout process.

New Installation
1. Add New Product with attached XML
2. Go to vBulletin Options -> AE Multiple Login Detection Settings and set your specific settings.

Time to install: Easy - 2 minutes.

Upgrade
If you installed this as a Plug-in manually, you can delete that plugin and install this Product, just make sure to go into the Options and set them accordingly.

I hope you find this useful and will click INSTALL if you use it; should it prove useful to enough people I can look at making this installation more automated without the need for edits and an Admin Options page.

To upgrade you will want to reimport this XML file and edit your options accordingly.

1.0.3
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. Added a check to ensure that users weren't deleted when reporting violations
. added htmlspecialchars_uni call to username

Note: I am unable to get the call to construct_phrase with $vbphrase['multiplelogin_alert'] to work reliably, as such the $message variable is still set manually inside the plug-in and not via the phrase. If anyone has an idea of why this might not always work, I'm all ears.

1.0.2
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. Updated to include exclusion groups, users
. Changed so PM is sent by ae sender id

1.0.1
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. Released as a Product (thank you PHPGeek2k3 for your help)
. Added option to post to a forum versus send a PM (or both)
. All settings moved into Admin Option

1.0.0
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Initial release.

[tuwebfacil]

Anyone tried on vb3.7 gold?

[Vtec44]

RC and Gold are not that big of a difference, it should work.

[b6gm6n]

seems to work yeah (gold)

[Traxdata]

Originally Posted by tuwebfacil

Anyone tried on vb3.7 gold?

of course. still get my pm notifications )

[markblair]

Originally Posted by Paul M

Given how this works, I would say thats not possible.

Originally Posted by MPDev

Like Paul said, not possible.

I can attest that at times this modification has produced false positives. On a forum I previously ran I had a few instances of this happening. In one case the two accounts being reported by AE Detector were a staff member's account and some spammer account that had been banned. Since the spammer account was banned and neither myself or the other staff member ever logged in as the spammer, there is no way AE Detector should have noticed a problem. Yet it did. I will admit it did not happen often but I have seen a few instances.

Since installing AE Detector on my latest forum a few months ago, I have not had any problems with false positives.

[goddess_dix]

Originally Posted by markblair

I can attest that at times this modification has produced false positives.

are these with ip checking turned on in the settings? that's where i got the false positives from; otherwise, it's just checking for it's cookie.

[Videx]

I'd be happy to get an occasional false positive. Since we've gotten no notices in a year, we're all convinced it's not working. Maybe I'll try turning on the IP thingie.

edit: On looking, I see no option for IP checking.?

[goddess_dix]

you know what? i'm confusing it with the multiple registration hack, as i use them together...sorry!

[mescalin]

currently it doesnt ignore some users in 3.7 so admin etc can be reported also..

[DiverTree]

Originally Posted by markblair

I can attest that at times this modification has produced false positives. On a forum I previously ran I had a few instances of this happening. In one case the two accounts being reported by AE Detector were a staff member's account and some spammer account that had been banned. Since the spammer account was banned and neither myself or the other staff member ever logged in as the spammer, there is no way AE Detector should have noticed a problem. Yet it did. I will admit it did not happen often but I have seen a few instances.

Since installing AE Detector on my latest forum a few months ago, I have not had any problems with false positives.

ive had problems in the past with false reporting, but it was after i did some work on the forum that changed the user number. if this is something that you could have done, i think its addressed in the beggining of this thread. you have to rename the cookie, or something like that. i just waited it out and as the users cleaned up there puters, it wasnt an issue anymore.

Originally Posted by mescalin

currently it doesnt ignore some users in 3.7 so admin etc can be reported also..

has anybody else had this problem?