Zb Block - Stop Spam & 'bots @ Server

[onehost]

I guess I will uninstall just because of doubt...I see a sites denied because
of hackers/content scrapers, etc, but I do not know who else
this script could be killing access too...legit surfers....

Feel free to keep updating the script...has very good potential.

I have also notice while my site is "suppose" to be under the scripts
protection, I also noticed 5 spiders attempting to register for accounts...

so it is indeed not 100%

I am not worried about accidently locking out legit surfers....

[yotsume]

So I just installed this to my vb site and was wondering if I did it correctly.

After the setup ran and finished it spit out a line of code that I added to the very top of my global.php file.

Is that all that I needed to do?

What files can be deleted from the zdblock folder to make it secure on my server?

[adwade]

Sounds like you've got it figured out. Did you run the TEST script, just to check?(i.e. ?test=xtestx) Make sure you set a password, as described on p3-2 of the manual so you can instantly unlock your IP Address if/when needed. If so, you should be good to go. Nothing to delete, as .htaccess files protect the critical files automatically.

Also note, there are several versions of signatures available at http://www.spambotsecurity.com/zbblock_download.php If you think you're blocking too much just use the UNBLOCKED signature set instead, for the minimum protection until you get things figured out like you want them.

Personally I'm running signature set #68 with a few custom signature allowances (i.e. allow all AOL, etc) and it's working perfectly for me.

[yotsume]

Originally Posted by adwade

Sounds like you've got it figured out. Did you run the TEST script, just to check?(i.e. ?test=xtestx) Make sure you set a password, as described on p3-2 of the manual so you can instantly unlock your IP Address if/when needed. If so, you should be good to go. Nothing to delete, as .htaccess files protect the critical files automatically.

Also note, there are several versions of signatures available at http://www.spambotsecurity.com/zbblock_download.php If you think you're blocking too much just use the UNBLOCKED signature set instead, for the minimum protection until you get things figured out like you want them.

Personally I'm running signature set #68 with a few custom signature allowances (i.e. allow all AOL, etc) and it's working perfectly for me.

Yep I am all installed perfectly and tested and setup. I will look into the signature files. Thanks for the heads up...

[Mark Hewitt]

I'm using this. Since installing it has literally cut my server load by 95%!

But I'm occasionally getting people saying they can't access my site.

[adwade]

Watch your LOGS and you can sort of see who is being blocked and why. I've had 3 or 4 issues, each easily solved. Whenever you have someone blocked: Delete the IPDDB.CSV & IPPBDB.CSV files, as they will automatically rebuild themselves. Also, READ your logs to see what's unusual/different.

One issue was AOL users since they are so heavily proxied, and I had to add an exclusion statement for them to my customsig.inc file.(see my post entitled "Blocked Registration Attempt?" in the ZB Bug Reports Forum on SpambotSecurity.com)

Another was, I use vBAdvanced's Link Directory Product and I had to add an custom statement for it since it's a product that is external to vBulletin.(see the thread entitled Beta Updates 67 in the Signature Updates Forum on SpambotSecurity.com)

If you'll search for my posts on the SpambotSecurity forum, you can follow my progress and learning curve through figuring out the little tweaks I've done to ZB BLOCK to perfect using it it with vBulletin so far.

Overall though, I am SUPER pleased with ZB BLOCK and would NOT consider running a forum w/o it, now that I've seen what it's capable of fending off.(i.e. Harvesters, Infected Browsers, Robot Probes, etc) Our monthly BandWidth usage has decreased roughly 75%, meanwhile legitimate users are still free to peruse the site at will.

[SamirDarji]

Interesting. Noting to check into later.

[Brandon Sheley]

interesting..

[yotsume]

After months of using this I had to uninstall it because it blocked my own IP and the IP of some of my important members.

[Bluemax712]

Hi BOP5,

Zb block looks pretty interesting

Just wondering if you have any updates (opinion wise) on running this

Thanks

Originally Posted by BirdOPrey5

I decided to try again but instead of putting it on config.php or global.php which would block Tapatalk I'm using it on register.php, login.php, and a few other select pages. This should still stop bots from registering or logging in but allow the rest of the forum to function. I know this doesn't give me all the security as running it on every script but it seems like a decent compromise for now.