Administrative and Maintenance Tools - vbStopForumSpam

At the point of user registration, the mod checks if the IP number / provided username / email addresses appear on a block list and can block the registration. This queries the StopForumSpam database (where I am a coder and administrator) to see if a new users IP address/email address/IP number are listed as known spammer sources.

Whilst this isnt the most perfect way to stop all forum spam, its another step that spammers have to overcome.

What it does

It checks with a remote database of known forum spammers. Their IP number, email address and forum username are tested and based on your configuration, you can reject / log / accept user registrations based on what you get back.

This version doesnt have
- whitelisting or the ability to submit users to the database but it will within the next week.
- automatic user deletion / post / PM purging. There are good tools out there already, this does something else.

Currently, I would say this is an beta codebase. Please treat it as such.

Instructions are included in the installation.txt file - PLEASE read it first and dont forget to actually upload the files in the upload folder, otherwise it WILL kill your registration progress and you wont see the log file options in admincp.

This is the exact same version that is on the 3.6 forums because it works with 3.54 to 3.84 (at time of wriing, the latest version)

Changes to vB
- 3 new database tables
- 2 database table alternations
- No new templates.
- 2 Hook (register_addmember_process & register_addmember_complete)

Known to work - tested by me
- vBulletin 3.6.8 on Apache 2.2 / PHP 5.1.2 on Linux using cUrl
- vBulletin 3.7 Gold on Apache 2.0 / PHP 4.4.3 on Windows without cUrl (template changes wont work on 3.7 - thats in the next version with auto template changes)

For code to submit spammers to the database, check this post for code changes
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showp...&postcount=288

Reported in the thread to work
- 3.5.4 3.6.1, 3.6.2, 3.6.9, 3.6.10, 3.7.0, 3.7.1, 3.7.2, 3.7.3, 3.74, 3.80, 3.81, 3.82, 3.83, 3.8.4

Installers should remember to refresh their ACP navigation window when they first install it so they can see the new log file menu item.

REQUIRES MySQL 4.1.1+

If you want to submit data directly from the user admincp to the database, then you can install an addon mod (Coded by Wired1) here https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=288

You need to have an API key from www.stopforumspam.com in order to submit data, its free and easy to get... The code above is a quick hack that changes the pages "form" so that it submits to the database. As its a quick hack, this relies 100% on javascript being enabled and makes no tests that it is enabled.

Please click Installed

[b6gm6n]

I cannot believe the amount of spammers i get on a daily basis, as exposed by this product which works beautifully btw...

I wondered, in the 'denied' phrase would it be legal of me to redirect them to an annoying site? i suppose these spam-bots are just targeting the usual vbulletin files using a program and not actually a browser? thanks

[CharLzarD]

Installed, thank you. We'll see how this does against the mass amount of spammers I've been dealing with lately.

[Jari37]

I was getting a ridiculous amount of spammers registering (over 50 per day) and this mod put a stop to it. Unfortunately it's also preventing a lot of genuine registrations too, I often get emails from people who have tried to register but been denied on the basis of being a spammer.

I switched it off for a while but was getting bombarded with spammers again, so I've now got it running again but it's still catching genuine registrations in the big spam net. Anyone else having this issue? Just wondering if there's anything I can tweak to fix the problem?

It's only a minor complaint by the way, this mod is a Godsend as having to wade through hundreds of registrations every few days trying to separate the few genuine ones from the spam is something I can happily live without doing.

[thbertram]

If it's their name that's getting them caught in the spam trap, you could tell it not to check name and see how that goes. You're going to get some spammers getting through.

It boils down to which problem is worse: The legitimates getting caught, or the spammers getting through.

[Wonksta]

I would urge those using this Mod to think about donating to http://www.stopforumspam.com/

This has saved me so so so many hours!

[EWGF]

Installed it in conjunction with my mod, which hold off 99% of most spammers. After installing this, this mod showed me the many attempts spammers actually do on my forum, since my own mod didn't log anything. Feels a lot saver now though

[tylercruz]

Just installed after spambots hit a chronic new high on my forums. Seems to be working for v3.8.7 PL2 so far...

[christon26]

Is there a way to show how many spam registrations this mod has blocked? Maybe in the What's Going On box? I'd like to show how many spammers have been stopped lol

[ETDC]

Admin CP > Statistics & Logs > vbStopForumSpam Logs

[christon26]

Thanx, I know about the logs, I'd like to show some sort of stats on my forum page as well like the vb4 version of Spam-o-matic ... if I can