Administrative and Maintenance Tools - Duplicate IP Report by BOP5 (Checks for users sharing the same IP Addresses) VB3/VB4

Brought to you by BirdOPrey5
www.Qapla.com

Version 2.1.2 - Fixed MySQLi bug - Introduced GOLD/Premium Version
Version 2.1 - Added BBCode to Banned Users and Post Count Options, better debug info
Version 2.0 - Added report for Registration (User) IP Address Checking

Check out the GOLD Version for these additional features:

• Run reports directly from the Admin CP anytime you want
• Post daily report as a "New Post" into an existing thread rather than a "New Thread" each night
• Access to another Gold Mod- Recent Registration Check- will block spammers and scammers trying to register multiple accounts from the same IP address

This mod will run a nightly scan of your "post" and/or "user" table. It will report if it finds any users sharing the same IP address. You choose in the options how many days back you want to look. (Max of 5000 days, but please use more reasonable limits.)

If any "duplicate use" is found the IP addresses, usernames and optionally the posts themselves will be reported.

See a real report: Report Demo at Qapla.com

The report takes the form of a new thread posted to the forum of the Admin's choosing (A private forum for mods or admins is strongly recommended.)

There are options for whitelisting (ignoring) specific IP Addresses and/or userids so if you or your mods post as other users you can prevent that from being reported. If you use the Zoints Anonymous Posting mod you will want to put that userid on the whitelist else the report will out whoever posted "Anonymously."

NOTE: There are PERFECTLY valid reasons 2 or more users may share the same IP address. This report in and of itself is not proof of malicious activity. Users that connect by mobile devices, work in same offices, or go to the same schools for example would likely share the same IP address on some posts. So would too any users connecting from the same home or public Wi-Fi network.

As of version 2.0 there is a report for both the "post" and "user" table. The "user" table will find when 2 or more users register with the same IP address.

Tested and working on VB 3.8.7 and VB 4.1.12/4.2.0 and should work on all 3.7 / 3.8 / 4.x versions.

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Please "Mark as Installed" if you use this.
Donations always appreciated. :up:
Nominate MOTM if you LOVE it!

[djbaxter]

Originally Posted by BadgerDog

According to the output from this mod, I have a single IP address 132.3.33.68 being shared as a registration IP by 7 different users. It's absolutely correct, except the IP address is from a military base where IP addresses are rotated and assigned randomly (and re-used). All 7 members are legitimate and not spammers etc,. so one has to be careful as to how to use the information provided.

Yes. Same thing with dorms at colleges and universities, as well as AOL users and such. But it does at least draw attention to potential duplicates for further investigation.

Originally Posted by BadgerDog

I also use the "cookie" based program which does run for me under 4.1.3pl5 and yes, cookies can be deleted, but I find it's been 90% plus in nailing spammers and other dysfunctional folks who have tried to register 0r re-register under different names.

Ditto.

[QUOTE=BadgerDog;2329887]I don't know if this mod could be enhanced to add "cookies" or some other method to further narrow the data, so good guys aren't inadvertently nailed along with bad guys .... [quote]

But there are legitimate cases of people using the same computer - couples, siblings, or even friends over at one another's homes.

[BadgerDog]

Originally Posted by djbaxter

But there are legitimate cases of people using the same computer - couples, siblings, or even friends over at one another's homes.

That's true...

The other multiple logon program I mentioned has a field for UserID's to ignore. When I get a response from the users caught in that situation indicating they are father/son etc., I simply add their UserID's to that array and they no longer get flagged.

It has stopped them being penalized by others who attempt to "troll" our site under multiple identities, because those types don't bother to respond to the admin requests to explain the multiple login identities.

That type of UserID ignore would be a nice addition to this mod.... :up:

Regards,
Doug

[BirdOPrey5]

Originally Posted by BadgerDog

That type of UserID ignore would be a nice addition to this mod.... :up:

It has it. It's called "User ID Whitelist" in settings. Whitelist = Ignore.

[BadgerDog]

Originally Posted by BirdOPrey5

It has it. It's called "User ID Whitelist" in settings. Whitelist = Ignore.

Thanks ...

I missed that and only saw the IP whitelist ... doh!

Regards,
Doug

[charlesr]

Update, this is already proving useful. Thanks again.

[BirdOPrey5]

Updated to Version 2.1

Added an option to apply a custom bbcode (like [s]strike out[/s]) to banned users for easy identification in reports.

Added option to show post counts next to usernames.

Also added actual queries to debug info for easier debugging.

[megabink]

Thanks Joe,installed and nominated.

[MikeF]

This works flawlessly in 4.2 Beta 1

[Disco_Stu]

I installed in 4.2 and ran manually. It generated the report which looks good but did generate a few warnings. Marking as installed. Good mod!

Here are the warnings it generated:

Warning: mysql_free_result(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in [path]/includes/cron/bop5_dupeip.php on line 126

Warning: mysql_free_result(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in [path]/includes/cron/bop5_dupeip.php on line 259

[BirdOPrey5]

Thanks, I check those out for the next version.