Anti-Spam Options - Rename register.php by BOP5

Brought to you by BirdOPrey5 / Qapla.com

It's great when you stop spam bots during registration but this mod gives you a chance to stop them BEFORE they even attempt to register.

I have received multiple reports from people who say their "register.php" was getting hammered with spam requests- so much so it was like a denial of service attack. Even if they disabled registration they would waste so much resources their site was slow or worse- had to be taken offline.

What this mod does is allow you to rename the register.php file- my theory is many of the vBulletin spamming bots are hard coded to look for register.php. Using a unique name will throw them off, at least for a while.

To manually change the name of register.php would have meant dozens, maybe hundreds of manual edits to files and templates previously.

This mod makes it as simple as possible. At worst you will need to edit 2 phrases and 1 file, and some people don't need to edit anything at all.

Compatible with VB 3.8.x (and 3.7, and 3.6 probably too) and all VB 4.x.x versions.

Basic Instructions
1) Import XML File
2) Go to mod settings in Admin CP
3) Rename your register.php file via FTP or some other means- make it a unique value but only use basic letters, numbers, underscores, or hyphens. Something like "joeregister999.php"
4) In the mod settings, set the value of register.php to the new file name you chose.
5) If you require email verification during registration follow the next setting in the Admin CP and edit the phrases listed (activateaccount and activateaccount_chnage phrases in Email Body)
6) Finally, if you use Facebook Connect on your forum make the manual file edit of class_bootstrap.php as instructed.

Now enjoy your new filename for register.php, I hope it reduces server load and spam in general.

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

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Note- if having problems sending activation codes or other Admin CP related activities use the solution in post #197.

[BirdOPrey5]

Reserved.

[faisaly.com]

Awesome and working perfect, very easy to change and should help tremendously...

2 thumbs!

[ozzy47]

Looks good Joe, thanks for sharing.

[hoangserip]

thanks Subscribe to This Mod

[Expat]

Anything that will reduce overhead from spammers, bots and idiots is a winner. Installed and tested in 4.2.1 with no issues.

Edit: Seeing a LOT less activity which frees up resources. I was thinking, could/would you do a version of this mod that would change the post/reply on the board? THAT's the other place comment spammers suck bandwidth. Just thinking...

[Max Taxable]

Originally Posted by BirdOPrey5

my theory is many of the vBulletin spamming bots are hard coded to look for register.php.

I know for a fact they are, it's not a theory. I've been downloading and experimenting with several auto-spam programs and XRumer in particular is that way, but not just for vBulletin. For just about everything out there, it is programmed to "know" where the register form is, know what's required for the form, etc. It looks in the files for the version number, then goes from there.

This is a nice little speed bump for the auto-register software programmers to pull their hair out over, for awhile. And it will take them a long time to figure it out, since most of the autospam programs don't inform their owners of failed registrations, much less why the registration failed. This must be discovered manually. And with each installation of your Mod here allowing the installer to choose a unique name for the registration file? Makes it REALLY hard to automate a response!

I'd install this if I ran version 4. Nice job Joe! Simple and elegant, just the way I like anti-spam mods to be!

[BirdOPrey5]

This mod is also compatible with vBulletin 3.x as well. I just didn't list it in the 3.x forum yet.

[puertoblack2003]

thank you sir, this will help me tremendously .:up:

[BUDIMAN]

Awesome Mods!!~~....