IP ban from registration only

The problem with IP bans is of course their tendency to lock out innocent posters with the same ISP... or in some cases, even innocent posters using the same computer as the guilty. For my purposes, I prefer to have IP bans only block registrations, and not block people from viewing/posting -- if I didn't want someone posting, I'd have banned their username in the normal way already. By having it only block registrations I merely lose a few potential new people who could've otherwise registered, but don't have the more serious problem of locking out valued existing posters and making them think they've done something bad.

This can be done with a couple very minor file edits:

Open includes/functions.php and find

function verify_ip_ban()

Replace with

function verify_ip_ban($registering = 'no')

Then find

	global $vboptions, $session;

and replace with

	global $vboptions, $session;
    if ($registering == 'no') return false;

Open register.php and find

if (empty($_REQUEST['do']) AND empty($_REQUEST['a']))

Replace it with

verify_ip_ban('yes');
if (empty($_REQUEST['do']) AND empty($_REQUEST['a']))

I've IP banned myself to test this. It let me post, but when I logged out and tried to register a new account it told me my IP was banned. Works in 3.00 RC 3, presumably there wouldn't be any changes to these lines in 3.00 final.

[Red Blaze]

Nice, I'll add this.

[bluecat]

Thank you!!!

[mikellogg]

Thank you Hoth!

This is just the hack that I needed.

My site was being used as a general chat by a group that worked at the same place as a valued forum member. This way, I can ban them and keep him!

[glenvw]

This looks good but can you tell me if it still will prevent people from registering from the big ISPs like AOL, Juno, etc?

[Koutaru]

Definately trying this one

[007]

Could this be modified to not allow duplicate registrations per IP address? I have had a problem with members creating multiple accounts lately. I'm sure others have this same problem too..

[Kirk Y]

I urgently need this for vB 3.5.0 RC2. Would anyone port this for me, I would be very appreciative.

[Q-v-n-s-Q]

well when u're use proxies, you still could register, i think you should fix it or update it, anyway this is cool hack