Access to forum - IP blocking

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UBT - Timbo
UBT Forum Admin
Posts: 9673
Joined: Mon Mar 13, 2006 12:00 am
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Access to forum - IP blocking

Post by UBT - Timbo »

Hi all

Just a quick mention of an "anti-spambot" tool, that the forum software uses.

Basically, the Admin Control Panel allows selective blocking of specific IP addresses...and I use this to specifically block membership requests from "spambots" - as membership of the forum is not automatically given, as each request is checked for validity *using an online IP address checking tool).

(I am aware that there is a phpBB Extension that can be installed that does this "automagically"...but there were some issues installing the last version that was available and I've been waiting for the developer to release a new edition that supports the software version of phpBB that this forum uses).

By banning specific IP address which are known to be in areas where "spambots" seem to come from, this reduces the chances of a spambot getting access to the forum, though it does increase the admin workload, when dealing with the multiple requests that come our way.

In most cases, the IP blocking does not affect anyone...but over the weekend, an existing member, who uses a VPN, found they could not access the forum (as the VPN was using an IP address that was in the "blacklist" of IP addresses).

I was able to sort this out, as the member emailed me directly.

So, if YOU ever have an issue accessing the forum and it appears your PC/tablet/device is being blocked, then please email me and I can amend the blocking so it shouldn't affect you again :-)

regards
Tim
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