Stop (Most) Spam Bot Registrations on phpBB

[racefan20]

Just thought I'd pass this along for those of you who've had problems with spam bot registration and posting on your phpBB forum. I didn't write it, I'm just passing it along.

The edits are easy to do, but I can email the files with the edits complete to anyone who is having problems. NOTE: This means you need to try on your own first.


http://www.phpbb.com/files/mods/Easy...opper__100.mod is the download link, support thread is here: http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopic...er=asc&start=0

[Vasili]

Great Post, General!

As always, your support and expertise is always welcome.....

[Aliens Anonymous]

Good mod Race, does this take away the website altogether or untill they have registered ? i put the humanizer on which seems to work.

How do you install this ? he he he just messing

[racefan20]

Originally Posted by Aliens Anonymous

Good mod Race, does this take away the website altogether or untill they have registered ? i put the humanizer on which seems to work.

How do you install this ? he he he just messing

Your registered users can still add their website through their profiles, but not on registration. I added this on a forum a friend runs - he's been having a helluva time with bot registrations and this stopped them cold.

The Humanizer is another really good one and I'll probably add it as well for that added layer of protection.

Install instructions can be found by dialing 800-DONTASKME.

[Aliens Anonymous]

installed my good friend, went straight in using easymod even with three skins.

Intall info phone No did not work got redirected to 800-doityourself.

[Girlonthehill]

Originally Posted by racefan20

Install instructions can be found by dialing 800-DONTASKME.

Originally Posted by Aliens Anonymous

Intall info phone No did not work got redirected to 800-doityourself.

LMAO!! Too funny.

[Vasili]

Quote:
Originally Posted by racefan20
Install instructions can be found by dialing 800-DONTASKME.



Quote:
Originally Posted by Aliens Anonymous
Intall info phone No did not work got redirected to 800-doityourself.



Did an online number search and discoverd the REAL number was 1-888-ImPouredOut.

Was answered by a message left by what sounded like a lady with no teeth and such a raspy voice dogs were heard howling in the background.
The short message was "To publish in BV you have to have an account, and if you want a Forum, you need to learn to install it yourself. DOB does NOT mean date of birth, and beyond that submit a ticket. Don't call again! Cough-cough"

I slowly hung up the phone and immediately started longing for the good old days before a Clone button ....

[limebrook1]

Hi Race - this post was manna from heaven for me as I am sick to death of all the spammers on my forum!

But I couldn't get the link to open - it said page not found.

Any ideas? (You know how challenged I am with all of this!)

[racefan20]

Here ya go, Trish!

#
#-----[ OPEN ]------------------------------------------
#
includes/usercp_register.php

#
#-----[ FIND ]------------------------------------------
#
$unhtml_specialchars_match = array('#>#', '#<#', '#"#', '#&#');
$unhtml_specialchars_replace = array('>', '<', '"', '&');

#
#-----[ AFTER, ADD ]------------------------------------------
#

if ( $mode == 'editprofile' )
{
$template->assign_block_vars('only_show_notbot', array());
}

#
#-----[ FIND ]------------------------------------------
#
if ( !($row = $db->sql_fetchrow($result)) )
{
message_die(GENERAL_ERROR, 'Could not obtain next user_id information', '', __LINE__, __FILE__, $sql);
}
$user_id = $row['total'] + 1;

#
#-----[ AFTER, ADD ]------------------------------------------
#
if( $website != '' )
{
die();
}

#
#-----[ OPEN ]------------------------------------------
#
templates/subSilver/profile_add_body.tpl

#
#-----[ FIND ]------------------------------------------
#
<tr>
<td class="row1"><span class="gen">{L_WEBSITE}:</span></td>

#
#-----[ BEFORE, ADD ]------------------------------------------
#
<!-- BEGIN only_show_notbot -->

#
#-----[ FIND ]------------------------------------------
#
<input type="text" class="post" style="width: 200px" name="website" size="25" maxlength="255" value="{WEBSITE}" />
</td>
</tr>

#
#-----[ AFTER, ADD ]------------------------------------------
#
<!-- END only_show_notbot -->

#
#-----[ SAVE/CLOSE ALL FILES ]------------------------------------------
#
# EoM

[limebrook1]

thanks Race - I'll give it a try!

[limebrook1]

Help! I put the code in, but got an unexpected parse string error on line 632 when I tried the registration! Took it out again and the board works again.

I copied it all in exactly - any idea where i am going wrong?

[racefan20]

You probably missed a small character or something, that's easy to do.

For your convenience, here are both files edited, tested and ready to go.

http://daysofblunder.com/botsmod.zip

[limebrook1]

What can I say, Race? Worked fine! Thank you so much for your help!

One other strange thing - do you remember the trouble I had with disappearing avatars each time I upgrade? Well, I haven't upgraded the Limebrook Forum (too much trouble with the adsense), but I have another forum on the Bearded Dragon site. I upgraded this one, and lo and behold - lost the avatars! Something very strange happening with my forums - I haven't touched that one at all!

[Aliens Anonymous]

Hi limebrook1 this is one of the problems with upgrading. any modifacations or avatars or or images go walkies. when you upgrade it replaces old files with the new files. so any changes you have made will disappear. best to use the same forum then add things to it.
i am still useing 2.19 with 23 mods in it if i upgrade i would lose most and have to do them all again by hand. for the small change the upgrade does it's not worth it.

[racefan20]

Going along with what Alien Dude posted - before you upgrade, download the images folder from the forum to your pc and then ftp it back in place after the upgrade.

[limebrook1]

thanks folks - I will remember that!

[strakallah]

Hey guys

Found this thread through google

I uploaded those files and can still register with a website.

Anyone else having the same issue?

I'm so sick of BOT's promoting their **** on my forums

http://www.drunkencombat.com

[Aliens Anonymous]

Originally Posted by strakallah

Hey guys

Found this thread through google

I uploaded those files and can still register with a website.

Anyone else having the same issue?

I'm so sick of BOT's promoting their **** on my forums

http://www.drunkencombat.com

Make sure you edited the files on your phpbb correctly

Files To Edit: includes/usercp_register.php
templates/subSilver/profile_add_body.tpl

the mod takes away the website part on registry,

as your useing php nuke the file may be different.

[thesamet]

Another easy way to stop spam is to ask a simple question like "How much is 5+2?".

I've written in my blog an explanation how to stop spam on phpbb forums, and there is a link
to a mod in the comments.

[racefan20]

You make one post on this forum, try to direct traffic to YOUR site, and you're here to help cut down on spam? LOL

[Aliens Anonymous]

Good Morning Race.

Originally Posted by thesamet

Another easy way to stop spam is to ask a simple question like "How much is 5+2?".

I've written in my blog an explanation how to stop spam on phpbb forums, and there is a link
to a mod in the comments.

WOW whot a excellent idea putting a load of code into the forum files that by the looks of it you would have to change every week , and oh hang on there's no database queries. so how does this work there's is no proper coding and to be honest is very dangerous. I see that you wrote this on the Dec 21st, 2006, now if you had done your home work you would have known that the recent releases of phpBB 20 / 21 / 22 come with the Visual Confirmation. also the humanizer mod and the new Anti-bot Question mod had been released as well as Racefan20's website mod. these mods have all been tested and approved by phpBB.com.
These sort of so called quick fix answers are not the way to go, you would be well advised to rewrite that entry before you cause a security problem on someones forum.

[beebrothers]

Originally Posted by Vasili

800-doityourself....

I got a busy signal

[beebrothers]

tried, went over my head...not ever sure where to start looking for the files that belong to my forum...try to manipluate them..O BOY..and the spammers are about two a day now...not so bad deleting their posts now, but seems like it could blossom...
the support thread did very little to help..did i miss something?

thanks
i called 1-800-itwasbusy

:p

[racefan20]

Originally Posted by beebrothers

tried, went over my head...not ever sure where to start looking for the files that belong to my forum...try to manipluate them..O BOY..and the spammers are about two a day now...not so bad deleting their posts now, but seems like it could blossom...
the support thread did very little to help..did i miss something?

thanks
i called 1-800-itwasbusy

:p

You're using a vanilla installation of phpBB, so you can use the files in the zip file I posted in post #16 of this thread. Download and unzip the folder to your pc.

Then, open your ftp manager and navigate to your forum. Open your Includes folder and upload usercp_register.php into it, allowing it to overwrite the file you have in place.

Open your Templates > Subsilver folder and upload profile_add_body.tpl into it, allowing it to overwrite the file you have in place.

Done.

[Aliens Anonymous]

Woh that is some heavy spamming i counted 8 going backward from the last joined 23,22,21,20,19,17,16,15

[beebrothers]

8 might not be a lot [now] but it's more then i want to deal with...and i like to tie up loose ends,

i guess on the bright side it makes it appear like i have lots of members :)

thanks racefan, i'll give it a whirl

[beebrothers]

ok, easy enough, how can i tell by looking at the forum that something is different and that both files are working?

Thanks for the help

[Aliens Anonymous]

It's working Ok,

go to register you will see that the website entry has been removed.

[beebrothers]

oic