How to stop PHPBB Spam?

Zascar

I have a small PHPBB forrum and although it is very new I am already getting spam every day or two. I have put on all the security options available.

Can anyone advise how I can stop this? I've heard of Catcha but its looks pretty complex to install

Any tips?
Thanks

mneylon

I haven't used phpbb2 in ages.. On Vbulletin based forums you can block certain domains from being used for signup emails and there are a load of plugins available to help mitigate spam issues...

You'll still get some, but if you have a few vigilant moderators it can be controlled

Ph3n0m

well to be honest you wont be able to stop it 100%

Catcha is not too difficult to install - its in the admin section, and you just select it to activate it

Another trick is to remove the "website" field in registration

Also in the admin, ensure that user activation requires admin action

All can be found in the general configuration option in the admin

seamus

One thing I found that killed a lot of the really random spam was to add *.ru and *.cn to the email ban list.

Rollo Tamasi

Akismet for PHPBB

And the best form preventing spam sign-ups is to enforce some sort of challange-response mod

Zascar

Thanks guys. The Textual Confirmation one looks great. I installed it an working, but only on the defaut skin.

In the instructions it says:

If you've installed additional forum templates, then, for each template:
* modify the file "profile_add_body.tpl", and
* create the file "admin/textual_confirmation.tpl".

(Full install text file attached) - Can anyone tell mw what i do to get it working with my skin?

Some of these mods have terrible install instrutcions...

Modify it with what?

axer

I found that switching to SMF relieved my spam problems with phpBB.

phpBB will always be a huge target for spambots as it is so popular.

Zascar

What's SMF?

axer

Zascar wrote:

What's SMF?

Simple Machines Forum is an alternative to phpBB. It has way more features than phpBB aswell.

Rollo Tamasi

Zascar wrote:

Some of these mods have terrible install instrutcions...

Modify it with what?

those instructions look solid to me..

axer

Zascar wrote:

Modify it with what?

I presume they mean modify it like the way they ask you to modify "templates/subSilver/profile_add_body.tpl" because there is no point modifying the subsilver template if you are using a different template.

So instead of:

#
#

---

[ OPEN ]

---

#
templates/subSilver/profile_add_body.tpl

#
#

---

[ FIND ]

---

#
<!-- END switch_confirm -->

#
#

---

[ AFTER, ADD ]

---

#
<!-- BEGIN switch_textual_confirm -->
<tr>
<td class="row1"><span class="gen">{TEXTUAL_CONFIRMATION_QUESTION} * </span><br /><span class="gensmall">{L_TEXTUAL_CONFIRMATION_EXPLAIN}</td>
<td class="row2"><input type="text" class="post" style="width: 200px" name="tc_answer" size="25" value="" /></td>
</tr>
<!-- END switch_textual_confirm -->

You would do this for each of the templates you are using:

#
#

---

[ OPEN ]

---

#
templates/<MY_TEMPLATE_NAME>/profile_add_body.tpl

#
#

---

[ FIND ]

---

#
<!-- END switch_confirm -->

#
#

---

[ AFTER, ADD ]

---

#
<!-- BEGIN switch_textual_confirm -->
<tr>
<td class="row1"><span class="gen">{TEXTUAL_CONFIRMATION_QUESTION} * </span><br /><span class="gensmall">{L_TEXTUAL_CONFIRMATION_EXPLAIN}</td>
<td class="row2"><input type="text" class="post" style="width: 200px" name="tc_answer" size="25" value="" /></td>
</tr>
<!-- END switch_textual_confirm -->

then do this for each template also:

#
#

---

[ COPY ]

---

#
copy templates/<MY_TEMPLATE_NAME>/admin/textual_confirmation.tpl to templates/<MY_TEMPLATE_NAME>/admin/textual_confirmation.tpl

Those instructions are very clear.

seamus

Zascar wrote:

Modify it with what?

Notepad or another text editor. All of the files are just text.

Zascar

Axer thanks for that, but sorry I have absolutely zero php knowledge so this is all compeltely new to me, and I'm still confused. I don't want to playabout in case I completely mess it up. Please bear with me.

Do I put the above code in the profile_add_body.tpl of my template? Does it matter where in the code I put it?

Sorry if this is a stupid question but this is all very new to me...

thelordofcheese

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

#
#-----[ [B]FIND[/B] ]------------------------------------------
#
<!-- END switch_confirm -->

#
#-----[ [B]AFTER, ADD[/B] ]------------------------------------------

I've bolded the important parts

if your worried about making an unholy mess of things, make a copy of the origianal profile_add_body.tpl and put it somewhere safe, so if you need to you can just replace the version you just messed up with the older working version, and start again if you need to.