Luc598 — Thu, 03 Jun 1999 01:06:00 +0000

So if IP banning isn't the best solution what works? Making a forum private one loses new members (which one can lose money if they're into banner exchanges and affiliate programs). Keep a forum open to the public one faces every weirdo that drops in.

I read elsewhere that some forum operators require real name registrations to limit the noise ratio. Problem I see there is that severly limits new members. Some people still are afraid of registrating anywhere on the internet that requires RL info.

Another feature I saw at another message board was including IP#s in each post. Now I like that idea the most (makes tracking problems easier), but it has to be for forum operators/managers to view only. Regular posters don't really need IP info, and that can potentially hurt someone if a troller/spammer strays by.

Does anyone else know what's out there as a solution, both pro and con?

Luc

JP Stones — Wed, 02 Jun 1999 00:42:00 +0000

See new topic...
JP

----------
The Webmaster Promotion and Resource Center.
http://www.what-next.com

Joseph Bannon — Tue, 01 Jun 1999 18:03:00 +0000

I would like to see a web site security forum too.

----------
This bulletin board is powered by BigTalker
BigTalker - bigtalker.com

cds — Tue, 01 Jun 1999 17:12:00 +0000

The main problem i can see from banning IP addresses is if you banned like Brian suggested and it's a large ISP, you could be potentially banning a lot of good members just to get one.

An example would be banning one of aol's or gte or att's blocks of IP addresses. I don't like aol, just using them as an example.

----------
Dan
dan@cds-computers.com

Brian Farkas — Fri, 28 May 1999 17:00:00 +0000

Well, one thing is requiring a valid e-mail address, and maybe valid address information as well. If you wanted to block an IP, you could just type in your .htaccess file:
deny from 123.456.789.001
However, if the user is using a dynamic (changing) ip, you can just use a portion of that. For example, if 001 is the part that changes, you can put:

deny from 123.456.789

----------
InfoStar: Web Design - Hosting - Programming
http://www.infostardesign.com

Luc598 — Fri, 28 May 1999 16:25:00 +0000

JP,

I'm rather new at webmastering, so I hope you can bear with me.

I've heard that blocking IP#'s doesn't stop the harassment. But what works? All I've received is inferences that the host will take care of it (which usually means, short of RL harassment, nothing). So what does the host take care of?

My options at the free site are limited to kicking the trolls out, and making it private. When I kick them out, they return under a new name (we don't have IP listings). When I make the forum private, I lose new members. It's a see-saw that doesn't seem to end.

Hopefully when I move my forum over to my own site, I can at least know what I can and can't do for forum security. At this stage, I have no idea what's available. Hopefully other forum managers would drop by and state their work arounds. As I'm at a loss in what to do.

Thanks, JP for answering too.

Luc

JP Stones — Wed, 26 May 1999 23:34:00 +0000

Luc,
Security is indeed very important to forum managers/moderators (like myself).
Basic defenses like IP banning are pretty useless due to the fact dynamic IP's are usually used and by banning only part of the IP address you also ban all members from the ISP your flammer is using.
Any way all that he has to do is change ISP/member name for all your efforts to have been rendered useless.

Any comments?
JP

----------
The Webmaster Promotion and Resource Center.
http://www.what-next.com