Shout Box Question

[starcad]

SMF 1.1.4
TP .983
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SMF 1.0.13 / 1.1.5 / 2.0 b3.1 Update
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I have Shout Box disabled due to a spammer that wants to leave junk links.  Even though I have it disabled he is able to insert those links.

How is he able to get into the Shout Box area to post these?  I delelte at lease 4 pages a day of his junk.  What is the solution short of deleteing Shout Box altogether?

[Zetan]

I would guess he has a direct link to the shoutbox, in the same way that a spambot navigates straight to the registration page. If the Shoutbox is one of TP's, you can disable Guest shouts in the Shoutbox settings.. this should stop the problem.

[starcad]

Thank Zetan,  I found that and now have it disabled.  I'll keep you all posted on this one.

[Zetan]

You're welcome

[starcad]

OK, seems I've been able to stop the spam however I went a little father and set the Shout Box as follows

Height of shoutbox in pixels     1
Use scrolling?    Yes No    No
Set scroll speed 1-6 where 1 is slowest    1
Limit posts in shoutbox to:    1
Show last    No
Hide shouts in the profile?    Yes No Yes
Edit/Remove last shouts:    Pages: [1]

I haven't had anymore junk in the Shout Box  in the last 2 days and this jerk bot seems to have taken a hike to another forum.  I'm sure they will find another way in and already I can see several spam bots registering on my site.  Oh well, one spam and I ban the IP and there gone for awhile.

So, guess we can mark this one solve. 

Thanks - StarCad

[Zetan]

Thats good to know, and thank you for the feedback, we do appreciate it 

[edit] This topic may help you with the spam registration problem:
http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=273816.0

I'm using reCAPTCHA. One of the others may suit you better.

Also, now is a good time to consider updating to SMF 1.1.7.

Z

[starcad]

Thanks Z I appreciate the help you've given me in pointing me in the right direction I'm going to be upgrading to 1.1.7 later this week as time is a little sparse at the moment.  I'll keep you informed on how it goes.

Star

[starcad]

Just a quick follow up on this.  I installed Anti-Bot Registration Puzzles, one of the suggested anti-spam methods in the link above about five days ago.  I can say that it has greatly reduced the spam and along with that those trying to register from known spammer IP's.  If you are having problems like I was having you really owe it to yourself and your forum to install one of these methods as they do work and very well.