Need Some Very Serious Help!!!

[parentingdiscussions]

As most of you already know I have this parenting site of course for parents, and I really think that it is going good, however there is this one problem that I have been trying to fight for a very long time, and that is this one person who is consistently harassing the heck out of me, not in my site, but in other sites that I tend to hang out in as a silent observer. All that I really do in there is read some of my old friends post, and hope to god that someday they will find my new site, and the only reason that I don’t announce my new site in there is because of this one person.
What I am really trying to find out is, is there some kind of program that will read an IP address when it views the forum and the content, and let me know which times this person comes to the site? I feel that over time with a program such as this, I will be able to determine which IP address this person is working from and put a full ban on this person view my whole website. This program would have to be able to recognize every time the same IP address is viewing the site and record that time. Any hints?   

[stormlrd]

Ive had to deal with this as my wife has as well, the best thing to do, and your not gonna like it, is give him/her enough rope to hang themselves. You promote your stuff as if their is nothing wrong and you watch for that person to hit it, than not only do you ban the ip but persue it back to the isp and have them shutdown. Ive done it to someone in europe who thought they could just run my crap over.

[Thurnok]

I guess I'm missing something here.  First, are you looking to have this put on someone elses site so you can monitor this person there?

If not, and you are talking about putting this on your new site "in case" this guy comes there, you already have the capability to view IP addresses in SMF.

Ok, about IP address:
If this guy has a static IP address, then IP blocking will work fine, at least against that single IP address of his.  If he goes over his buddy's house, now you have him on another IP address.

If he has a dynamic IP address from a cable modem, IP blocking will work relatively well because cable companies use a long expiration time on dynamic IPs.  He would need to turn his cable modem off for a day or more generally.  So that would be a hassle for him and "eventually" he'd give up.

If he has a dynamic IP via a DSL connection, IP blocking will not work too well unless his ISP has small subnets, where you could block the subnet(s) he usually ends up in.  Since DSL connections generally have much shorter expiration periods than cable modem (5 minutes - 60 minutes on average depending on the ISP), he might not get too tired of switching IP addresses and you are in for a long battle.

Regardless if he has a static IP address or dynamic IP address, he could always use any number of Proxy servers (there are literally hundreds available all the time) and you will get nowhere with IP blocking.

If you are using SMF, you can use a combination of IP blocking and email address blocking.  Hopefully your site requires email activation, in which case he would need to use a valid email address in order to register.  Forcing him to get numerous email addresses by blocking each of them as he uses them will eventually get him to give up.  Install the No DEAs, please SMF mod to help against disposable email addresses.

Additionally, if your site is on your own server, or one you have root access to, you can block IP ranges to keep him out as well.  Make sure you download the latest list of Proxy IPs and keep those in your DENY list to prevent him from using them.  If he has a relatively small ISP (use this site to see who his ISP is after you get his IP address: http://www.dnsstuff.com ), then you should simply block his ISP's entire address block.  If he has a relatively large ISP you might not want to do that since you may potentially block some valid users that just happen to have the same ISP as the idiot.  You can view your server logs for his times logged on to your site once you have identified him (presumably he'll post something stupid on your site).

If you do not have your own server, you should ensure you use Member Activation so that a valid email address must be used to register.  Also set SMF to Require reactivation after email change.  If your site is geared towards the select few you might even consider the Member Approval method which means you must approve a new member before their registration is activated.  In either case, you should ensure you do not let Guests post on any of your boards.  You can also set up a membergroup, and only allow users that you have placed in that membergroup to post messages.  Move members you have personally verified in that membergroup only.  This assumes of course you are interacting with each member.

If your site is wide open, and you do not monitor it often, then he might sneak in and post something bad on your site.  You will not find something that can monitor your site to determine who he is without doing your own investigative work as well.  In other words, you will have to find him by letting him put his foot in his mouth first, unless you can get the server logs from those other sites where he is already harrassing you.

And finally, once you do have a log of his actions, from the IPs he has been using, and his activities, you forward them all in a nice package to his ISP and explain to them that if they do not do something about this person harrassing you that you will be forced to open up litigation against them.