Spam bots on phpbb3 forum

[pastaforme]

On my server's forums, I get many spam bots. I have tried banning them, but they just make new accounts. Is there a way to stop them once and for all? My forums are on phpbb 3.0.12.

Thanks,
pastaforme

[joshh20]

I would recommend using the Q&A system in the spambot countermeasures page, under "Available plugins."

Asking more ambiguous questions such as, "What is the best server host in the world" and then putting "NFO" as the answer are much harder for spam bots to figure out, as they are usually hosted on low quality VPSes in countries where NFO doesn't have servers yet, so they are clue less, but your players will know the answer.

[pastaforme]

I would recommend using the Q&A system in the spambot countermeasures page, under "Available plugins."

Asking more ambiguous questions such as, "What is the best server host in the world" and then putting "NFO" as the answer are much harder for spam bots to figure out, as they are usually hosted on low quality VPSes in countries where NFO doesn't have servers yet, so they are clue less, but your players will know the answer.

Thanks Josh, so far it seems to be working.

Thanks,
pastaforme

[pastaforme]

It seems they have found a way around my question, which is "What game is the game server running?" (the answer is Garry's Mod) What should I do?


Thanks,
pastaforme

[J-English]

I would use captcha instead
You can.set this up when your in the acp control panel

[pastaforme]

I would use captcha instead
You can.set this up when your in the acp control panel

Is it possible to have Q&A and Capatcha?

[joshh20]

No, you would need to use one or the other. The reason I recommended the Q&A system is because a lot of the spam bots are able to get around captchas, as phpBB uses an older system.

[soja]

Do you have email verification turned on? This would further complicate the average bot from being able to register on your forum.

[joshh20]

I know the bots that were targeting me had no problem verifying my emails, it's amazing how much work the developers put into them.

[soja]

Yeah NFO gets the occasional bot, but it is far from a common issue. I think they are probably manually registered, as NFO has captcha, security question, and email verification

My IPB software includes an actively updated list of emails and IP addresses known for spamming other IPB forums. We have yet to get a spammer

[pastaforme]

Yeah NFO gets the occasional bot, but it is far from a common issue. I think they are probably manually registered, as NFO has captcha, security question, and email verification

My IPB software includes an actively updated list of emails and IP addresses known for spamming other IPB forums. We have yet to get a spammer

I have a ton.

Thanks,
pastaforme

[untamed316]

I've had to change my question a couple times over the last few years. Currently the one below seems to be working fine.

five + 5 = ? (type the word rather than the number) :

[.=QUACK=.Major.Pain]

You could check this out: http://www.stopforumspam.com/

We run it on IPBoards and blocks 100% of bots so far.
It's available for many types of sites.

It searches their database next to bot registrations, compares to known bad emails, names and ips, and if caught can be setup to automatically ban them on your site.