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Spammers on the rise

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Category: Web Wiz Web App Support Forums
Forum Name: Web Wiz Forums
Forum Description: Support forum for Web Wiz Forums application.
URL: https://forums.webwiz.net/forum_posts.asp?TID=29086
Printed Date: 01 April 2026 at 12:39pm
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.08 - https://www.webwizforums.com

Topic: Spammers on the rise

Posted By: RadioActiveLamb
Subject: Spammers on the rise
Date Posted: 27 January 2011 at 4:17pm

I've always had a steady flow of spammers from various countries. As they post, I block their subnets. Recently though, I'm finding that spammers are PMing my membership. Because they're PM's, I don't get to see the IP addresses. Is there something in the user record that records their last-used IP address?

Does anyone have any suggestions for combating the spam-by-pm problem?

Replies:

Posted By: iSec
Date Posted: 27 January 2011 at 4:54pm

Enable IP Logging of new registrations - let's you record the IP address of newly registered users
You can also enable admin-approval of new registrations, through which you get an email along with the user's IP info. This allows you to see if the user is from a suspicious world region (China, India, etc.) where spammers usually come from.

I personally have both enabled and because of it no spammer could escape anymore!

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"When it gets dark enough, you can see the stars"
-Charles A. Beard

Posted By: 123Simples
Date Posted: 27 January 2011 at 7:57pm

That's good advice iSec
I think that spamming is a problem, and so often it is very easy (and I notice this too) how usernames crop up with repeating regularity and normally associated with spammers just trying to sell their junk

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Posted By: WebWiz-Bruce
Date Posted: 28 January 2011 at 11:05am

You can also use the Private Message Flood Control to reduce spam. Byt default I beleive it is set to 10 Private Messages in 1 hour, but you can reduce this.

Once the user has sent this number of Private Messages they can not send any more during that hour. Most spammers are paid to spam as many sites as possible so they only spend around 5 minutes on each site and may never come back to yours again.

The following page is also useful on reducing spam:-

http://www.webwiz.net/web-wiz-forums/kb/spam-prevention.asp" rel="nofollow - http://www.webwiz.net/web-wiz-forums/kb/spam-prevention.asp

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Posted By: alabamatoy
Date Posted: 04 February 2011 at 1:13pm

Turn on manual activation. http://forums.webwiz.net/forum_posts.asp?TID=28279&PID=143177&title=request-for-help-new-user-registration#143177" rel="nofollow - Here's what I did. Works very well....

Posted By: JohnLug
Date Posted: 03 March 2011 at 4:12pm

iSec wrote:

Enable IP Logging of new registrations - let's you record the IP address of newly registered users

I'm missing something.
Where do you enable IP Logging of new registrations?

Posted By: 123Simples
Date Posted: 03 March 2011 at 4:45pm

I'm missing something.
Where do you enable IP Logging of new registrations?

Hi John
To enable IP logging open up the file includes/setup_options_inc.asp using a text editor. About line 70 you will see this:

'Logging
'Web Wiz Forums is able to create log files of actions, activity, and errors. However this WILL effect performance so be careful what you enable logging for.
'Logging requires that the folder storing log files has read, write, and modify permissions for the IUSR account in order for Web Wiz Forums to create and write to log files.
'SECURITY ALERT: MAKE SURE THAT YOU MOVE THE LOG FILE LOCATION TO A FOLDER NOT ACCESSIBLE TO THE PUBLIC.
Const blnLoggingEnabled = False        'Enable logging
Dim strLogFileLocation
strLogFileLocation = Server.MapPath("log_files")     'Default log file folder, change this to a folder outside your website root if you don't want logs files to be public

Const blnModeratorLogging = True     'Log the actions of moderators
Const blnErrorLogging = True        'Log error messages
Const blnNewRegistrationLogging = True     'Log new registrations

Const blnCreatePostLogging = False     'Log the creating of new topics and posts (Don't enable this on busy forums)
Const blnEditPostLogging = False     'Log the editing of topics and posts (Don't enable this on busy forums)
Const blnDeletePostLogging = False     'Log the deletion of topics and posts

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Posted By: 123Simples
Date Posted: 03 March 2011 at 5:01pm

To secure the log files (you will already see a folder in the forum directory called log_files) you should ideally create a new folder above your root directory (not accessible via a browser) and then edit the setup options file accordingly. For example, say if you were hosting on Web Wiz servers, then you would login to your DNP, go to your file manager for that website, and create a new folder like below in this image:

Now depending on where your forum directory is, you would then need to edit the setup file to point correctly to the new folder.

EXAMPLES - Forum is the main page of your site
Code would then be something like:

'Logging
'Web Wiz Forums is able to create log files of actions, activity, and errors. However this WILL effect performance so be careful what you enable logging for.
'Logging requires that the folder storing log files has read, write, and modify permissions for the IUSR account in order for Web Wiz Forums to create and write to log files.
'SECURITY ALERT: MAKE SURE THAT YOU MOVE THE LOG FILE LOCATION TO A FOLDER NOT ACCESSIBLE TO THE PUBLIC.
Const blnLoggingEnabled = True     'Enable logging
Dim strLogFileLocation
strLogFileLocation = Server.MapPath("../forum-log-files")   'Default log file folder, change this to a folder outside your website root if you don't want logs files to be public

Const blnModeratorLogging = True    'Log the actions of moderators
Const blnErrorLogging = True     'Log error messages
Const blnNewRegistrationLogging = True    'Log new registrations

Const blnCreatePostLogging = False  'Log the creating of new topics and posts (Don't enable this on busy forums)
Const blnEditPostLogging = False    'Log the editing of topics and posts (Don't enable this on busy forums)
Const blnDeletePostLogging = True  'Log the deletion of topics and posts

If say your site was mywebsite.co.uk/forum/ (so the forum is not the main part but within its own directory)

then the setup page code would be:

'Logging
'Web Wiz Forums is able to create log files of actions, activity, and errors. However this WILL effect performance so be careful what you enable logging for.
'Logging requires that the folder storing log files has read, write, and modify permissions for the IUSR account in order for Web Wiz Forums to create and write to log files.
'SECURITY ALERT: MAKE SURE THAT YOU MOVE THE LOG FILE LOCATION TO A FOLDER NOT ACCESSIBLE TO THE PUBLIC.
Const blnLoggingEnabled = True     'Enable logging
Dim strLogFileLocation
strLogFileLocation = Server.MapPath("../../forum-log-files")   'Default log file folder, change this to a folder outside your website root if you don't want logs files to be public

Const blnModeratorLogging = True    'Log the actions of moderators
Const blnErrorLogging = True     'Log error messages
Const blnNewRegistrationLogging = True    'Log new registrations

Const blnCreatePostLogging = False  'Log the creating of new topics and posts (Don't enable this on busy forums)
Const blnEditPostLogging = False    'Log the editing of topics and posts (Don't enable this on busy forums)
Const blnDeletePostLogging = True  'Log the deletion of topics and posts

Obviously you also need to make sure that the folder name matches yours, and you need to give write permissions to the folder, otherwise it cannot log the entries.
Hope that helps

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