Moving from phpbb for security

[gizmoid]

I am looking at moving to vBulletin as on phpbb I've not found a satisfactory way of stopping spam users signing up.

I cannot work out whether this is down to spambots cracking the image, or whether it's sad and lonely spammers sat there manually signing up. In any case I am getting about 20 signups a day from would be spammers, and the board's not even properly launched yet!

I tried signing up to the mods site at vbulletin.org to see what mods are available, but rather frustratingly it won't let me post as I don't have a license! So, here I am.

I am looking for functionallity that will allow me to insist that new users list, for example, certain critera such as 'Country'. If that country doesn't match a list of authorised locations, it simply ignores the registration.

I did try a mod for phpbb but it took ages to apply, and didn't seem to make a blind bit of difference! Also, I believe from looking at this that the CAPTCHA in vBulletin is better than that in phpbb

I would be sooo grateful of any thoughts / advice / pointers that anyone here can give me!

Thanks
Giz

[Colin F]

Hello Giz,

vBulletin has profile fields that let you require certain information, also from users. You could have a country field, and use a regular expression to block registrations from certain countries.

[gizmoid]

Thanks, could you point me to this option in the admin control panel please? I am connected to the online demo but just can't find where I can specify country as required?

[feldon23]

I am looking at moving to vBulletin as on phpbb I've not found a satisfactory way of stopping spam users signing up.

I cannot work out whether this is down to spambots cracking the image, or whether it's sad and lonely spammers sat there manually signing up. In any case I am getting about 20 signups a day from would be spammers, and the board's not even properly launched yet!
The captcha image in phpBB2 has been cracked, as has the Captcha in vBulletin 2, 3.0.x, and 3.5.x. The captcha image in vBulletin 3.6.x has not. It is MUCH more robust, as it can use TrueType fonts (you can upload your own fonts plus it comes with 1), you can set the words to twist, turn, be colorized, and have random shapes behind them. I do not recommend the random shapes though.

You may also want to try NoSpam! (http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=124828). It is an add-on at vBulletin.org (no code modifications required, just upload an XML file) which lets you do challenge-based registration. The user has to answer a question like "What is ketchup made of?" and the answer is "tomato, tomatoes, tomatos". Or "What color is a stop sign?" and the answer is "red".

At first, I was reluctant to use NoSpam!, but I think it is easier on users than Captcha images.

I tried signing up to the mods site at vbulletin.org to see what mods are available, but rather frustratingly it won't let me post as I don't have a license! So, here I am.

I am looking for functionallity that will allow me to insist that new users list, for example, certain critera such as 'Country'. If that country doesn't match a list of authorised locations, it simply ignores the registration.
There is a Pre-Sales forum at vBulletin.org. Generally though your best bet is to search vBulletin.org for the word Spam.

[Colin F]

The system is very generic, so you can't choose 'Country' as such. Rather, you can set up a 'custom profile field' and label it 'Country'.

You can add these in your
AdminCP -> User Profile Fields -> Add New User Profile Field

[gizmoid]

Aha, thanks - getting somewhere now. I now have a location field set to required. Where would I go about setting which locations I can ban?

[Colin F]

You'd have to use a regular expression. These are extremely powerful, but can be a bit complicated. Try this to ban US, Canada and Mexiko:

\b(?:(?!US|Mexiko|Canada)\w)+\b

[Masiello]

You'd have to use a regular expression. These are extremely powerful, but can be a bit complicated. Try this to ban US, Canada and Mexiko:

\b(?:(?!US|Mexiko|Canada)\w)+\b
Sorry my intrusion in this thread, but I need that info too, if I want to ban the entire world except Italy, what regular expression have to type?
Thanks in advance

[Colin F]

Then you'd want to make a profile field and only allow Italy in the regular expression field. Just enter Italy|Italia in the regex field. To add more allowed variations, split them with the | sign.

[Masiello]

Ah, and if the users check that profile during the registration process, but they are from the other country, are anyway allowed to be register?
Or that option check the IP and allowed only IP from Italy?

[Colin F]

No, there's no option that checks the IP.

[Masiello]

No, there's no option that checks the IP.
hm, and how this exclude the users they aren't Italian?
You in the post above have writing that string:
\b(?:(?!US|Mexiko|Canada)\w)+\b
how it really works to ban these locations from the registration process?

I just need to ban the rest of the world by using the above string, adding other countries, only if this really exclude member registration they aren't come from italian isp.
Thanks.

Please, tell me if i have to open a ticket for this and no posting there in a pre-sales forum.

[Colin F]

We added a profile field where users can enter their country - that's where we're disallowing Italy.

[Masiello]

So, for finish that really don't solve the real problem it is right?
The users just check the random country and pass anyway the registration process, if the users are from mexiko, canada, US etc...