[Forum] Spambots hammering registration form

[PharaohsVizier]

Hi,

I've been having some trouble with spambots for some time now, but over the last week it's been getting especially bad. In the past, as advised here, I set up a newbie group and got rid of a lot of spam that way, but some got through and it was hell to moderate. In the last week, I installed a bunch of anti-spam mods and I'm happy to say that it's been quite effective, nothing is getting through anymore. The problem is that bots are still trying to register nonstop. My hosting company (Hostgator) has been sending me emails about this.

Apparently they had to suspend the register.php script because of server load. In the email, there's a huge list of recent site requests and they all lead to the register.php page. So the problem isn't so much that spambots are getting onto my forum, but that they are getting to the page and just bogging down the site. What can I do about this?

[AliMadkour]

I am sorry to hear that, I think that thread will help you https://www.vbulletin.com/forum/show...istration-Bots

Also there are a mods on vBulletin.org that deny spam registration go there and search for spam (note: we don't provide support for modification)

[PharaohsVizier]

Thanks for the reply, I took a glance through and most of these seem like features in Spam-o-matic (which has been great). The problem isn't so much that they are registering and getting through, it's that they are constantly trying to register. Is there a way to block them from the page itself?

[AliMadkour]

You can deny access to register.php via .htaccess if you've a list of spammer IPs, (its very large and always updated).

[whitey10tc]

Thanks for the reply, I took a glance through and most of these seem like features in Spam-o-matic (which has been great). The problem isn't so much that they are registering and getting through, it's that they are constantly trying to register. Is there a way to block them from the page itself?

not an easy way. I would recommend a new host or maybe a vps or dedicated box. hostgator is not a friendly shared host and now your account is flagged for the heavy use it will always be the first they suspend for problems.

Sent using Forum Runner

[beishe8]

Apparently they had to suspend the register.php script because of server load. In the email, there's a huge list of recent site requests and they all lead to the register.php page. So the problem isn't so much that spambots are getting onto my forum, but that they are getting to the page and just bogging down the site. What can I do about this?

Perhaps some other application on your site has been hacked and sending bots to the vB registration page?

[island4x4]

Hello...

Have you found a solution to this? I'm having the exact same problem. Bots are hammering register.php, and last month they wasted over 300GB of bandwidth.

I'm attempting to ban IPs through .htaccess, but they keep hitting me with new IPs, and can go through huge amounts of bandwidth in a day before I get my updated stats log from the server.

Right now, I am keeping an eye on all guests attempting to register, and grabbing their IPs off the forum, then adding to .htaccess after a IP search to see if they look legit or not. I can only spend so much time a day doing this though.

Like you, I don't have a problem with spammers getting through the registration process. I use to have that issue, but updated spam controls, and now manually approve registrations. Only a small handful get past the spam controls, and then I deal with them through the manual method.

Driving me insane!

Jo