Troll has endless supply of static IPs

[pierguy]

Dealing with trolls who have cable internet is usually no problem. You block one or two IPs and you're done.

But this one clown who is using Comcast comes up with another IP address each time I block him and drop his account into tachy. Every day he comes back with a new account, new IP, and some of the most psychotic rants I've seen in 7 years of running a forum. Clearly an experienced troll who knows how to thwart basic measures.

In the meantime, I've started manually approving new users. I've considered blocking the first two chunks of his IP, but that would basically ban half the state of Delaware from my site. How is this guy getting new static IPs every day?

[Joseph]

I think you won't be able to fix that issue, however instead of banning him why not just make him miserable.

http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=121886

[pierguy]

That won't do any good, since he signs up for a new account every day.

In all my years doing this, I've never seen anyone able to come up with what appears to be an endless supply of IPs for their cable modem.

[Joseph]

Hmm, wel thats the idea, if you don't ban him he probably won't sign up for a new account.

[Wayne Luke]

He doesn't have an endless supply, he is just telling you that he does. IP addresses are easily spoofed and not a very reliable way of banning someone.

Use that hack, send him to "coventry" or moderate his posts so no one sees them.

Tachy Goes to Coventry
This option allows you to effectively add a user or users to every member's 'Ignore List'. However, users in this list can still see their own posts and threads...

Enter a list of userid numbers, separated by spaces (for example: 4 12 68 102).

When he no longer gets the attention that trolls feed on, he will get bored and go elsewhere.

[pierguy]

Since he is signing up for a different account every day, both tachy and the above hack are useless.

He's gone through about 25 Comcast IPs--all based in Delaware--thus far. Assuming he's spoofing, is there any way to defeat it?

[Zachery]

I'd contact comast and inform them that one of their users is spamming their servers and send them the ipaddresses.

[pierguy]

I've contacted Comcast and only gotten a form letter in response. Pretty worthless. He's not spamming, but he's posting some of the most disgusting filth I've ever seen. He even went so far as to attack some poor kid on my site who survived the Va. Tech massacre and make fun of him. One of the most hateful people I've ever seen.

Anyway, I think I figured out what's going on. He's forcing a new IP address from Comcast by changing the internet (WAN) address on his router. Clearly an experienced troll. And Wayne, I have to respectfully disagree with you on the utility of using static IP's for banning. Yeah, they're pretty much useless if they're dynamic (AOL, etc.) but they're great for dealing with most trolls. I don't use VB here--I block them at the server level so they can't even see the site.

So for the foreseeable future, I'll be manually approving all registrations and checking to see if any are in his IP range. Any that are will be rejected. Sucks for Delaware folks, but I don't really have a choice.

[Wayne Luke]

The point of miserable users and tachy is not to prevent someone from posting. They are to prevent them from getting the attention they desire, so they get bored and go elsewhere. If he wasn't banned every day, he probably wouldn't register a new account every day. But the options would prevent his message from getting across and people wouldn't reply to it. Eventually he will get bored and leave for another site. Annoying yeah but it is a valid method of dealing with things.

IP Bannings will handle people who do not have much technical expertise but will have no effect on those that do or can perform the proper Google searches. It isn't hard to find out the information to do this. Took me about 5 seconds to do so. For the record, Comcast uses Dynamic IPs for its cable customers. To get a new IP, all you have to do in most cases is power-reset your modem. They charge extra every month if you want a static IP from them.

From their terms of service:

In addition, you may only access and use the Service with a dynamic Internet Protocol ("IP") address that adheres to the dynamic host configuration protocol ("DHCP"). You may not configure the Service or any related equipment to access or use a static IP address or use any protocol other than DHCP unless you are subject to a Service plan that expressly permits otherwise.

http://www.comcast.net/terms/use.jsp