Bots

[John86]

Hey guys,
A forum that I moderate (www.Chemicool.com Ironically I failed Chemistry) is infested with bots. Every new account that is made is from a different ip address, so I cant ban them all. Is there any way to limit the amount that come through?

Thanks,
Hiji

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

You could get one of those "input the funky text" tricks that a lot of sites do. Essentially, there is a graphic with a code that is a little hard to read (but presumably impossible for bots) that you have to enter to confirm an account creation. I don't know what they're called, but I've seen them.

[John86]

Already have that, but thanks anyhow.

[fatsheep]

That's strange, I've never heard of a bot that could bypass those. :dizzy2:

[John86]

We get at least 10 a day, mostly porn and "natural male enhancement" crap.

[LeftEyeNine]

..Ever suspected a registered user (maybe one with even more privileges), Hiji ? The image blockage is a hard one for the bots to overrun, I think you should watch internal activities.

[_Martyr_]

No, sadly its pretty common. We over at www.metw.net get a lot of them as well. We have an image verification system as well.

[John86]

..Ever suspected a registered user (maybe one with even more privileges), Hiji ? The image blockage is a hard one for the bots to overrun, I think you should watch internal activities.

We have me, another mod, and an admin whos pretty inactive. They were the original founders of the forum, so I doubt they would spam their own.

The bots come from extremely different ip address, so I really cant "wildcard" ip bans.

[LeftEyeNine]

I don't think such intruder would be fool not to jam the IPs. People have too much spare time indeed.. Hope you find a way to get rid of all this mess. I assume you have the latest version of your forum software ?