Geo IP Restrictions

[blacknight]

I'm considering blocking non-US and EU IPs from joining the forum, as the spammers generally appear to be from either Asian or African IP ranges.

Any thoughts?

[louie]

That's a good idea.

[Cormac]

Did you get hit bad with spam again recently?
i noticed about 3 new members with numbers in their username, which seems to be a trait of the spam accounts for some bizare reason.

If you Geo ban IP ranges you're going to prevent geniune US and non-EU users. Seems a bit too reactive in my opinion.

[louie]

spamers usually have long email. You can check the length of the post and trow an error if possible.
I have deleted few of them in the last few days.

[blacknight]

I'm considering my options

The reality is that 99% of the non-EU / US signups seem to be spammers, so why deal with the hassle of moderating them.

I haven't made a decision yet, of course, but I am thinking about it (out loud in a way)

[blacknight]

Originally Posted by louie

spamers usually have long email. You can check the length of the post and trow an error if possible.
I have deleted few of them in the last few days.

I get an email for every new signup. I've started banning any "odd" looking emails as soon as they signup - though I do check their IP first.
Most of the scumbags signup and then wait a couple of days before abusing the forum...
*sigh*

[EdenWeb]

Sounds like a headache alright. The anti-spam features of most blogs are great (Spam Karma). Why is there no intelligent spam protection for forums?

[blacknight]

I've come across a couple of plugins for vbulletin, but I can see them slowing down page load times. A simple Geo IP check would be really fast and would only need to block access to the user registration page

[Redfly]

Originally Posted by blacknight

I've come across a couple of plugins for vbulletin, but I can see them slowing down page load times. A simple Geo IP check would be really fast and would only need to block access to the user registration page

Blocking only access to the signup page is perfect. I say go for it.

[Sparky-s]

Yeah I got a user registered there a while back. No activity with them at all.
HomeTainment Ireland - View Profile: martin1234php

The same handle with @gmail.com too

The IP address doesn't resolve.

Btw Michele, have you had the ever famous polmki signing up here yet?