Guestbook Pests

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
  • marc jacobs
    Corporal

    • Jul 2007
    • 18

    Guestbook Pests

    Our guestbook is misused by someone. Everyday new gibberish is posted. Every day I remove this. But can we stop this? And how?


    www.lyndenhof.com

  • karel
    Brigadier General

    • Feb 2006
    • 1178

    #2
    Re: Guestbook Pests

    Hi, This has been discussed many times before, guestbooks are terrible for this kind of spam and the reason I don't have one. There is a way to moderate the comments yourself, not sure if someone can help furthur with this, but that becomes a pain as you end up having to go through them each day.
    www.anxietynomore.co.uk
    The U.K's largest independent site for help with Anxiety and Panic issues.

    Buy and Source Wholesale Make Up
    Up to 75% off Branded top end Make-up.

    www.firstwebcall.com
    Affordable Website Design.

    www.anxietynomore.co.uk/blog

    The most active blog on anxiety on the net.

    Comment

    • marc jacobs
      Corporal

      • Jul 2007
      • 18

      #3
      Re: Guestbook Pests Solution?

      Dear Karel and others who read this post,

      The solution turned out to be rather simple (touch wood). In de guestbook -ADMIN mode I could find the IP address of the culprit. And he/she was using the samen all the time.

      Then the next step was easy. Via the CPanel X menu (IP deny manager) I blocked this IP and, presto: now more endless texts appeared in our guestbook. Until now, that is...

      Marc

      Comment

      • marc jacobs
        Corporal

        • Jul 2007
        • 18

        #4
        Re: Guestbook Pests

        Karel wrote that there is no answer to this kind of attacking.

        We regretfully receive daily of bombardment of dirty entries in our guestbook. All probably coming from the same sick individual. Our maybe – and that is worse – not sick but someone with sleazy commercial goals to sell internet porn or ******. And using our carefully managed website at www.lyndenhof.com.

        A couple of weeks ago these attacks started, they seem to come from Russia. There were three of four IP-addresses involved. Via the X-panel IP deny manager, I put these IP-addresses on the black list and presto: no more attacks.

        But the attacks started again. Was he or she (who would know) shooting with bullets before, now it is hail. In a hailstorm. Dozens of entries are made with hyperlinks with this kind of filthiness: ”adult sex story (adult-sex-story.just-teen.net)” – hello (I removed the hyperlink). The internet criminal now uses different IP- addresses from China, the Philippines, Morocco, India, the USA and all over the world.

        I was forced to pick the IP-addresses one by one form the entries and blacklisted them. But then I discovered soon there were simply too many. And deleting the entries took up an eternity. I took the quick and dirty solution via the FTP-manager I downloaded the file “guestbookdb.php”, deleted the gore entries and copied the clean file back. But I know, it is not the definite solution. The purb will return.

        Is there no answer to this kind of attacking our guestbooks?

        Comment

        • Marincky
          General

          • Apr 2006
          • 4539

          #5
          Re: Guestbook Pests

          Unfortunately, the best and probably ONLY way to prevent this from happening is to REMOVE the guestbook from your site. They are well known for these types of attacks. Blocking IP's is NOT advised as you could infact stop hundreds, possibly thousands of potential genuine visitors from visiting your site. I would remove the blocks you have put on.

          Why don't you try setting up a forum, connected to your site. These are much more manageable. People prefer these to guestbooks too.
          Don't aim for success if you want it; just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally.

          Comment

          • Vasili
            Moderator

            • Mar 2006
            • 14683

            #6
            Re: Guestbook Pests

            Blocking offending IP's from your blog is often a last resort tactic to prevent repeated access/attacks from happening, and often is unclear if the effort is worth it ..... it is worth it, and I can give you a few reasons why:
            1. Blocking an IP not only stops an individual in his tracks, it disallows that person from creating other identities and sneaking back in for repeated offenses, as the blocked IP essentially "shuts off" access to that computer and any activity associated with that system entirely.

            2. Generally, IP's that have been identified as "spammers" are not simply randomly targeting your blog or Forum, but are systematically abusing many similar websites all for the sake of spreading their spam, and blocking the IP will effectively cut off all previously undetected activity that was based on a website ruse of sub-domains upon sub-domains as a reference rather than the overall source that the IP serves. Blocking them at their system level cuts off the "head" so to speak, and thwarts any scheme that relies on sutrefuge of identity based on URL's.

            3. Blocking IP's takes but a bit more time in your cPanel in the course of website management, but it is worthwhile, as it is the next and most assurable method of protecting your website from threats that can be detrimental overall. It is assumed that your blog or forum already has MOD's enabled or installed to enhance security (captcha, anit-bot, editors, and even Admin permissions only for registration*), so blocking IP's helps to minimize time spent "cleaning" and frees you to remain confident about spurrious *******ted attacks.


            Blocking an offending IP is not an omen or a detraction from any metric for your website, nor will it affect traffic (except devious or threatening): it is in truth a responsibility of each website administrator to properly manage the site with every tool provided (that is why they are there!) for the sake of the site owner and the security of visitors as well.

            * I would suggest that you simply change permissions at this point so every Registration must have manual approval of the Adminsitrator, and take the time to do a laborious "clean-up" of all current Users to delete/deny all offenders that are there now. Unless yu get 100 valid new members per week to your forum or blog, it is no big deal to personally review each new User Registration for Approval, is it? This will prevent ANY new instances of abuse, as your manual validation is not what spammers are willing to undergo whatsoever --- they count on getting in within an hour at the longest.....

            IMO
            . VodaWebs....Luxury Group
            * Success Is Potential Realized *

            Comment

            • Marincky
              General

              • Apr 2006
              • 4539

              #7
              Re: Guestbook Pests

              I hold my hands up if what I said was incorreect.. I was under the impresssion that blocking IP's could lead to more than one 'genuine' viewer from seeing a site, I am sure I read this before on this forum.. I may have misunderstood.

              If indeed blocking IP's IS a worthwhile cause than fine go ahead... my only comment to this would be that you could end up doing this on a daily basis!!! We all get spam email, we have all had spam on our forms and forums and guestbooks at some point.. Spam unfortunately is here to stay... and probably get worse!!

              As mentioned above, there ARE actions you can take but please also take note that we probably see 10 posts a week in here about spam on guestbooks.

              Best of luck whatever you decide anyway, do let us know if you manage to solve your issue.
              Don't aim for success if you want it; just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally.

              Comment

              • marc jacobs
                Corporal

                • Jul 2007
                • 18

                #8
                Re: Guestbook Pests

                My new ‘friend” the IP-bomber is using every day series of new IP addresses. On some sites (even this one) you banned entries with contain certain words. Like the V-word or words relating to procreation and making money out of it.

                How do we do that, on Vodahost? Is that at all possible?

                Comment

                • jabmpowt
                  Corporal

                  • Mar 2008
                  • 12

                  #9
                  Re: Guestbook Pests

                  Hi - am just starting to use the Guestbook, and would like to approve any postings before they are viewed....ie the message gets bounced initially to me first, I give it the ok...and then allow the publishing.... just love the instantness of the message concept but want control... any suggestions please would be great....Thanks
                  Rowland www.caribbeanhomefinder.net

                  Comment

                  • jabmpowt
                    Corporal

                    • Mar 2008
                    • 12

                    #10
                    Re: Guestbook Pests

                    Hi - not sure if using this correctly, apologies if not.... I am using this software for first time.. just love it... the guestbook feature on my site www.caribbeanhomefinder.net would be really helpul, but I want control.... ie.. want to approve any publication that is put there, in the public domain....a "beep" on my computer would be helpful as and when a guest leaves a message....also, would like the message to be approved before it is left (or not left) on the message board...... The "instantness" is a great concept, especially in my business where communication with the client is essential.. just like a post-it left on my screen... super..
                    Any thoughts there would be great...
                    Thanks
                    Rowland











                    Originally posted by Vasili View Post
                    Blocking offending IP's from your blog is often a last resort tactic to prevent repeated access/attacks from happening, and often is unclear if the effort is worth it ..... it is worth it, and I can give you a few reasons why:
                    1. Blocking an IP not only stops an individual in his tracks, it disallows that person from creating other identities and sneaking back in for repeated offenses, as the blocked IP essentially "shuts off" access to that computer and any activity associated with that system entirely.

                    2. Generally, IP's that have been identified as "spammers" are not simply randomly targeting your blog or Forum, but are systematically abusing many similar websites all for the sake of spreading their spam, and blocking the IP will effectively cut off all previously undetected activity that was based on a website ruse of sub-domains upon sub-domains as a reference rather than the overall source that the IP serves. Blocking them at their system level cuts off the "head" so to speak, and thwarts any scheme that relies on sutrefuge of identity based on URL's.

                    3. Blocking IP's takes but a bit more time in your cPanel in the course of website management, but it is worthwhile, as it is the next and most assurable method of protecting your website from threats that can be detrimental overall. It is assumed that your blog or forum already has MOD's enabled or installed to enhance security (captcha, anit-bot, editors, and even Admin permissions only for registration*), so blocking IP's helps to minimize time spent "cleaning" and frees you to remain confident about spurrious *******ted attacks.


                    Blocking an offending IP is not an omen or a detraction from any metric for your website, nor will it affect traffic (except devious or threatening): it is in truth a responsibility of each website administrator to properly manage the site with every tool provided (that is why they are there!) for the sake of the site owner and the security of visitors as well.

                    * I would suggest that you simply change permissions at this point so every Registration must have manual approval of the Adminsitrator, and take the time to do a laborious "clean-up" of all current Users to delete/deny all offenders that are there now. Unless yu get 100 valid new members per week to your forum or blog, it is no big deal to personally review each new User Registration for Approval, is it? This will prevent ANY new instances of abuse, as your manual validation is not what spammers are willing to undergo whatsoever --- they count on getting in within an hour at the longest.....

                    IMO

                    Comment

                    • VodaHost
                      General & Forum Administrator

                      • Mar 2005
                      • 12356

                      #11
                      Re: Guestbook Pests

                      In a few days we are releasing a new version of BlueVoda the has some antispam features in the Guestbook, such as a cpatcha, etc...

                      VodaHost

                      Your Website People!
                      1-302-283-3777 North America / International
                      02036089024 / United Kingdom
                      291916438 / Australia

                      ------------------------

                      Top 3 Best Sellers

                      Web Hosting - Unlimited disk space & bandwidth.

                      Reseller Hosting - Start your own web hosting business.

                      Search Engine & Directory Submission - 300 directories + (Google,Yahoo,Bing)


                      Comment

                      • jabmpowt
                        Corporal

                        • Mar 2008
                        • 12

                        #12
                        Re: Guestbook Pests

                        Great.. many thanks... how will you tell us that this is available and when?....

                        Comment

                        • marc jacobs
                          Corporal

                          • Jul 2007
                          • 18

                          #13
                          Re: Guestbook Pests

                          OK, Vodahost, looking forward to the new version of Vodahost with some spam control. It would help, like our friend JABMPWT suggested, to have some control on input.

                          I now every day clean the guestbook by the quickest way I know. Via the FTP manager I copy a clean version of the file “guestbook.php” on the internet-directory. I do not bother to block the IP addresses any more.

                          Comment

                          • marc jacobs
                            Corporal

                            • Jul 2007
                            • 18

                            #14
                            Re: Guestbook Pests

                            By the way:

                            Vodahost wrote:

                            [FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']“I would suggest that you simply change permissions at this point so every Registration must have manual approval of the Administrator, and take the time to do a laborious "clean-up" of all current Users to delete/deny all offenders that are there now. Unless you get 100 valid new members per week to your forum or blog, it is no big deal to personally review each new User Registration for Approval, is it? This will prevent ANY new instances of abuse, as your manual validation is not what spammers are willing to undergo whatsoever --- they count on getting in within an hour at the longest...[/FONT]


                            Tell me how/ where to do this? It is not a blog or forum, but the simple guestbook from Vodahost I am using. There are not many input controls there.

                            Marc

                            Comment

                            • marc jacobs
                              Corporal

                              • Jul 2007
                              • 18

                              #15
                              Re: Guestbook Pests

                              I gave up. I removed the input-form for the guestbook. Instead I published a ‘hard-copy’ of the reactions of the Lyndenhof-guest. Problem solved, but flexibility is far gone.

                              http://www.lyndenhof.com/Gastenboek13_15.html

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X