Two IMPORTANT Site updates....
 

With the help of Thor and all the moderators, we've been stemming somewhat of a SPAMBOT problem. Some are still getting through - and their favorite place to post is in the ALBUMS section..?? I've also noticed a few SPAMBOTS have tried to create PRIVATE MESSAGES, but banned them while they were attempting to use the system..??

Very creative - to say the least..??!! :)

Anyway - I programmed a couple of things earlier today you should be aware of:

1) You MUST HAVE AT LEAST ONE POST in the LugerForum to CREATE a PHOTO ALBUM....

2) You MUST HAVE AT LEAST ONE POST in the LugerForum to USE THE PRIVATE MESSAGING SYSTEM....

It's pretty simple, and hope no "lurkers" out there are offended by requiring a single post in this community to use some of it's basic features...

As an aside - THANK YOU THOR for your ADMIN emails! You've done a wonderful job watching the albums for spammers!!

John D.
(BTW - Ed.. ??? Sorry about that!!!! As you posted in the other thread - our SPAM was "your "meat & potatoes" over there..!!?? :) :D )

John D., you da man!:jumper:

Thank You!!! (Bodda you!!!) :D

I don't know how to cruise the albums...I just click on a "Random Album Pic" and look at those albums... ;)

The top of each page has an "all albumns" tab or column header, click on that and you will see 22 pages of albums. The scammers have been putting their junk on page 22 but Mr John D has been zapping them into cyber deletion! YIPPEE!

Thanks! I never knew that! :thumbup:

Now here's something odd...My album (I only have one) is on the first page...the albums are not alphabetized...and not chronologically ordered...

Just what determines where or what page the album ends up on??? :confused:

BTW: I put my pics in an album & linked to them in the thread post so my comments would correspond to my pics...Putting all the pics together at the end of a post is too confusing... :)

WHOA!!! Shields UP!!! Spammers in the Gun Show forum!!! :eek:

John D. Please eliminate Private Message and posting privileges for GUESTS... Thanks.

-John S

Umm - "guests" can't even see the threads - much less posting any messages or posts?? Never have, either..??!! ;)

I think you see "Guest" when a MOD deletes that "user" - rather than bans them..

Best to you!!!

John D.

John, that could be it. Watch atizThisse, spammer also.

Hey Vlim..!!

Already banned him from your deleted posts (Thanks buddy! Nicely done!) - so he's gone... As well - as a heads up - we are still getting hammered, so..??!!! :)

Also - postino..!! Add more pictures to your albums, and you'll move up your album even further.. :D The "order" is determined by number of pics in the album..

Best to you guys!

John D.

Russian new year, I guess. All from a Russian server.

HAHA!!!

Unfortunately - you are 'prolly right??!!! :eek:

Best to you Sir..!

John D.

John D, I think I would make the posting requirement to be 10 posts rather than one, as a couple of Spam postings and they are set....

Ed

Hey Ed,

Well - there is a bit of a time delay from first post to authentication for albums/PMs, and since these are programmed BOTS, they usually hit once (as in one post, one album - or one PM). PMs usually create the worst havoc for the ADMIN, tho' - as all of a sudden you have all your Members ripping at you :eek:

Best to you, Ed!!

JD

Yes, I had 18 emails this AM when I checked in, thoise 18 were for reports, and then the normal email were junk and friends, not in that order :)


Hey, I threw in my $100 for the raffle bud....


Ed

Well, here is the result of one of the hacks - and it's log file... The hack I installed block registrations based on reverse IPs, RBLs, and a pool of spammer reg names.. At the bottom of the log - was my "test" registration (I erased my e-mail/ip in red) - and the rejection of other "registrations".

Notice the rate that they are coming in?? Yesterday - they were happening even faster (about 2 per minute??).. Now - they are about 1/2 that..??

the following link is WHY many vBulliten ADMINs have been having sleepless nights (I have four large vBulletin forums I host/program/admin - and two have been getting hammered...?? ;) )
http://www.techwatch.co.uk/2011/01/0...aptcha-hacked/

John D.

yes, main gunboards is still down....

Huh??? :confused:

John D.

Still's site??? I just logged in, no problem... :confused:

http://luger.gunboards.com/index.php

main gunboards is the same type of software (vBulliten) and they have been down because of spam attacks for 2 days / I assume they are trying to do a mod and it has not worked...

Jan Still's site is part of main gunboards, but we are on our own server, so not affected....

Ahhh - got it... It's not good out there right now... On one of my more active vBulletin forums, below is a screen shot of my SPAM hack log - which is rejecting SPAM registrations at a rate of almost one per minute - with 287 during a 3 hour time period beginning at 1AM last evening .. With all of the rest of the PHP code I installed in the past few days to nuke this - it's *almost* manageable..??

:eek:

Best to you!

John D.

I have had no problem getting on Stills or main gunboards over the past few days

I'm still confused...I had no problem getting into the main Gunboards site either... :confused:

http://forums.gunboards.com/

There's a couple of recent threads in the System help Forum -

http://forums.gunboards.com/showthre...tting-in-forum

http://forums.gunboards.com/showthre...19-New-servers

Looks like they changed servers and your browser cache and history needs to be deleted before your browser will recognize the new server...

Thank you, I tried all that.

I am guessing they changed the DNS and it has not propagated to our servers here in KSA.

This is what I see...

I had forgotten that it can take a few days for some servers to update the DNS... :(

Here's a link to Information Week article on the resurgent pharmaceutical spambot, Rustock, which sounds like what has hit us...

http://www.informationweek.com/news/...leID=229000733

Please keep up the fine work! Your work is reminded daily.

Thank you, my friend. It appears that the hacks I put in are doing great..! Also - these are automated SPAM BOTS given the reCAPTCHA hacks of the Google security, which have nothing at all to do with postino's post. It's a whole 'nuther "ball of wax".

As for Ed?

Your screen view is pulled from your PROXY CACHE (not on your computer), and has nothing at all to do with a DNS change or your local cache or... - but I suspect you'll already know that already.

Best to you guys,

John D.

John, I have cleared cookies, cleared my cache and still getting this, whether with mozilla or with explorer....

Hi Ed,

Your proxy server is a router kind of thingy - up-line from your computer... Many cache pages for faster delivery of pages to their connect clients. If a "static" version is stuck (which is sounds like), it will expire and purge whenever it's programmed to - but can be a few hours, to a few days - and some have TTLs up to a week... ;) Make sense?

Best to ya'!!

JD

GREAT JOB John D... thanks for being so proactive... and thanks to all the members who are reporting spam attempts and user violations. We can't keep a clean house without your help!