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[GlowHost] Spam-O-Matic - Spam Firewall stops forum spam Details »
[GlowHost] Spam-O-Matic - Spam Firewall stops forum spam
Mod Version: 2.1.2, by GlowHost.com (Coder) GlowHost.com is offline
Developer Last Online: Sep 2022 I like it Show Printable Version Email this Page

vB Version: 4.x.x Rating: (557 votes - 4.79 average) Installs: 4739
Released: 05 Aug 2010 Last Update: 28 May 2013 Downloads: 23934
Not Supported DB Changes Uses Plugins Auto-Template Additional Files Translations External Content  

If you install this mod, please mark this as "Installed."

VERSION 2.1.2 RELEASED 5/28/2013!


About Spam-O-Matic 2.x:
Spam-O-Matic 2.x (SOM) is a spam firewall for your vBulletin Forums version 4.x and later. It prevents known spammers from registering on your forums. If they can't register, they can't spam!

Languages Packs Available
English
German - Courtesy of Alex@bulletin (included in zip)
Romanian - Courtesy of Teascu Dorin's (included in zip)
Spanish - Courtesy of vbluis (included in zip)

How it Works
This data responsible for blocking user registrations comes from the stopforumspam.com (SFS) spammer database. After the user who is trying to register passes the built-in vBulletin registration checks which you have configured in your vBulletin settings, SOM then checks the SFS database to see if the IP, username, or email address that the user is trying to register with has been recently tagged as a known spam source on other forums around the Internet. Also can be configured to check the Akismet service for known comment spam.

This is without a doubt, one of the most important mods that you will be using on your forum.

Other Notable Stuff
It also does a ton of other cool stuff like moderating posts automatically if the post is found in the Akismet database, or if it contains words on your "Bad Words" keyword list which can be configured within the mod itself.

The mod WORKS with vBulletin's new Facebook integration.
This module works with all of the Facebook functions that are built into the vB4 series.
Similar mods do not handle Facebook integration completely.

This module has the ability to submit new spammer details to the StopForumSpam or Akismet databases automatically, all without any new templates or manual template modifications!

This means other forums that are running Spam-O-Matic will not have the same spammer on their forums if you have (automatically) reported the spammer to the SFS database.

Just install the product in the product manager, upload a few files, configure the system and you are done. (Estimated time: 5-10 minutes)

What's new in 2.1.0:
  • Fixed a problem with MySQL engine selection to make mod more compatible with different types of servers.
  • When SOM "Newbies Group" is activated + vB's native option to "Verify Email address in Registration" is activated at the same time, "Users Awaiting Email Confirmation" must click the verification link to become a newbie.
  • Added remove user, post, ban to user profile options in admincp under "Quick User Links"
  • Added German Language Pack
  • Optimized default settings to work with the needs of most forums
  • Added a new coupon for GlowHost (available after you submit a spammer)
  • Several other performance tuning options

Feature List:
  • Optional Public Statistics. Show off to the world how many bad guys you have automatically prevented from posting junk on your forum.
  • Auto-Moderation moderates posts that have links, bad words, and other configurable settings.
  • Auto-Moderation ignores your RSS posts.
  • Registration / Denial Logs available from Admincp > Statistics and Logs
  • Optional "Newbies" Manager! After registration, newly registered users can be placed in a "Newbies" group which has more limited permissions as compared to your regular "Registered Users" group. Newbies will graduate to your Registered Users group based on your required post count settings.
  • Auto-Submit Spammers from the moderation tools menu on each postbit.
  • Remove Posts, threads, PMs, Calendar Events from your spammer in one easy wizard. No double logins needed.
  • Shows other users who signed up with the same IP. (Sleeping Spammers)
  • Optional Affiliate System
  • ~50 customizable settings to fine-tune Spam-O-Matic to your exact needs.


A) StopForumSpam:
The StopForumSpam Module lets you:
  • Check a registrant's IP address.
  • Check a registrant's email address.
  • Check a registrants Username.
  • Disable or enable any of the above checks.
  • Block and log, or, allow and log known spammers.
  • All registration attempts are logged for your viewing pleasure.
  • Several other performance tuning options
If a user (or bot) tries to register on your forum and they pass the built-in vBulletin registration system. (Human verification, email verification, etc), their registration details are then passed to the Spam-O-Matic firewall for further checking.

NOTE: You should use some sort of human verification checking in vBulletin's built-in options to limit the number of requests to the already heavily-loaded StopForumSpam database servers. This will also prevent additional load because SOM will not have to do anything if the bot/spammer fails preliminary registration validation which is built-into vBulletin itself.

It is completely invisible to humans who are registering that this process is taking place. Bots are stopped dead in their tracks.

If a spammer is able to sneak past the first line of defense, and manages to post, then there are secondary, tertiary, and, uh...4th level protections too!

B) Auto-Moderation:
Auto Moderation lets you:
  • Define how many URLs a new member can post before being sent to moderation.
  • Define keywords that will send a post to Auto-moderation (viagra, porn, more here)
  • Define minimum post count to avoid Auto-moderation.
  • Excludes admin and moderators from Auto-moderation.
  • Completely disable Auto-moderation if you don't want it.
C) Akismet Service
Spammers that make it past the StopForumSpam and Auto-Moderation will be checked against the Akismet service. If they manage to make a post, and then are found on Akismet, they can be auto-moderated.

The Akismet settings let you:
  • Set the number of posts that Akismet will check from each user. After this number is exceeded, Akismet checking will be disabled for that user.
  • Auto-Submit spammers that post on your boards back to the Akismet service so that other forums and blogs do not do not receive the same spam.
  • Completely disable the Akismet service.
D) Newbies Manager
Should you decide to enable this option, you can create a new usergroup and then tell Spam-O-Matic about it. Once SOM knows about this usergroup, and once enabled, all new users will be part of the Newbies group. The idea here is that you make a Newbies group that has limited forum permissions. For example, no signatures, no BB code, no images, and etc. This group is created completely in the vB admincp. Spam-O-Matic simply makes it the graduation process to the normal Registered Users group, automatic.
Learn More and Discuss the Newbies Manager here.

Punitive Actions:
If you find a spammer has made it past your 4 front-lines of defense, and has managed to post on your forum, then you can help the community...

The spammer's details can be sent to the Stop Forum Spam and Akismet databases automatically, preventing them from registering or posting on other forums. When other forums do the same, the protection is reciprocated.

Simply moderate a post and choose the option to "Delete Posts As Spam..." an then choose the option to "Ban User." Banning the user sends their details to either Akismet, StopForumSpam, (or both) depending on how you set it up.

API Keys:
API Keys are not required for this system to stop spammers on your forums. But you should obtain them so that your forum can contribute to the real-time block lists.

A StopForumSpam API key is required if you want to contribute to the StopForumSpam blacklists by adding your spammers to their database. By submitting spammers you help keep other forums and blogs clean.

An Akismet API key is required if you want to enable any Akismet auto-moderation features in this module. Akismet API key is not required for all Auto-Moderation functions.

You can obtain a Stop Forum Spam API key which is free from stopforumspam.com.

Get your StopForumSpam API Key Here

You can obtain an Akismet API key from Akismet.com.
Akismet offers free and paid API keys so choose your version based on your situation.

Get your Akismet API Key Here

Why it is better than the other anti-spam solutions on vBulletin.org:
  • Works with all of vBulletin 4 functions including Facebook automatic registration.
  • Report spammers that you find to the Stop Forum Spam Database.
  • Report spammers that you find to the Akismet Database.
  • Built-in Auto-moderation.
  • Auto-moderation rules based on post count.
  • Auto-moderation rules based keywords.
  • Auto-moderation rules based Akismet results.
  • Enable or disable any actions that you do not want.
  • Customizable "Registration Rejected" message.
  • Consolidates 4 popular methods of spam prevention into one product.
  • No Manual Template Modifications!
  • Lots of community support!
======================
Compatibility:
vBulletin 4.0.x

Server Requirements:
Curl or allow_url_fopen must be compiled/enabled into PHP. Ask your web host to enable curl or allow_url_fopen if it is not already available on your server's PHP configuration. (Or just host with GlowHost.com, where it already is

=====================
Donations:

If you like this mod, sure, you can donate!

Donations can be all sorts of things:
1) The "Give Thanks" option in your settings is an optional link back to GlowHost Web Hosting.
2) Tell your friends and others about this mod.
3) If you are in need of web hosting, please consider ordering it from the hosting and development professionals at GlowHost.com who were able to develop this mod to you.
4) Help others who are having trouble with this mod by posting tips and suggestions in this forum thread.
5) Cash! Use the "Support Developer" option on the top right of this page.

When you choose to donate, you are contributing to the product development, bug fixes and new releases for SOM and are helping to feed our hungry developers and their families! In other words, your donations helps to cover the time and money spent to develop this system.

The entire team at GlowHost thanks you for your help and support!

We hope you enjoy the mod!

=====================
Installation:

1) Download the attached file
2) Mark As Installed
3) SOM 2.x does not support updates from the v1.x series.
When upgrading to version 2.x, please, be sure to remove any other existing version of SOM 1.x from the product manager before installing v2.x series. Also make sure to remove /forum/includes/xml/bitfield_glowhostspamomatic.xml from version 1 if you had it installed.

4) Extract the zip file, and view the readme file for the rest of the instructions.

=====================

Original concept credits go to the authors of vBStopForumSpam, MonkeyStop.

Download Now

Only licensed members can download files, Click Here for more information.

Screenshots

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Show Your Support

  • To receive notifications regarding updates -> Click to Mark as Installed.
  • If you like this modification support the author by donating.
  • This modification may not be copied, reproduced or published elsewhere without author's permission.
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  #511  
Old 19 Jan 2011, 00:49
john h john h is offline
 
Join Date: Dec 2008
Originally Posted by GlowHost.com View Post
Wait for version 2.0 which has better logging.
Any idea on a release date?
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  #512  
Old 19 Jan 2011, 04:53
iwvnews iwvnews is offline
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Thanks for this spectacular mod. You have saved me hours of work and done me a solid.
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  #513  
Old 19 Jan 2011, 07:29
abashiri abashiri is offline
 
Join Date: May 2010
Not sure if anyone has had the following occur or if investigation is in progress:

Just installed the v1.2.8 file (v.1.2.7 on the product) and a little later looked in the log file.

I found that the first few log records were blocked - no probs, looked good.

Then I noticed the following 23 records (created every few seconds) were almost the same. They had the same i/p and email addy but were all 'Passed StopForumSpam ...' and 'is_blocked = 0'.

I manually banned the i/p and deleted the user. Is something amiss or should this happen? I don't really want loads of repeating log records.

As yet no further log records have been created.

If I can provide further details then let me know.

Please can someone advise.
__________________
abashiri
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  #514  
Old 19 Jan 2011, 07:56
john h john h is offline
 
Join Date: Dec 2008
I've not seem that problem and I'm getting around 100 registration attempts per day.
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  #515  
Old 19 Jan 2011, 08:13
abashiri abashiri is offline
 
Join Date: May 2010
Originally Posted by john h View Post
I've not seem that problem and I'm getting around 100 registration attempts per day.
It sure is strange and not something that I would expect should happen.

I've had one further log record since and that appears to be fine ('is_blocked = 1').
__________________
abashiri
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  #516  
Old 20 Jan 2011, 21:59
Alfa1's Avatar
Alfa1 Alfa1 is offline
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Lee brought something important to my attention regarding SFS:
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showt...=1#post2104854
SFS is very successful at blocking spam bots from registrations. But that causes another issue. These spammer registration scripts can try to register again in millions of a second. They keep banging on the door. Hitting the server many times and causing high server loads. This is also why SFS logs show so many blocked spammer accounts.

So while SFS resolves the spam problem it relocates the problem to server load.

One solution could be to analyzing the http fingerprint of blocked spammers and blocking them from the site. Or even adding a temporary IP block for those IPs.
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  #517  
Old 21 Jan 2011, 05:05
Joey805 Joey805 is offline
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Any updates on a fix for this mod blocking RSS feeds? Is there a way we can exclude a particular user id from getting their threads moderated maybe?
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  #518  
Old 21 Jan 2011, 14:56
GlowHost.com's Avatar
GlowHost.com GlowHost.com is offline
 
Join Date: Nov 2005
Originally Posted by john h View Post
Any idea on a release date?
Version 2.0 will be released before Feb 1st, 2011

Originally Posted by Joey805 View Post
Any updates on a fix for this mod blocking RSS feeds? Is there a way we can exclude a particular user id from getting their threads moderated maybe?
Version 2.0 solves this problem.
__________________
GlowHost.com - vBulletin Web hosting and managed dedicated servers since 2002.
Hot Deal! Free vBulletin License with Hosting
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  #519  
Old 21 Jan 2011, 20:00
Joey805 Joey805 is offline
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Originally Posted by GlowHost.com View Post
Version 2.0 will be released before Feb 1st, 2011



Version 2.0 solves this problem.


Awesome! Looking forward to it.

Thanks so much for this great mod.
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  #520  
Old 21 Jan 2011, 20:17
GlowHost.com's Avatar
GlowHost.com GlowHost.com is offline
 
Join Date: Nov 2005
Sure, glad you like it.
__________________
GlowHost.com - vBulletin Web hosting and managed dedicated servers since 2002.
Hot Deal! Free vBulletin License with Hosting
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  #521  
Old 22 Jan 2011, 02:59
del Drago's Avatar
del Drago del Drago is offline
 
Join Date: Dec 2010
Real name: Antonio
I also want to chime in and thank you for this fantastic mod.

When recaptcha was cracked a couple of weeks ago, my (very new) forum was bombarded by spambots. It was relentless. This mod has stopped them all cold.
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  #522  
Old 22 Jan 2011, 17:23
MGSteve MGSteve is offline
 
Join Date: Aug 2002
Just to add my thanks also. Just installed it on 3.8.5, with modified admin & mod cp folders and it works flawlessly.

I tried to sign up with the email address of a known spammer and it blocked it. Signed up under a test account, tried to post some spam, it placed it in the mod queue. Made a good post and it was fine, made a post with a link in it and it placed it in the mod queue.

Fantastic!
__________________
Regards

Steve Childs.

mg-rover.org & xpowerforums.com
Yes, I have a bit of an MG & Rover obession.:cross-eyed:
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  #523  
Old 24 Jan 2011, 04:46
BigAl205's Avatar
BigAl205 BigAl205 is offline
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Real name: Alan
Awesome mod...it killed 19 spam registrations just yesterday and 7 today
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  #524  
Old 24 Jan 2011, 14:47
jetnet jetnet is offline
 
Join Date: Nov 2006
Something seems to be wrong

I installed this on a new VB site (VB 4.0.6), and it installed okay, I uploaded all of the files, and everything looks like it should work, but nothing actually takes place. I have other sites that use SFS, and I have tested it before where I find a spammer on SFS, use their username and password, and it will not let me use it, and when I go look at the log files, it has entries of my action in there. This one has nothing in the log files.

Does anyone know of something that I might be doing wrong? I have API keys in both of the SFS and Askismet, so that does not seem like the problem.
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  #525  
Old 24 Jan 2011, 18:55
zackw zackw is offline
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
Hi, I just installed today and see 4 registrations blocked already in the log within 10 minutes.

My question is, how can I test the system for all its options that they are working?

Reason I ask is that I registered a new account to watch it, then I went in the forum and created a quick post with just a link and a short sentence. The options say it's supposed to block posts with links if they have a post count lower than 5 and move it into moderation. This didn't happen and my test post was left alone with the link in it.

Just wondering if there is a way to test these features or do I have to create new accounts over and over? Either that, or tell me why the thread and post was left alone when the options say it's not supposed to allow links.

Any help would be great! Thanks.

Also I know it was mentioned that this doesn't work well with other anti-spam plugins, all I have is the recaptcha turned on, should that cause problems?
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