Is there a way to stop / block somebody from registering as a user

I have a problem with a user that keeps registering - adding spam

I keep deleting the spam - then deleting the user

any help appreciated
Colin Thompson

This is the curse of a free model.
Make email address column unique if you can afford to do that.
Ban the IP if it is same always.

Thanks
HyTC
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If you are having no success, in the past I have written a perl script that will scan newly posted messages for keywords and automatically ban the user as soon as they post (as well as delete the posts).

I no longer have the code but I can write something custom for you for a nominal fee.

What you can do is ban his C and D IP blocks. If it is not AOL user ( AOL use proxy, so there is no way to tell who is who), and use ( Dynamic) DSL connection that changes his IP everytime he ( she) connect to internet, most likely th IP will change only the C and D block (example: 69.93.xx.xx - A.B.C.D. blocks ) you can ban him when you add the IP to the ban field in LSQL like this 69.93.*.*
Any IP tha matches 69.93.1.255 to 69.93.255.255 will be restricted from accessing your site.

Hope that helps a bit and hope he ( she ) is not using anonymous proxy to submit to you..

EDIT: I forgot to say that you may need to create a field in your LINKS db to log the submitters IP.
Quick how-to for doing this.

Go to DATABASE-LINKS-PROPERTIES and add new field with the following values
Column Name IP
Column Type VARCHAR
Column Index NONE
Column Size 150
Not Null No
Form Display Submitter IP
Form Type TEXT
Form Size 20
The rest leave default

Add new GLOBAL in BUILD-TEMPLATE GLOBALS
IP => sub {
# Displays the submitter's IP.
return $ENV{REMOTE_ADDR}
}

Include the foloowing html code betwin you <form> </form> tags in the include_form.html
<input type="hidden" name="IP" value="<%IP%>">

Recync and Repare your tables and you will see the submitter IP in your Admin -Validate Links


Regards
Koki

I would use that as a last resort, mainly because by doing that you're blocking many thousands of ips so you may block some valid users.

There is no really good way for protection.
The problem origin is, that you can not safely identify a unique user on the internet, especially if he/she wants to hide (doesn't allow cookies, uses untrackable proxies).

There are IP and/or cookie solutions, but none gives you safety against a computer expert or a hacker.
All you can do, to use implement suggested protections, including a badword filter (what Optical suggested).

Against automatic submission text-image, but 100% safe solution.


So there is no 100% protection, just can target this goal.

Best regards,
Webmaster33

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Thanks for the replies
Colin Thompson