Forums News: Forums Spam IP Ban List

[Technoviking]

The Ubuntu Forums plans to start testing a IP Ban List from Stop Forum Spam today to see if will reduce the number of spammers trying to access the forums.

As with any technological solution for a social problem this will not be a perfect solution. Some legitimate forums users may accidentally get blocked. If this happens to you please email the Forums Council (ubuntu-forums-council@lists.ubuntu.com) or file a LaunchPad bug. Please include your forums username and IP address in the report.

We hope the will improve the forums experience and performance.

Cheers,
Mike aka Technoviking

[3177]

the only way I can see this going wrong is if two people are on the same computer, and one of them spams on the forum. But great idea.

[Technoviking]

Some TOR servers and public-wifi IP maybe in the list. Also some ISP rotate IPs and someone may have a spammers old IP address/ I plan to update the list weekly to help avoid this.

T-V

[col48]

Seems like a good idea.

What's a TOR server?

Can you remind me (and therefore others who tend to take Internet mechanisms for granted) how to find out my current IP address, please? I'm sure my ISP does not dedicate one to me.

How would a ban manifest itself? Can it be distinguished from other causes of not being able to write to the forum?

[Joe of loath]

I use this on my forum and haven't had a problem, however it's got a userbase that's about 1000 times smaller

[CraigPaleo]

Some TOR servers and public-wifi IP maybe in the list. Also some ISP rotate IPs and someone may have a spammers old IP address/ I plan to update the list weekly to help avoid this.

T-V

That happened to me when I had DSL. Somehow everyone in Southwest Florida who used Embarq DSL was blocked from that forum for about two weeks.

[SoFl W]

Can you remind me how to find out my current IP address, please? I'm sure my ISP does not dedicate one to me.

http://www.whatismyip.com/

[Joe of loath]

That happened to me when I had DSL. Somehow everyone in Southwest Florida who used Embarq DSL was blocked from that forum for about two weeks.

Whoops, sounds like someone misplaced a wildcard...

[col48]

Thanks SoFl W

Quote:
Originally Posted by col48 View Post
Can you remind me how to find out my current IP address, please? I'm sure my ISP does not dedicate one to me.

http://www.whatismyip.com/

Remind was obviously the wrong word - this turns out to be something new to me after all!

It's one of the things I like about Linux - someone has usually asked the question before and found an answer. You are not dependant on the goodwill of the OS owner.

[kn0w-b1nary]

Seems like a good idea.

What's a TOR server?

Look at this.