Banning all but one type of email on vbulletin?

SInitiative · 2008-07-11 8:55 pm

I found this website after getting sick and tired of having to always delete spammers who are trying to register for my forum. Our forum is run as a place for people of a scholarship group to update their weekly reports, so we know they're actually earning their money.

That said, we only let the scholarship people register for the forum, and all of them have our school's email account. I'm not very familiar with coding, I've just had a python course, and I was wondering if any of you knew how to ban all people from registering other than from our specific school domain.

As it stands I've used the list of emails from the homepage and blocked all of those, which works, but there are so many out there that some still get through. If any of you knew the answer I would really appreciate it, and it would give me one less headache while trying to be a webmaster with barely any knowledge of how forums work.

SI

MysteryFCM · 2008-07-12 11:34 pm

The method you use will depend on the language your system is coded in, but the concept is generally going to be the same, so something along the lines of the following should work (or atleast, give you an idea of how it would work).

Note the following is in ASP as thats what I use for the most part;

'// Grab e-mail from registration form
sMail = Request.Form("txtMail")
'// Assumes checks have already been done for the presence of @
'//
'// Additionally, instead of "mydomain.com", I'd normally use
'// Request.ServerVariables("HTTP_HOST"), depending on the
'// servers configuration (SERVER_NAME could also be used)
If LCase(Split(sMail, "@")(1)) <> "mydomain.com" Then Response.Redirect "somerrorpage"
'// Rest of form

/edit

As an addendum, whilst this isn't foolproof by any means, if you also require e-mail confirmation, this should help somewhat.

Last edited by MysteryFCM (2008-07-12 11:36 pm)

SInitiative · 2008-07-13 3:11 am

Thanks for the code, it did block all spammers, but it also blocked our own domain. I put in our domain where you had "mydomain.com", and just fyi we don't require email confirmation, since we make them use it.

Was there something else I needed to do that I didn't? I know very little about forums, and nothing about ASP, so please don't feel bad for assuming I know nothing. If there is anything simple to be done I would appreciate any further help you could give me, but I'm ready to just ban all registrations and make the new users manually.

Thanks again for your help!

MysteryFCM · 2008-07-13 4:19 am

Your welcome.

I'm unsure as to why it blocked your own domain, especially if @yourdomain.ext e-mail addresses are required. However, if possible, could you post your forms registration code and I'll take a look?

I'd also strongly recommend requiring e-mail confirmation as this would require an account be validated via the users inbox (as mentioned, this isn't foolproof, but does block alot of spammers).

pedigree · 2008-07-16 5:56 pm

why dont you use my plugin for vbulletin? 0.61 is available here

http://www.fizzleblood.net/vbStopForumSpam_v0.61.zip

#1 2008-07-11 8:55 pm

Banning all but one type of email on vbulletin?

#2 2008-07-12 11:34 pm

Re: Banning all but one type of email on vbulletin?

#3 2008-07-13 3:11 am

Re: Banning all but one type of email on vbulletin?

#4 2008-07-13 4:19 am

Re: Banning all but one type of email on vbulletin?

#5 2008-07-16 5:56 pm

Re: Banning all but one type of email on vbulletin?

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