www.gps-users-forum.co.za - Wishlist

[fugglefeet]

Hi all,

I have added a new feature to the forum that is called "The forum's Wall of Shame" (with due credit to the developer of ZB Block). This takes the information that is captured by ZB Block and displays the list of cuplrits who have tried to hack the forum in a 24 hour period from 03:00. This list is kept for 7 days, but the list is stored safely in a database for the application to continually protect the forum and its members.

Have a look at the bottom of the page for the list of the shamed.

Darryl

[cliddell]

Hi Darryl

Would this feature slow the site down? It seems very slow this evening, but it may be some other cause?

Thanks for your hard work...

[fugglefeet]

Hi Clive,

No, this feature doesn't slow down the forum, as it is reading the information from a text file that is generated by the ZB Block application. What I have found is that there are port scanners searching for open and/or unprotected ports on the forum's network, in an attempt to break into the network using brute force attacks with dictionary password generators, hoping to gain access to the servers. The firewall is set to block all port probes (except port 80 which is forwarded to the forum server for forum access), with the end result being that the crackers waste time and bandwidth trying to break a forum and its server. The net result is sometimes slow responses from the server.

Hope this helps.

Darryl

[cliddell]

Thanks Darryl, back to normal today here. It must have been my ISP yesterday.

Good to hear of all the security precautions in place on The Forum!

Regards
Clive

[admin]

Hi all,

I have made two changes to the forum and have moved the Wall of Shame to its own page here:-

Wall of Shame

Hope this is informative.

Darryl

[fugglefeet]

Hi all,

A more recent visit to the Wall of Shame shows that ZB Block has to date successfully blocked over 1860 attempted intrusions that range from bad bots to hackers, to spammers who attempt to register that are blacklisted with Stop Forum Spam. Yet we have since only had 1 spammer that tried to register legitimately with ulterior intentions that was stopped in his/her tracks by the forum software itself. The firewall itself has also endured an onslaught of attacks ranging from portscans to virus riddled adware payloads being thrown at it, and has stood quietly defending the server that runs the forum software.

Darryl

[craigcul]

Well done i wander how many other forums are slowed down buy the same attacks but dont know how to stop them.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 4

[fugglefeet]

Hi Craig,

If you chat to Jan (Jan Horn), he will tell you that the Garmap forum was regularly lambasted with spammers that made their way onto and sabotaged the forum until at times it was completely paralysed. The moderators there fought a losing battle against spammers, as the administrators took no preventative measures (in using anti-spam software) to help curb the onset of spammers that were hacking the forum. Thanks to the experience that they had gained there, we are now in a better stead with the skills that the current moderators have in quickly identifying spammers that may slip through the net here.

Darryl

P.S. A quick google of "my forum is getting spammed" will show the extent of how many forums are collapsing under the load of spammers and other malicious bots that are rife out there.

[fugglefeet]

Hi all,

I have enabled a feature (that was available on the old server software), that I needed to do a bit of googling on to get it to work on the new server software. The server now has anonymous FTP functionality that makes it possible for files to be downloaded from the forum server. Due to the threat of trojans, viruses and adware payloads, uploading to the FTP server is controlled and restricted, as the forum does not want to be the source of these nasties that can result in the forum being blacklisted. If there is a legitimate application that can be uploaded (that does not violate any copyright laws or is not cracked) that the members would like to see on the FTP server, feel free to PM me the details and it will be placed here for downloading via FTP. The location of the FTP server is here and can also be accessed directly from ftp://www.gps-users-forum.co.za . If an FTP client (like FileZilla etc.) is used to access the server, the server allows for anonymous FTP login (ie. the username is anonymous and the password is an email address) and all transfers are logged in a detailed logfile that is kept on the server.

Darryl

[fugglefeet]

Hi all,

A quick look at the Wall of Shame has revealed that ZB Block has successfully blocked over 2500 attempted spammer registrations, hostile bots/scrapers, suspected spamtool agents, spambots and many other little nasties since its inception on the forum for the sole purpose of protecting it. It's reassuring to see that the forum is slowly growing and serving its intended purpose, without it being compromised by spam.

Darryl