How to stop bot postings to guestlog??

[Thomas A. Rowe]

Vallon,

Have you use the FP Guest book?

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Thomas A. Rowe (Microsoft MVP - FrontPage)
WEBMASTER Resources(tm)

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[Kevin Spencer]

Why don't YOU do a little research, "vallon?" Tom is an expert with
FrontPage who has been working with it and advising people about using it
for years. And he's right. You, on the other hand, are simply impertinent.

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HTH,

Kevin Spencer
Microsoft MVP
..Net Developer
Neither a follower nor a lender be.

 

[Elden]

Hi, everybody. I am new here, but I very recently was having the same exact
problem. I was getting daily (hourly) postings about porn, incest, drugs,
etc. Mine is a ministry site, so you can imagine how frustrating this was for
me. My guestbook had become useless to me.

My solution was to search and search for alternative guestbooks till I found
one that offered the features I wanted and had a solution to this nagging
problem. I found a guestbook that is a CGI file, allows you to set it up to
check all entries before posting them and you can even set it up to
automatically require the typing in of a randomly generated code on the
screen to make an entry. The thing is loaded with features, including a
control panel, accessible from the web, so it can be maintained from anywhere
and IT'S FREE !!! It's called Active Guestbook. I got it set up a couple of
weeks ago. you can take a look if you like. I don't want to make any faux pas
here, so I won't post my web site, etc. unless that is permitted.

 

[Dina]

Do a little research Tom. I think there are options. You can ask the user
to read and key in the text which is displayed by a graphic or you could ask
and test for a question in the form. You could also paswword the guestbook.
There are a number of suggestions in this forum.

I do not understand why you have given the negative "no Hope" answer. I am
betting you like the word "can't".

 

[Thomas A. Rowe]

You can't.

To protect the guest book or discussion web, they would have to be based on server-side scripting
and a database. Current they are just HTML pages using the FP Include page component to insert user
posted content via functions within the FP run-time extensions.

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Thomas A. Rowe (Microsoft MVP - FrontPage)
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[sillyhp]

I'm jumping in here because you mention capturing the IP of the offender.
I got my first offending postings tonight & I can capture the IP addresses
but then I don't know what to do with them!! What do I do with them? Any help
is appreciated. I have deleted them from the guestbook but would like to know
where they are coming from.
Thanks, Phyllis

 

[Stefan B Rusynko]

You would need to contact your host and ask if they will block them

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| I'm jumping in here because you mention capturing the IP of the offender.
| I got my first offending postings tonight & I can capture the IP addresses
| but then I don't know what to do with them!! What do I do with them? Any help
| is appreciated. I have deleted them from the guestbook but would like to know
| where they are coming from.
| Thanks, Phyllis
|
| "Chris Leeds, MVP-FrontPage" wrote:
|
| > TBMK you'd have to use some scripting to test for user agent (browser type)
| > and deny the page to non-standard (IE, Mozilla, Opera, Safari).
| > Probably not worth the work.
| >
| > I've never seen a post about this on the board before. can you capture the
| > IP of the offender with your guest log? It may be an option in your
| > properties for that form.
| >
| > HTH
| >
| > --
| > Chris Leeds,
| > Microsoft MVP-FrontPage
| >
| > Make More Money with Less Work
| > Let Your Clients Control Their Content With Just A Browser!
| > http://contentseed.com/
| > --
| > | > > I have a website where I have a guestlog in use. There were recently
| > several
| > > posts for obvious spam that look to be computer generated. I manually went
| > > into the guestlog file and deleted the posts, but they came back almost
| > > immediately. Is there a way I can protect my site against such bot
| > postings?
| > > I talked to my hosting company and they said it is application side and
| > not
| > > server side.
| > >
| > > Thanks in advance for your response.
| > >
| > >
| >
| >
| >

 

[Murray]

Be aware that unless the offender has a static IP address (most people do
not), you will not accomplish what you desire by doing this.

 

[cmsrun]

Hi...here's my two cents...
You can try using the .htaccess file to deny access to your web site to
specified IP addresses. Front Page creates its own .htaccess file (and, yes,
that is the name ".htaccess". You will need to use a utility such as FTP to
find the .htaccess file and download it to your local machine. You will not
see it under FrontPage. Edit with notepad, not FP and not Word. Don't mess
with the code that FP puts into the file. Put your entries at the end of the
..htaccess file. The entries will include the following lines:
order allow,deny
deny from 123.456.789.0 (or whatever the offending IP address is)
allow from all

Note: It is very possible the offender is spoofing IP addresses, or using
some other technique. So, the IP address you see may not be the actual
offender. I suggest you google (or MSN search) ".htaccess" for more
information.

 

[KennyGK]

I used to get this same problem with one of my websites. I finally came to
the end of my road with it when I discontinued the guestbook altogether (I
deleted it from the site). For me, I had other priorities than to fight with
the guestbook bots, and obtaining successful solutions didn't happen.