Spam entries in Frontpage guestbook

[Sarah]

We have a Guestbook (../guestbook/index.htm) which has been made using the
form facility in FrontPage 2000. For the past few months we have been
inundated with Spam entries.

Is there any way that these can be blocked?

Sarah

--
Clyne Farm Centre
Westport Avenue
Mayals
Swansea SA3 5AR
www.clynefarm.com tel 01792 403333 fax 01792 403339
Self catering cottages and the home of Challenge Valley - the muddiest
assault course in the world!!

 

[Thomas A. Rowe]

Not really... Many users have just stopped using guest books, including the FP one because of the
automated postings.

--
==============================================
Thomas A. Rowe (Microsoft MVP - FrontPage)
==============================================
If you feel your current issue is a results of installing
a Service Pack or security update, please contact
Microsoft Product Support Services:
http://support.microsoft.com
If the problem can be shown to have been caused by a
security update, then there is usually no charge for the call.
==============================================

 

[Mike Mueller]

If there is a form, some BOT will fill it out, be it
incidental or spam. I have eliminated my gb because of that
reason.

Here is what I had done before calling it quits:
-changed the URL of the gb so that the Spam Bot Search
Engines would have a more difficult time
-created a custom script that wrote an identical form and
sent it to my email instead of the database- I ended up with
oodles of spam in my inbox
-instituted a primitive version of CAPTCHA, so someone would
need to actually read the image and enter that- it helped,
but still got more than enough

Whatever we try to do, someone with less than honorable
attempts figures out eventually

Mike



: We have a Guestbook (../guestbook/index.htm) which has
been made using the
: form facility in FrontPage 2000. For the past few months
we have been
: inundated with Spam entries.
:
: Is there any way that these can be blocked?
:
: Sarah
:
: --
: Clyne Farm Centre
: Westport Avenue
: Mayals
: Swansea SA3 5AR
: www.clynefarm.com tel 01792 403333 fax 01792 403339
: Self catering cottages and the home of Challenge Valley -
the muddiest
: assault course in the world!!
:
:
:

 

[AMysticWeb]

I believe some of this has to do with the page name being Guestbook or
guestlog. Sometimes changing the page name can limit some of this.


Mike Smith,

http://FrontPageForms.com
FrontPage Form Tutorials
& Form Script Examples

 

[Sarah]

Thanks for all the tips. I've changed all reference to guestbook to Have
Your Say including file names. So far so good - no spam.

One way that I thought could also stop it would be to add a field which had
to be filled by hand with a code, say "1,2,3,4" given in the form. Without
this field filled in correctly the spam entry could not be sent so I would
only receive genuine entries filled in by hand.

Can I do this in the Frontpage form?

Sarah

--
Clyne Farm Centre
Westport Avenue
Mayals
Swansea SA3 5AR
www.clynefarm.com tel 01792 403333 fax 01792 403339
Self catering cottages and the home of Challenge Valley - the muddiest
assault course in the world!!

 

[Ronx]

Yes - but only if JavaScript is enabled on the browser. Autobots
(spammers) often have JavaScript disabled, and the check will fail.

One alternative is to use a custom, server side script to validate and
process the form. This requires programming skills in whatever
scripting language your host will support - ASP, PHP, Perl/CGI etc.-
and possibly a database to store the posts.

 

[AMysticWeb]

Hi Sarah,

No guarantee, but you could try something like the following.

http://frontpageforms.com/gif_validation.htm

Mike Smith,

http://FrontPageForms.com
FrontPage Form Tutorials
& Form Script Examples