Cutting off China and possible forum upgrade coming

[David Hodgkins]

As many of you know we for some reason are on the receiving end of some crude hacking attempts from China. This has alarmed some of you and that is understandable.

Since the attempts are from a wide range of IP addresses I can only assume it's a bot attack eminating from malware infected machines. They are almost exclusively from China so I've decided to take a pro-active heavy hammer approach for now and will be blocking all access from China.

I believe at least one current user is legitimately accessing from China and we will lose them with this approach but I don't see another way around it short of continuing the reactionary cat-and-mouse game of adding IP address blocks to an ever-growing IP block list.

On another topic, I'm thinking of doing a major upgrade to the site to increase security options and keep us in line with the latest software development efforts. I'd like to hear from anyone who currently frequents or administers a vBulletin 5 site. We can chat off line if you prefer...

Anyway, just wanted you all to know we are getting your "Contact Us" submissions and PMs and are "working the case."

Feedback welcome and encouraged.

:)

[Presto51]

Feedback welcome and encouraged.

:)

David how are the young in China going to learn, and sharpen their 21st Century skill sets if you block them :rolleyes:

[David Hodgkins]

David how are the young in China going to learn, and sharpen their 21st Century skill sets if you block them :rolleyes:

Yeah... Oh well.

I'll know soon what the effect of cutting out the china traffic has. If anyone continues to receive a failed login notice, I'd like to hear about it.

:)

[RonSchofield]

I use a service like Stop Forum Spam ( https://stopforumspam.com/usage ) and hook it into register and postings. It works well for my servers. There is even a plugin for vBulletin.

As you can see on this map, China is the worse for spam, but the US is number two and I get a lot from the US.

https://stopforumspam.com/worldmap

[first time builder]

David , I sent you the IP address as requested in PM if you dont get it let me know. I originally sent it in the Forum contact me section.
Kenny

[first time builder]

David were you able to find out if the IP address was from China?

Kenny

[NBinSD]

Kenny you can google IP locator and plug the IP in see where any IP is.

[first time builder]

NBin Thanks ,I did it and found three sites that say its in Bejing China and one says its in Miyazu Japan. The one for Japan narrows it down to exact Lat and Lon and then from that it gives the actual street name. Dont know which to believe, but considering David said others are China thats probably what this is. The locator is not exact as I tried my own and it has me in the wrong town.

Kenny

[Rscocca]

Dave the IP you sent me was from Ukraine, Just thought you'd like to know.
I traced thru Whoisit.com

[first time builder]

Rscocca, Looks like they are hitting Long Island hard LOL.

Kenny