comment spam

[Guest]

I have a discussion board at www.occ-doc.net. I receive spam comment
postings containing ad links every day from "NY" with an IP address shown on
the discussion board of 195.239.141.98. However, when I check the web
traffic counters for lists of visitors to my site's index and posting pages,
I don't find that IP address in the visitor lists. And, I've modified my
..htaccess file to block that IP address. Are the postings actually coming
from that IP address, or do the "spam bots" (?) come from a source that has
no definable IP address that I can block? I'm looking for a solution that is
compatible with FrontPage and will allow blocking of spam comments to the
discussion board, short of removing the board or installing some type of
members-only login feature. It's a low-budget operation... just a guy w/a
web site, mostly a hobby.

 

[Helpful person]

One quick fix (although ugly) would be to link your home page to a sub
web with a password. On the home page tell people what the password is.

 

[Guest]

So, I'd have to have two web sites: The existing web site and a separate web
site with the discussion forum? And, people could enter the discussion forum
site through a link from the existing site, but they'd need a password?
You're correct, this sounds like more than I bargained for.

I'm checking with some vendors of "CAPTCHA" software, but it appears this
kind of software may be incompatible with FrontPage.

How come the spammer that is posting to my discussion board with a
particular IP address can't be blocked by denying that IP address access
using my .htaccess file? (I've tried to do this, but it doesn't work.)

 

[Murray]

So, I'd have to have two web sites: The existing web site and a separate

web
site with the discussion forum? And, people could enter the discussion
forum
site through a link from the existing site, but they'd need a password?
You're correct, this sounds like more than I bargained for.

No. You'd just need to have a passworded section in your current site to
which people would go to use your chat.

I'm checking with some vendors of "CAPTCHA" software, but it appears this
kind of software may be incompatible with FrontPage.

I don't think CAPTCHA is what you are looking for, but you can achieve the
same results like this -

<label for 'captcha'>What color is an orange?</label>
<input name="captcha" type="text"></input>

and then make it a required field, and that it contain "orange". This will
effectively block any automated postings....

 

[Guest]

I added a field to the post comments page, "What color is an orange." I
entered validation criteria for this text box field so that, if the user
doesn't enter "orange," nothing gets posted and the user gets an error page.
This seems to be blocking the spam bot.

Almost 30 yrs ago, I took an entry-level Fortran programming course. Those
of us who solved the problems correctly got "B" grades, unless we solved the
problems simply and elegantly and then we got "A" grades. This "orange"
spambot filter approach should get an "A" grade. Thanks!

 

[Murray]

You're welcome. I've also used the much more elegant and sophisticated
"What color is the little red wagon", but the results seem about the
same.... 8)