Blocking IP addresses from Jot?

Since implementing Jot (to replace UserComments) I’ve started getting nasty spam comments on the site with inappropriate content. They all seem to come from 1 IP address.

Is there a way of blocking bad IP addresses, or making comments automatically unpublished if from that IP address?

John

You should give a try to this plugin

http://modxcms.com/forums/index.php/topic,6945.new.html


:-)

You can also use your .htaccess file to block given IP addresses. This is a good article, and can be applied to any IP address you don’t want in your site.

http://diveintomark.org/archives/2003/02/26/how_to_block_spambots_ban_spybots_and_tell_unwanted_robots_to_go_to_hell

Thanks Guys, I’ll try htaccess tonight as it sounds like there are a lot of things we ought to try to block!

John

That article is very old, so I wouldn’t get overly excited over the stuff he was blocking. I referred to the article because it is one of the clearest explanations I’ve come across of how to block stuff in the .htaccess file.

Ok, I’ve blocked the IP address using .htaccess, and this morning there is another similar comment, obviously from the same person/agent, but with a completely different IP address!
Has anyone any experience of this sort of problem? Could the person/agent posting the comments be able to simulate different IP address, so any attempt to block using this method would be in vain? Or should I just continue building up my list of badwords and deleting comments?
I’m trying to run a charitable, family oriented website so I really can’t have these offensive comments on the site - if I don’t resolve this soon I think we will have to switch to use moderation on all comments. Any help would be most appreciated.

John

You could add a new var to jot &badIP=`{{badips}}` and edit jot for a bit to just block those using an ip address from the chunk with $_SERVER[’REMOTE_ADDR’] if im correct.

You can’t use Captcha?

Its something to consider, but the site is aimed at supporting families with special needs children, so its really important that its as easy to use and accessible as possible. I’m not sure Captcha works very well for non-technical users or people with accessibility difficulties?

Good news is having extended my list of bad words and adding the 2nd IP address to htaccess we haven’t received any spam comments. Thanks for all your help.

John

The offensive spam comments have now stopped. I’m now getting loads of spam from some annoying guy trying to promote xbox links. I guess Captcha it will have to be then...