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Prevent Spam on Your phpBB Site

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Last Updated: September 30, 2008 9:06 AM

There are several steps you can take to eliminate or reduce the amount of Spam in your phpBB site.

  1. Always keep your phpBB installation up to date.
  2. Use the phpBB toolkit that lets you more efficiently delete Spam and Spammers.
  3. Disable the hyperlink fields in the registration form. SpamBots will usually abandon the registration process when they cannot post a hyperlink.
  4. Disable guest posting in phpBB.
  5. Utilize a CAPTCHA module in phpBB. A CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) is a type of test used on the Internet to ensure that the response is not generated by a computer. The process typically involves a Web site asking a user to complete a simple test which the computer is able to generate and grade. Because other computers are unable to solve the CAPTCHA, any user entering a correct solution is presumed to be human. A common type of CAPTCHA requires that the user type the letters or digits of a distorted image that appears on the screen.
  6. Log into the phpBB Administrative Control Panel and enable the following:
    • Next to Enable Account Activation ,click Admin.
    • Next to Enable Visual Confirmation, click Yes.
    • Next to Enable Security Codes click, Yes.
    • Next to Allow Automatic Logins click, No.

NOTE: These are suggested options to assist you in preventing Spam on your phpBB. You may use your favorite search engine to assist you with other methods of prevention.