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  1. b2evolution CMS User Manual
  2. Operations Reference
  3. Fighting Spam
  4. Confusing SPAMbots by changing your file structure

Confusing SPAMbots by changing your file structure

Change the directory/folder name for your trackback and comments from <em>htsrv</em> to any other valid directory/folder name. Then edit conf/_advanced.php to reflect the change. Change the following line of code:

$htsrv_subdir = 'htsrv'; 

This prevents bots that automatically attempt to submit comments and trackbacks using b2evolution’s default htsrv installation.

Created by fplanque • Last edit by fplanque on 2020-06-09 00:24 • •

19 comments

Comment from: Prashant

Prashant

How do you turn off referers altogether? I really don’t need this feature in my blog at all.

If you can’t disable it, is there an auto-update for the spam lists?

2004-10-10 @ 06:35

Comment from: Pike

Pike

I don’t like the referers feature either. I’m trying to modify the files but it’s tricky and I’m not getting anywhere yet…..it’s a shame.

2004-10-13 @ 14:19

Comment from: troyp

troyp

This seems like this would be a common feature to DISABLE.

How can I remove all referrer information (data collection, stats, display, etc)? Why waste the space and why give spammers the opportunity to keep abusing my blog?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

2004-11-20 @ 15:47

Comment from: Clikdate

Clikdate

Go to the skins directory on your site and find the _main.php file.

locate and delete the section that displays the Recent and Top refferer info:

if your using the "custom" skin then delete this section:

"

……………….
……………………..
…………………
$Blog->disp( ‘blogstatsurl’, ‘raw’ ) ?>">

"

2005-01-04 @ 17:10

Comment from: Clikdate

Clikdate

Go to the skins directory on your site and find the _main.php file.

locate and delete the section that displays the Recent and Top refferer info:

if your using the "custom" skin then delete this section:

"

……………….
……………………..
…………………
$Blog->disp( ‘blogstatsurl’, ‘raw’ ) ?>">

"

2005-01-04 @ 17:13

Comment from: Clikdate

Clikdate

Go to the skins directory on your site and find the _main.php file.

locate and delete the section that displays the Recent and Top refferer info:

if your using the "custom" skin then delete this section:

"

……………….
……………………..
…………………
$Blog->disp( ‘blogstatsurl’, ‘raw’ ) ?>">

"

2005-01-04 @ 17:18

Comment from: Clikdate

Clikdate

Go to the skins directory on your site and find the _main.php file.

locate and delete the section that displays the Recent and Top refferer info its near the bottom (this site wont let me enter the code)

2005-01-04 @ 17:24

Comment from: alvinlee

alvinlee

Is there a command to simply block off this part from displaying? Deleting loses the option of bringing back this feature.

2005-03-20 @ 17:39

Comment from: mark

mark

Instead of completly delteing reffers etc you can just comment it out wrap the reffer part.

2005-04-11 @ 13:37

Comment from: Robert

Robert

I get around this using a .htacces file containing the following as I couldn’t find an easy way to block referrers:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^[http|nttp].*$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !m33p.be
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !62.232.36.81
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !wooshy.m33p.be [NC]
RewriteRule $ badref.html [L]

This means any referrer outwith the site itself causes a redirection to /badref.html explaining why they were redirected there. Visitors can click to continue.

2005-06-12 @ 00:35

Comment from: Ami Isseroff

Ami Isseroff

Comments do not seem to get rid of things in sidebars - they just produce strange error messages. Only deleting the code gets rid of it.

The antispam feature is completely worthless. Every keyword I enter is already registered, yet nothing is blocking these domains as referrers. They pollute the statistics page (not eliminated by changing the _main template apparently) as well as server statistics, and probably can get your blog blacklisted.

I think that turning off trackbacks and pingbacks may get rid of the junk, but there should be better features and control. Turning off pingbacks and trackbacks also means you are shut off from aggregators, no? If anyone knows a successful and easy way to really eliminate all the spam please contact us at zionistguys @ zionismontheweb.org. Thanks.

2005-06-27 @ 11:15

Comment from: Sean

Sean

I can handle removing the referrer lists from the skins; though an option turn this on (off by default) would be preferable. And I don’t mind occasionally going through the stats/anti-spam section and reporting abusive referrers to the central lists even if not displayed.

However it is the comments that are driving me nuts. _WHY_ can’t I turn off allowing non-registered users to comment?!? Add ‘Registered Only’ or such to ‘Closed’, ‘Open’ and ‘Disabled’ options for comments. And have which should be the default be one of the blog preferences.

Thanks!

2005-06-29 @ 17:42

Comment from: Steve Thompson

Steve Thompson

just adding my voice to others about the problems certain B2EVO features are causing me. I love what B2EVO can do but comments,trackbacks,pinging,referrers are not what I want or need. A simple SWITCH off of un-needed features would be so much more preferable than resorting to hacking. I’m not just talking about an inconvenience here - the unwanted attention from comment,referrer and trackback spam is causing MySQL to fall over

2005-09-16 @ 09:11

Comment from: Druidx

Druidx

Is there a reason why spam comments might not be blocked even though it may contain keywords that are handled by the keywords blacklist?

[I have checked the Forums, but it’s possibly I missed something there, so sorry if this is a repeat question]

2005-09-19 @ 22:03

Comment from: fplanque

Versions prior to 0.9.1 only search for keywords in URLs.
0.9.1 and above search for keywords in the whole comment text.

2005-09-20 @ 08:31

Comment from: Nick Naggar

Nick Naggar

2005-11-20
Hi,
I got my b2evolition BLOG SPAMMED by unrelated websites and they used over 80% of my 5Gigabyte resources within 20 days, had to find a fix.
Reading this section of the website saw that others have same problem and they asked
" How do you turn off referers altogether? I really don’t need this feature in my blog at all. "

I’m not a php person, but created a fix that got rid of the SPAM URL off my "b2evolution" main BLOG page(s) and the STATISTICS page, and posted it to

http://saintgeorgecollege-heliopolis.com/b2evolution-BLOG-FIX.html

It will show you how I got rid of the BAD URL on my b2evolution blog.

Hope this helps.

Nick Naggar - Nov 20, 2005
mailto:Nick@web-millions.com

2005-11-21 @ 07:05

Comment from: Javier

Javier

How to block a range of IP address?

2005-12-26 @ 06:00

Comment from: Adam Jaskiewicz

Adam Jaskiewicz

These will apply to all your blogs! MAKE BACKUPS OF THESE FILES BEFORE YOU EDIT THEM, SO THAT YOU DON’T MESS ANYTHING UP!!!

If you want to get rid of comments from non-registered users, it looks like you can edit blogs/skins/_feedback.php, where it checks for whether or not the user can leave a comment:


if( $disp_comment_form )
{ // We want to display the comments form:
if( $Item->can_comment() )
{ // User can leave a comment
...

to add a check for the user being logged in:


if( $disp_comment_form && is_logged_in() )
{ // We want to display the comments form:
if( $Item->can_comment() )
{ // User can leave a comment
...

also, it looks like you will want to edit blogs/htsrv/comment_post.php for more security:

In the braces after:

if( ! is_logged_in() )
{ // User is not logged in (registered users), we need some id info from him:
...

add something like the following line:
$Messages->add( T_('Un-registered users cannot leave comments!'), 'error' );

This will error out the whole posting of the comment, which, if you followed the directions above, they had to try to post by circumventing the comment form anyway.

2006-02-15 @ 05:01

Comment from: sam

sam

in _main.php find:

div class="bSmallPrint"


and remove the relevant code in that div tag

this will remove comments and trackbacks from the live page

a half way fix

2006-07-06 @ 10:21

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      • Introduction to Fighting Spam (AntiSpam)
      • Recognizing a crawler attack
      • My blog is slow because it's hammered with comment SPAM! How do I recover?
      • Creating an Antispam Plugin
      • Confusing SPAMbots by changing your file structure
      • How to control referrer spam hits from search engines
      • Antispam Tips
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