I am using the standard image verification, bit I notice two problems

1.sometimes the "six letters or numbers" show only two or three characters (see attached example) - it is as if the other characters are white on white or spaces??? If you submit the two characters visible you get an error

2. Occasionally the verificationb image does not load at all (we get an x)

Check your images/captcha/fonts directory. Make sure that all you have in there is:

bullpen_.ttf
eflb.ttf
index.html

Any other files in there, get rid of em. I'm guessing there are other files in there it's thinking is one of the fonts it can use for the letter generation. It chooses a random one for each letter.

Thanks Rick, but there are no other files currently in that directory..??

Hmm, well there goes that theory

I'll probably need a support ticket so I can ftp in and take a look. Will need FTP info and admin info for your forums.

Not sure if it is relevant but I removed a few _vti_cnf folders created by Frontpage and retested. Upon further testing I don't seem to get the blanks any more but still get a failed image x every three or four goes..?

Hmm, might check the backgrounds folder as well, and remove any of those front page folders from there as well. Basically, both the fonts and backgrounds folders shouldn't have anything in them except for font files, background images and an index.html file.

I also found a _vti_cnf folder in the backgrounds folder as well, removed it and it appears to have rectified the problem!
However I am concerned now that next time I log back in with Frontpage it will create all these folder again. Is there a simple way to separate or lock out FP from the forums folders?

Glad that fixed it. I wish I knew on the front page stuff, but I'm really not sure.

Thinking about it, I think that might have been the issue with your install problem as well where you were getting the parse error on the styles. If front page made files/folders inside the install/styles directory then this probably would have caused your error.

ok maybe thats a question for a FP guru...

I am thinking I could convert the forums folder to a sub-web, then ftp them and clear out all the FP created folders, then never log back in to the forums sub-web with FP again.

If there are any other users trying to get these forums to happily co-exist with FP, does this sound like the correct solution?

I had the exact same porblem but my ftp program was the culprit. The default setting was making a log file in each folder as I uploaded the files the only place it caused a problem was in the captcha related folders. Once I went thru all the folders and deleted the log files the problem went away.
here is my HERE.
By the way I don't know about PHP files But when I used Frontpage years ago it played havoc on cgi files such as changing permissions. So I always excluded any type of script files from frontpage and just used a ftp program. I believe the newer version allows you to exclude certain folders now.