We have a closed board yet this one particular IP address keeps logging in, reading posts, reading user profiles, etc. I ban the IP address and yet he(she) keeps getting in. The IP trace shows up someplace in Japan. Any thoughts on how to get this to stop?

Do you know FOR SURE they are getting in? Just by attempting to access the page (even if they're banned) they will show on the recent activity...

I am seeing them when using the "who is online" button. the activity will say something like "making a reply", "viewing user profile" or "reading a forum in flat mode." It is always the same IP. We do not have enough threads for this someone to be reading away - we dumped all the old threads so there is less than 200 threads. By now, the have been read by this IP a dozen times over.

Is it possible that this same IP is appearing when a user is loggin in our out? A second one appearded as anonymous yesterday and then the IP was identical to an approved user. It also showed the user in the "who is online area" at the same time the IP was in anonymous - but this was different than the IP that appears all the time.

Well again, when they ATTEMPT to access a section it'll show them as accessing it... If they're banned they'll get the standard ban message, but it'd still show in the access logs (since they where accessing that template; unless i'm mistaken)

Thanks, Gizmo.

Gizzy's correct, the WOL gets triggered whether or not they actually view the page or not - lots of worked up people concerning their private forums back in the day when WOL (cfrm?) came out.

Ironically, it is always the same IP address and when you do a WHOIS on it, it comes up from some place outside of Tokyo. Always the same IP. We have only 11 people on this BB and all are in the USA.

Too, the WOL says that they are "reading in flat mode" or "checking a profile" which all sounds like more than just logging in.

If they are following links directly to those pages the Who's Online screen will show the page they are trying to access even if they can't access it.

If this really bothers you and you have htaccess available.
You can block the ip from accessing your site or board.
HERE is a link to a tutorial on banning by IP

You could also just add the ip address to the ban list in the .classic control panel.

That only stops them from registering.

Banning a user via .htaccess works much better than ip banning in the forum software...

or anything on the site.

Well, dependingt on where you put the .htaccess rule file lol