UBB.threads PHP Forum Software Community Forums UBB.classic UBB.classic 6 Support Members being randomly banned

For the past week several members of my community have reported being banned from our message boards. Some of the members are only banned temporarily and somehow are able to get in sometimes, only to revert back to being banned upon subsequent log in attempts. A large portion of our users have been randomly banned and haven't been able to post at all.

Previous to this situation we had been up and running for several months with no problems whatsoever. Unless we missed something wee did not make any alterations that would explain this mayhem. Thanks for any suggestions and/ or insight anyone can offer.

Check your IP ban list, and compare it to their known IP's. Also, see if you can get the exact error message that they are receiving. That will help dertimine the behavior.

A URL to your forums would help at that point.

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"I see dumb people....they're everywhere. They walk around like everyone else. They don't even know they're dumb"
TheGeeksInc.com Forums

The exact error they receive when they're told that they are banned would also be useful.

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Charles Capps
UBB.classic™ Developer
Having problems? Open up a support ticket!

This is the message that is being displayed:

"Sorry, either your membership has not yet been approved or the board administrators have removed your ability to post to this board. We cannot allow you to perform this action as a result."

Here is another message that users report receiving:

Sorry, but your IP Number is currently banned in our forums. You may not post
or register on our site.
Please feel free to email us at if you have any questions.

Your IP number is:

152.163.189.102

For this one, Check the registration queue to verify that you have approved their membership. If the reg queue is empty, then check their profile to make sure that their post ability is not disabled.

This error message is caused by the IP Ban list under Additional Settings -> IP/Email Ban

There is probably a ban on part of that range. Keep in mind Banning 189 in your IP Bans will ban any IP address containing 189.

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"I see dumb people....they're everywhere. They walk around like everyone else. They don't even know they're dumb"
TheGeeksInc.com Forums

Banning 152.163 in general is also not advised, as that bans most AOL users... <img src="https://www.ubbcentral.com/boards/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

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Charles Capps
UBB.classic™ Developer
Having problems? Open up a support ticket!

Thank you! I'm going to try that.

I do have one concern though and our case is very extreme: we've had to ban members for threatening gun violence, making death threats, etc. against our employees and others that we've had to report to the Philadelphia Police Department & District Attorney's Office. My concern is that by removing their IP addresses from the ban list that they'll resurface to disrupt our business again.

I know most of you reading this are shaking your heads in disbelief...

Most IP addresses are dynamic - you can't just ban an IP to get rid of a user. The most effective manner of keeping someone out is to switch the board into members-only mode, revoke the posting permissions of the unwanted users, then enabling registration moderation.

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Charles Capps
UBB.classic™ Developer
Having problems? Open up a support ticket!

For the type of business I run that's not a viable solution. I'm really frustrated at the level of customer service also, not just here but with my open ticket. I didn't except that Infopop was going to blow me off like they have. Thank God there are other message board venders out there who actually take the initiative to help each customer out. I requested that someone call me about my situation on the tickets and again have been blown off.

The technobabble is great but no one there has bothered to address any of my rel life business concerns. Another example of techno geeks looking down their noses at you... <img src="https://www.ubbcentral.com/boards/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />

Woah! Slow down a minute here. I wasn't trying to sound condesending. I was trying to present the causes of the 2 error messages you presented. Is there something I wasn't clear on, or you need some clarification?

I have had the problems you have had with a certain user. I had to switch my boards to members only for a while. It was a major pain, and it appears to have cost me some traffic. But it was the only way to stop the stalking that was occuring, since the offender's ISP won't stop it because stalking isn't explicitly in their AUP.

Another thing: Have you tried doing email bans so the user cannot register? I'm assuming you have registration moderation turned on since you had users who were not approved to post.

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"I see dumb people....they're everywhere. They walk around like everyone else. They don't even know they're dumb"
TheGeeksInc.com Forums