UBB.threads PHP Forum Software Community Forums UBB.threads Installation and Upgrade Support Can anyone help with this error?

Hi, We just moved our board over from UBB 6.2 I think to V7 - and we have a technician from Groupee helping, but he's only available via email, and we're now live... Has anyone seen this message before when you attempt to post? our board is at http://forums.theferretstore.com

The host from which you are accessing the board is not recognized as a valid host. This is more than likely related to a firewall issue that is blocking the referer variable. Check your firewall settings and try again.

its the http referer in the control pannel
turn it off until your more familuar with the settings.

It has caused a few issues with members,
but has been explained its only neccessary if you have
spam or Mings posting unwanted posts.

Using a fully member registered forum its not needed.

Yeah, that's come up a number of times here and it's related to the HTTP Referer Check (Control Panel » Primary Settings » Advanced Options)... you can search here for it.

Users who get that error should be sure your domain is added to their firewall/security suite whitelist. The referer check makes sure people are posting thru the forms on your site rather than remotely, so it's advisable to keep it enabled. But turning it off will stop the errors...

Getting you taken care of now. The switch from the temporary domain name to the live one is the culprit. Will have that fixed in a moment.

Ive just visited and i'm not seeing the error.
As it is linked to firewall settings too if enabled.

Glad to see the Ferret owners doing well

Thank you Thank You!!! You are all wonderful! This was thrown at me at 5:30...

RICK, btw - we have a dns nightmare with this site (i know all the settings), but this forum is over 7 years old, and we've had numerous domain names, etc... Please let me know if you have any questions as to how i have the a records and cnames set...

It's not just the users firewall/security folks; it's also in effect if your users are accessing yoru forums via hosts that arne't in your allow list; in this case he's using a temporary url to the board and it's not in the forums whitelist

Getting a LOT of complaints about this same error from longtime members and am not sure what to do. We weren't having them with 6.5.

What can I do on my end to eliminate?

Will upgrading to 7.1 )scheduled for tonight) from 7.02 help?

Should I disbale by http referrer check???????

Rick

Yes. There's no major harm in turning that off.

unless you find your forums recieving spam from users posting froma host which is not your own.

Hi, I'm the admin for the FS forums that Joe originally posted about, and in the past few weeks we have been receiving massive amounts of spam (compared to before the switch). I've been going through and deleting the posts and banning the spammer accts, but I'm not at the computer all the time, and the spam posts are starting to get a little...risque in nature!

I have a couple questions I was hoping that you guys could help me with:

1) How can I stop this spam from happening without having the firewall problems we were having initially? Should I enable email verification or turn on the http referrer check? If I do that, will users not be able to post, or was that solely the temp domain name issue?

2) This may be a stupid question - when a user is banned, can they sign back up again if I were to delete their account entirely? And if I do delete their account entirely, would they then be removed from the "New Members" island on the lefthand side of our forum?

Thanks to everyone for your help!

turn on email verification. No ifs ands, or buts. Turn it on. You need to take an automated spam bot out of the equation. That is how you do it. It also prevents the same person from registering over and over and over.

The http refer check is designed to stop someone from placing a posting from on a different website and using it to post on your forums. Probably not an issue.

When a user is banned they cannot sign up again. If the user is deleted they are removed from the system. System no longer knows about them, they sign right back up. If you have a trouble maker delete their posts, do not delete the user, just remove their rights.

If the name is one that is unacceptable change the displayed name to something more acceptable.

Lastly, turn on user moderation and manually approve all registrations. That will stop the problem in it's tracks.

EMail verificaiton is a nessessity in my opinion. Also, enabling the CAPTCHA which comes with 7.1 is as well.

Most of the posts are likely due to cross site posting as well, which is what the referrer check is designed to thwart.

When a user is banned they CAN sign up again, under a differant username with a differant password; you'll need to ban their IP or their IP Segment if they become a re-occouring issue.

post moderation queue is a valid option, should you actually have the staff to monitor it all the time on a busy forum.

Thanks guys!

Gizmo - unfortunately it's just me, so moderating all posts isn't an option. Managing the registration queue may be though.

many options lol