SMF1.1:Ban list: Difference between revisions

Restrictions

There are multiple types of restrictions or bans you can use. You can use the following restrictions or bans on people, ips, hostnames, e-mails, or usernames: Cannot Post, Cannot Register, and Full Ban.

Cannot Post - If you put a post restriction/ban on an ip, username, e-mail, or ip you take away the right to post. This allows them to visit your site, but that is about it. This is good if you just want to stop some one from posting but allow them to visit your forum.
Cannot Register - When you put a registration restriction/ban on an ip, username, e-mail, or ip you take away the right to register at your forum. If they currently have an account on your forum they will be able to use it, however they won't be able to register a new one. This type of restriction or ban is nice if you have some one who registers multiple times.
Full Ban - When you put a full ban or restriction on something, they will not have the right to visit your site. This means they cannot read, regist, or post on your site. So if you really want to get rid of some thing or some one this is the way to do it.
Ban Expirations - You can set bans to restrict some one forever or just a limited time. If you wish to just punish some one temporarily, use the Ban will expire after x day(s) feature. If you would like to ban some one indefinatly set the ban to expire Never.

Add New Ban

The Add New Ban page of the Ban List section of the Administration Center allows you to add new bans to members of your forum. When you need to put a ban on some one you can put a ban on their ip, hostname, email address, or username.

Ban name - Enter a name you want to give to the ban. Think of it like a topic subject.
Expiration - You can set bans to restrict some one forever or just a limited time. If you wish to just punish some one temporarily, use the Ban will expire after x day(s) feature. If you would like to ban some one indefinitely set the ban to never expire.
Reason - Reason for ban, to be displayed to banned member.
Notes - Notes that may assist other staff members.
Restriction - What type of ban this trigger will apply when conditions are met for the ban.
- Full Ban - When you put a full ban or restriction on something, they will not have the right to visit your site. This means they cannot read, register, or post on your site. So if you really want to get rid of something or someone, this is the way to do it.
- Partial Ban - Will ban the member of specific areas as defined right below it:
  - Cannot post - If you put a post restriction/ban on an ip, username, e-mail, or ip you take away the right to post. This allows them to visit your site, but that is about it. This is good if you just want to stop some one from posting but allow them to visit your forum.
  - Cannot register -When you put a registration restriction/ban on an ip, username, e-mail, or ip you take away the right to register at your forum. If they currently have an account on your forum they will be able to use it, however they won't be able to register a new one. This type of restriction or ban is nice if you have some one who registers multiple times.
  - Cannot login - Disallows user to login.
Triggers - Conditions where the ban can be applied and the ban restrictions will be put in place.
- Ban with IP - To ban with some one's ip you need all or part of it. You can usually obtain some one's ip from your forum easily. The easiest way to find their is ip is when reading their posts, or the who's online list. When you get their ip you will get their full ip. Full ips always have 4 sections of numbers (127.0.0.1 is an example). Putting their full ip in for ban is alright, but is not always useful if this person has a dynamic ip or dial up. If you ban their ip and they have access later they probably have a dynamic ip or dial up. Even if they do have a dynamic ip or dial up there is still hope. Most ISPs even if dynamic start with the same numbers. (127.0 for example). Lets say you put a ban on some one with the ip 127.0.0.1 and the next day they show up with the ip 127.0.0.2, the first few numbers are the same. You can still ban them, instead of banning their full IP ban part of it. Type it in like 127.0.0.* instead of the full IP. This works in most cases but some people's ips still change. This also does not stop them from using a proxy to visit your website.
- Ban with a Hostname - A hostname is a string of characters used to identify a particular computer system. Doing this will ban the hostname of the user.
- Ban by Email Address - You can also ban some one by the e-mail address they use. You can do this in two ways. Either their full e-mail address or part of their e-mail address. Banning some one by their full e-mail address in most cases is useful enough to ban some one. Some times however some one may have many e-mail addresses. You may still be able to ban them. In this case you should use part of their e-mails. Instead of typing in their full e-mail address type in something like *@hotmail.com. This is alright if they use a custom e-mail service that isn't used by many people, but if you put an e-mail ban on large e-mail providers like hotmail and gmail no one using their e-mails will be able to get past the ban.
- Ban By Username - To ban some one by their username, just type in their username. This will prevent the member from rejoining with that name; however, that member could register with another username. Keep in mind if a user is banned by username and their account is deleted the ban is deleted along with it as the username no longer exists, so banning by username may not be a good option.

Browse Ban Triggers

Here is where the ban triggers that have been set on your forum are. The default page shows all of the ban triggers by ip address. You can alternate what you are viewing by clicking on one of the top links:

IP | Hostname | Email | Username

You will see the banned entity, so for example if you are viewing IP bans, it will show the IP address, if you are viewing email bans you will see the email address that is banned. Next to that is the ban name and the number of hits the ban has. The last column with the checkbox is there to check bans and then click the "Remove selected ban triggers" button to remove and boxes you check.

Ban Log

The Ban List page of the Ban List section of the Administration Center shows a list of all of the members you have banned with the following details:

Ban Name - Just any name you wish to give to the ban.
Notes - Shows notes left about the ban, this can assist other staff members.
Reason - The reason the member was banned.
Added - When the ban was made.
Expires - When the ban will no longer take effect.
Triggers - Shows how the number of ways the member has been banned.
Actions - Shows a link to modify the ban.

To add a new ban click on the Add New Ban tab on the Ban List page.

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