Banning an IP

[Former Member]

wellieswheelbarrows.proboards.com/

How can I ban a member's IP when I've no idea if it's static or dynamic?  Surely with v5 banning an IP is never going to be an option, now I can't check IPs.

There's been a influx of spammers on my forum just lately advertising Kitchens in Manchester! 

Jan 23, 2013 1:09:23 GMT -8 @fietaa said:

Kitchens Manchester. www.solidwoodkitchen.co.uk . Full kitchens with appliances. £595 TEL-01616-694785. Kitchens Manchester


Kitchens Manchester

Could someone please explain 'Ban member by Global ID' please?

Screen shot:  http://i493./rr297/WWWF_08/Beta/Banning.jpg

[Maiden]

Huh we had the same spammer on our V4 this morning. I just banned and deleted them myself lol.

Banning by Global ID is the equivalent of banning by email address because it bans their global account which is tied to an email address.

[Former Member]

Bump.

[RedBassett]

Greetings,

As mentioned above by Maiden, a global account is linked to a specific email address, so banning a global account simply bans other accounts on that email.

You can ban a member by IP by going to the gear icon by a post and selecting "moderate" > "ban member", or via the gear icon on a member's profile.

[Former Member]

Hi RedBassett, please reread the first sentence in my OP.

[Shrike]

Jan 24, 2013 14:35:15 GMT -8 @ritab said:

Hi RedBassett, please reread the first sentence in my OP.

You don't need to do anything different, it will still ban the IP address of that member. Besides, there's no way to reliably check if they had a dynamic IP address or not anyway.

[Former Member]

Hi Shrike - I've been checking IPs on the following website for years.... whatismyipaddress.com/

Correct me if I'm wrong - banning a member with a dynamic IP could result in banning other members too. My IP is dynamic it changes each time I log on to the internet.

[Shrike]

Jan 24, 2013 14:43:56 GMT -8 @ritab said:

Hi Shrike - I've been checking IPs on the following website for years.... whatismyipaddress.com/

Correct me if I'm wrong - banning a member with a dynamic IP could result in banning other members too. My IP is dynamic it changes each time I log on to the internet.

So have you just never banned someone if their IP address was dynamic? Like I said, it's very unreliable to work out if an IP address is dynamic or not.

The risk itself is very small though. In my 5 years or so of using multiple PB forums as well as several wikis (which also can ban by IP), I've never encountered a ban message in this way, and I know the ISPs I used at time (and now) were dynamic. If someone does encounter the problem, they only need wait a few hours/days or just restart their computer/router to get a new address.

[RedBassett]

As mentioned by Shrike, the chance of banning other users via dynamic IP is extremely small. The bigger risk is the banned member getting a new IP and returning, but this was as much a risk in V4. In V4 you had to copy the new IP address and ban it. In V5, as mentioned in my previous post, banning is far faster and easier, with less chance of error.

[Former Member]

Please take a look at the diagram in the following thread RedBassett and Shrike.

support.proboards.com/thread/432894/banning-member

[RedBassett]

Knowing a dynamic vs static IP does not make a difference as to the process of banning a member. The likelyhood of banning a legitimate user is still extremely small. You have not lost any banning functionality from V4.

[Former Member]

What say you Patrick [ASE]? 

[RedBassett]

Patrick is referring to a specific location, which may share an IP. Again, we are talking the chance that two of your users use the same internet café, and that you would want to IP ban one of those.

In the almost seven years I have been here on support (with this account), I have seen one or two cases of members accidentally banned by a dynamic IP ban.

[Former Member]

I'd rather not take the risk RedBassett - there could be many cases that have just not come to light.

[RedBassett]

I understand the concern, and in that case, in either V4 or V5, you should only ban by email or global account and username.