How do you prevent someone from breaking into your forum?

[PlayADay]

Ive heard lots of stuff about people breaking into these forums and messing things up. How do I prevent that from happening?

[Jake Bunce]

password protect your admin directory. don't have more than one admin. delete thread.php from your mod directory so mods and supermods can't mass prune (or set their permissions accordingly). make sure your password is long, alphanumeric, uppercase / lowercase, etc (not easily guessed). make sure you are running the latest version of vBulletin.

you will be fairly safe if you do this.

[PlayADay]

How do I password protect my admin directory? I already have to login the admin cp using my forum user/pass. Does that mean its password protected?

[PlayADay]

Also, what does it mean when a regular members shows doing moderating duties on whos online? Does it mean they are actually in or does it mean they are attempting to moderate?

[filburt1]

Originally posted by PlayADay
How do I password protect my admin directory? I already have to login the admin cp using my forum user/pass. Does that mean its password protected?

Yes and no, it's only protected via your vB admin and password. See my signature on how to password-protect it with a second username/password that is only breakable via brute force provided your host set up everything correctly.

[filburt1]

Originally posted by PlayADay
Also, what does it mean when a regular members shows doing moderating duties on whos online? Does it mean they are actually in or does it mean they are attempting to moderate?

They are seeing a Permission Denied screen, so nothing to worry about.

[Steve Machol]

Originally posted by PlayADay
How do I password protect my admin directory?

The HTAccess Authentication Tutorial