Registration Question Entry?

[Mike Jordan]

When someone (or some thing) is registering and filling out the new registration information, does this get written to the database while they are entering the data or is it stored in memory until they have finished?

What I would like to know is is possible to see what has been entered before they have finished? For instance, I know I have spam bots trying to register and I suspect they get to my question or the captcha and can't go any further. So they sit there for 10 or 15 minutes until their program times out and they drop off. I never get to see what they entered up to that point. So I was wondering if any of that data was entered into any of the tables in the database so it could be looked at.

Thanks

Mike

[Steve Machol]

It is only stored when they have submitted the data. There is no way I know of to know what someone types in a field before they submit it.

[Mike Jordan]

That's what I figured, Steve.

If I had access to the server, I could put a anayliser on it and capture the data coming in and see it that way. I suspect a lot of the bots are the same programs passed around between the different groups and if the way and what data they entered could be captured, it would be easier to put up a defense... or at least not use questions and answers that match anything they try automatically. It wouldn't stop them, but it would be another tool to slow them down if this information was passed around like all the login names, IP addresses and e-mail addresses.


I'm not getting as many attemps made on my small forum as some people on here have reported, but like them, it all started at the same time. Only one was able to log in but since I turned on random slants, nobody has been able to yet. But I know it's only a matter of time so I'm considering going to a closed system and require a e-mail request to register. At least that will stop all but the most determined people that are willing to pretend they are interested in the dog breed our forum is about.

Thanks Steve.

Mike

[steven s]

You are certainly making it hard on yourself.
I added one simple question to the registration form since my forum. I have had not one single spammer registration. Previously I had a few each week and at one point each day.

[Mike Jordan]

You are certainly making it hard on yourself.
I added one simple question to the registration form since my forum. I have had not one single spammer registration. Previously I had a few each week and at one point each day.

I do have the question set up. And yes, that stops the robots. But it won't stop the humans... unless they can't read English at all and then they wouldn't understand the question and what they had to enter. But when we are up against whole countries of government backed spammers (and even back in the modem days Russia and China supported their computer hackers) that are more interested in idenity thieft and spyware than spam, they are going to get better and better at it, faster than vBulletin and other forum developers can create blocks. If the robots become useless, they will throw more humans at it. If lack of English handicaps them, they will bring in those that know English. Just like in the modem days, the only way to 100% block these people is to not have your computer connected so they have access to it. And since we are such social creatures (why else do we run forums? ), there are always going to be ways for these groups to get access to our forums.

I see a lot of posts on here from people that seem to want to blame the vBulletin group for not putting in safeguards to stop these people. That's because most don't realize just how determined, how orginized and how big these groups are. Instead of demanding that vBulletin do something, they should be thanking them for doing as good of a job as they have been in spite of the odds they are fighting against.

If a majority of the forums in the US would go to a closed or moderated registration system for just a week, you would see panic in China and Russia and the other countries that sponsor these data terrorists and depend on the income it brings in, that would rival what OPEC is going through right now because the price of oil is dropping.

Mike