Thanks for the prompt reply, Mike.
With your information I googled for "defaultsettings.php" and found
it in the 'includes' directory. I then copied the line
$wgSysopRangeBans = false; # Allow sysops to ban IP ranges
to my localsettings.php file and changed false to true.
This then enabled me to block 69.50.0.0/16 which I hope will get me
over one longstanding and persistent problem.
I shall remain susbscribed to this helpful mailing list in order to
keep up with developments in the forthcoming struggles against
spambots, particularly if some kind of shared blacklist or bot
detection strategy evolves.
Thanks again for the help.
Andy Roberts
you could:
1. enable blocking of ip blocks (see defaultsettings.php) then block
69.50.0.0/16
2. change your settings to only allow people who are logged in to edit
3. run a wiki bot, give that bot the ability to block suspected spammers
(this is what i do)
The first will only help for a short while, there are many spammers,
with all the wiki-mania going on on the web spammers see a great
opertunity to increase their google rank
the second works pretty well (there are a few bots that get through, but
no plan is perfect), but for a wiki that is starting out i concider
this an early death to the wiki unless you already have a good
readership and editorship
the 3rd works, but there are no public bots specifically made for this
that i know of off hand, I am currently building mine by hand and will
be releaseing it to the public when i feel its ready, if you want a
preview copy .. mail me and i'll see what i can do (my current version
is very rudimentary but blocks 95% of spammers, it still dosent auto revert)
Mike Valstar
http://gentoo-wiki.com
Andy Roberts wrote:
Hi all,
This is my first contribution, I have a few queries and I hope
somebody can help me find the solutions or information I need.
Problem:
I have a mediawiki running on a hosted web server ( ie not on my own
computer ) which is being repeatedly spammed by a bot or bots which
not only edits multiple pages inserting hundreds of porn links and so
on, but also creates lots of new pages and talk pages.
according to the version page, the wiki is running on
MediaWiki (
http://wikipedia.sf.net/): 1.3.5
PHP (
http://www.php.net/): 4.3.10 (apache)
MySQL (
http://www.mysql.com/): 4.0.24-standard-log
I can access the database using phpMyAdmin 2.6.3
The spammer(s) use IP addresses which vary, but always begin with 69.50.
So what I can do for now, after a spam attack, is to log in as
WikiSysop, block the individual IP number, go through reverting all
the pages and deleting the newly created ones.
Then I go to the phpMyAdmin page and run a few stored scripts which
delete all the unwanted edits from both 'old' and 'recentchanges' ,
empty archive , and then the database is back to normal without
expanding unmanageably.
My main question is :
How can I block the entire range of IP addresses like 69.50.* ??
Any help much appreciated, as I am determined to try and keep this
wiki open to all and not concede to the spambots.
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