Lots of bots/spammers trying to get in at the moment

[StevePSB]

Some very dodgy user names, e-mail addresses, locations and dates of birth being left at 01/01/1909 amongst a lot of recent registrations. I am 99% sure they're bots or spammers.

If any should slip the net and you see any spam posts, please use the 'report post' function (the little red exclamation mark) to flag them up for us to remove.

Thanks!

For the record, gmail has just been added to the banned e-mail provider list along with the already existing ban on yahoo and hotmail - it's too easy for spammers to use these free accounts, so unfortunately a blanket ban on them has to be made.

**Edit in light of discussion below**

Please note this doesn't affect users currently registered with a yahoo/hotmail/gmail account, only users trying to register with a yahoo/hotmail/gmail account or users trying to change their e-mail address to one of these accounts. If you are already registered and want to change your profile e-mail address to one of the above, please contact me - I can do it manually for you.


StevePSB

[Vince]

Even the bots cant wait to know when Love etc. will be out!

[gregf]

That's a shame gmail is now a problem.

It is such a brilliant email service : free IMAP now.
I dont know why anyone would use anything else.

Rules out contacting me by email.

[territorygal]

I had to ban Gmail for awhile on my website, too.
It's not so much that spammers are actually signing up for accounts, but Gmail is (unfortunately) very easy to spoof.

Nowadays, I require anyone signing up with a Gmail account to send an e-mail to the admin address, so that we can be sure it's a real person.

Greg - I suspect the ban only applies to new accounts, so you should still be contactable. I've got heaps of topic subscriptions here going to my own gmail account just fine.

[gregf]

Ah good. Thanks entygurl.

I suspect many folk just dont realise how good gmail is.
Happy to advise on this.

[StevePSB]

The only problem a current member will encounter with gmail is if you try to change your profile e-mail address to a gmail account - then it will tell you it's banned. If you have a gmail account already registered then you should have no problems.


StevePSB

[Danny C]

Very disappointing about Gmail, although it was a surprise to find Hotmail and Yahoo already on the banned list, as I only have Hotmail and Yahoo email accounts. Lord knows how I managed to register in the first place.

Such a shame that users of these services should be stigmatised like this because there aren't enough admin to police the board adequately.

Wouldn't it be better to require all new members to be manually approved by a member of staff instead of treating users of Hotmail/Yahoo/Gmail as second-class citizens?

At the moment you're using a mallet to shell peas.

[StevePSB]

If you've got an internet connection of your own then you should have an e-mail address from your own ISP. Danny C, you probably managed to register before these accounts were banned.

All new members are manually approved already. If they weren't there would have been about 15 spam/bot registrations enter in the last few days. Fortunately because I go through new users one by one I managed to stop them in their tracks. There's no 'second class citizen' about it, the facts are that spammers use free (and made up) e-mail accounts and chances are if they can't register with these accounts they will leave us alone. Those of you that have registered using one of these accounts already need not worry. As I said, it won't affect pre-existing users and will only cause an issue if you try changing your e-mail address in your profile to one of the banned providers.

There's absolutely no need for over-reaction here. I have no problem with manually changing the e-mail address of any pre-existing user here to a Yahoo/Hotmail/Gmail account if necessary, you only have to ask.


StevePSB

[gregf]

If you've got an internet connection of your own then you should have an e-mail address from your own ISP.

First of all, R-E-S-P-E-C-T Steve for what you do.

But,

No. There are huge advantages to Gmail over ISP mail addresses.

1. Your ISP will provide an email which uses POP. This allows you to use an email program like Thunderbird or (cough) Outlook.
There is a more advanced protocol called IMAP, mostly only in corporate email systems.
Yahoo will give you POP if you pay for it.
Gmail will give you POP for free and recently started giving IMAP for free.
I can check/use all my gmail accounts from home or iPhone, because of IMAP. Perfect synchronisation.

2. Many ISP mail boxes are 5 or 10 or 20 Megabytes. If you send them a song or two, their inbox is filled
and they ring up and abuse you because they didn't get the email from aunty Joan because of you.
Gmail inbox is several Gigabytes. You can send them 100 songs or photos and still stay friends.

3. If you use ISP email address and change providers, you have to notify everyone of the changed address.
If it is Gmail Etc (my word of the week), you keep the same email address for life. A pain for PayPal Etc.

4. Gmail also gives you Google calendar+contacts which can sync with iPhone calendar+contacts.

5. Don't use work email address for private use for many reasons. Especially "3".

I have been using Gmail for years and never had a security problem or spam problem.

-Greg
25 years in IT.

[territorygal]

But.. strictly for the purposes of signing up to the forum, you could use your IP e-mail address, then switch over to your Gmail account (with Steve's assistance), right?

BTW, I've got tons of Gmail invites, if anyone needs one.

[Vince]

^^ erm.. you dont need invites these days i guess :s that was just an initial hype building exercise to make gmail sseem "exclusive"..

@greg: yeah, i understand what you're saying.. BTW i ddint even realise i had an email id provided by my ISP till one year AFTER i got my net connection! and it get tonnes of mail to it.. from my ISP!!


Regards
Vince
-22 years on Earth hehe..

[territorygal]

Really? Well dang... silly Gmail keeps telling me I've got 99 invites left. I wonder why!

[gregf]

But.. strictly for the purposes of signing up to the forum, you could use your IP e-mail address, then switch over to your Gmail account (with Steve's assistance), right?

Yeah Entygal, 25 years in IT but I can still be a dufus.
Blame it on the heat.

^^ erm.. you dont need invites these days i guess :s that was just an initial hype building exercise to make gmail sseem "exclusive"..

Ah. I didn't know that. Maybe that was a mistake on their part.

[gregf]

Ah. Knew I forgot one.

6. Some ISPs create your your email address using your ISP login name.
This is giving away half of the credentials to your account.
A hacker knows he only has to get the password once he sees your email at that ISP.

So your ISP email address should be the one you never use.
LOL I have a friend who uses his as his MOST given away address.
And he wonders why his monthly capacity is always used up.

[glennjridge]

greg heres one if you know.lets say I want to surf the web at work,however its frowned upon. not only that all the desktop computers in my department are hooked up to the company network.

I know this because sometimes when I go to some websites like youtube or TMZ.com a big red stop sign comes up on the screen informing me its being blocked.

now lets say I get a laptop with one of those wireless cards....and I bring it to work and surf the internet. technically am I still going thru the network and as such they can block where I go and even more scarily...see where I am going? or is it if you are using a wireless card its not utilizing the companys network? the company desktops are hooked up to the network via a cable, but I'm thinking maybe like when one goes to starbucks you tap into the closest service.so I dont know if even though I'm not hooked into the network via cable,maybe I am utilizinfg soem kind of company wireless.

never clear on that.on my downtime I would like to check my mail also but its kinda creepy that maybe its possible they can see my email once I've logged in even if I'm using a laptop if I'm somehow uitilizing the network by accident.