New Spam Tool: Email Domain & IP Banning at Sign-Up

[Eric Suesz]

We're no fan of spam at Ning. We know it can be an annoyance, especially for Ning Creators who choose not to moderate membership. While we can't solve for every type of spam attack, we have put in place a number of spam tools in the last two years that can make a difference. If you haven't turned all of those on yet, we encourage you to take a minute to make sure you're Preventing Spam in the best ways you can.

Today, we're releasing another spam tool that allows Ning Plus and Pro to perform both email domain and IP banning. 

IP banning is a request we've had over time from people here on Creators, so we are sure that a few folks who've wanted to see this will be happy that it's now available. The feature is fairly straightforward, and it's entirely optional. You'll see a new column in Member Management for IP addresses, and you'll see the option to block in the Sign-up/Sign-in area.

Block IP addresses at sign-up

You can prevent anyone coming from a specific IP address from signing up for your site. Just enter the IP address you want to block, and no one will be able to sign up from that IP address.

Block email domains at sign-up

Similarly, you can choose email domains that you want to block from signing up for your community. If you see spam coming from an email domain like [e-mail], you can block all sign-ups that come from the @sharklasers.com domain.

Of course, these are powerful tools, so we recommend using them carefully and thoughtfully. If you ban an IP that hundreds of thousands of people potentially use, you cut off access to thousands of potential members.

• These options are only available to the Network Creator; not admins.
• You can remove the bans you put in place at any time.
• If someone is unable to sign in because of these blocks, they will see a specific message. The specific message is located in the Language Editor and can be customized.
• If someone is unable to sign in, they can still contact you, provided you have not turned off that option. That option is located in your own personal Email Settings area (Feedback and problem reports).
• The reports you receive from members having trouble includes the email and IP address, as well as whether either is blocked.

One other thing to note about this feature is that you may see that an IP record is "unavailable" in your listings. In most cases, this will be because the member joined before we were able to capture their IP address (i.e., before this tool was turned on a few weeks ago).

Want to know where an IP is geographically located? Look it up on InfoSniper

You can read all about how to Block an Email Domain or IP Address from Signing Up in the Help Center.

[Eric Suesz]

Member last visit is kind of unrelated to this spam tool, so we won't be able to add that in conjunction with a release like this. We wanted to include the search and sort, but we weren't able to fit in an IP search or sorting options for IP addresses. 

[ismail shah]

Hmm ok. 

Thx. but it would be great if added.

[Vipster]

Install this plug-in for Firefox to click and check IP addresses without going to Infosniper -> https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ip-address-lookup/

[Mat]

This is what we asked before!

After 2 years finally we got it! thanks Eric!! :) 

[Eric Suesz]

Not sure I understand fully, Mary. This will track the IP address people used when they joined your community. 

[Eric Suesz]

No. It will be a record of the IP address they joined with. 

[ismail shah]

Scott, They are using Proxies. They come to our network then we have to copy and past ID in block. u r rite . Report as Spam is more easy to block. 

About 20 min ago i exported my spam list and find that no IP is same. all are diffrent. dont know how this tool will work..

[ismail shah]

Here My Spammer List.

[Eric Suesz]

Scott: This tool won't stop all spammers, but it will help you stop email domains very effectively. 

[Eric Suesz]

I can absolutely see how you would want that, Austin, and I was anticipating that someone would request this. Unfortunately, this isn't something we can do easily. However, you will be able to sort this content by IP address if it appears in the Spam Watchlist. We're going to add that option in a week or two. 

[Apostle Solael]

Perfect!

[SweetPotato]

And there I was bleeting about the roadmap.
Cool tool.
Thank you, Ning.
SP

ps. Kind of off topic but sort of not... I have a question regarding members signing up via LinkedIn that have an email like xf_tg_jhg@linkedin etc. what is the reality of where their network messages get sent to?