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.

[Date360]

u did not put how we can go about it on our ning network, how to activate it,

[Eric Suesz]

It's already activated, Date360.

[soaringeagle]

go to manage to see the emails and ips

go to signup/signin to block them from signing up

[Perrie Halpern]

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

[RF]

OMG....NING! you have outdone yourselves with this one...seriously, I can't believe it. NING has officially crossed the top of the threshold, NING was originally the best but now??? no one can touch NING!...many will try and all will fail ^^ LOL

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO YAY!!!!!!!!!! :D :D :D :D :D :D 

GO TEAM NING!

[RF]

HAHAHHA I just had a thought a sinister laugh...cause I just thought, damn now I WANT a spammer to try to sign up lol! just me being silly. :P

[soaringeagle]

awesome awesome and i do want to point out a few things here..

most spamers use proxies so blocking ips wont do awhi[ole lot (but watch fpr spammers with matching ips then ban)

the ip ban is powerful but should be last resport and i would think its best used for repeat troublemakers  trolls or people who just join under multiple names to cause trouble and or stalk members etc in those cases the ip bans the best option

some email domains like 123.com are used often by spammers so that tool should possibly be used more often although again it can block a hell of alot of people that use those domains legitimately (wich ive never seen legit members use that oarticular 1)

you may want to search your man=mbers by the email domain before blocking it just in case

yahoo is an often abused domain but  blocking it potentialy blocks millions of legu-=it members so its not good to block

just use with care and only when you really must

eric stuff we block is it added to a platform wide watch list?

[dave]

I don't suppose you have some code to match existing duplicate ip's ? would take a very long time manually checking all existing ip's Se.

[Emmanuel Ace]

AwesomeNing.

1 questions.

Let's say i block the @yahoo.com, will this effect the members that already used @yahoo.com

[Eric Suesz]

No, just new sign-ups, but I definitely don't recommend blocking Yahoo.

[Jen]

Nice addition, thanks Ning.

[dave]

Great work Eric :-)