IP Address bans

[admin]

The list of banned IP addresses is growing to reduce hacking attempts plus effect a reduction in what seems questionable traffic to the site.

There has been consistent series of attempts from the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Brazil, China, Phillipines, Thailand and other countries logged on the web server as well as some sort of crawler out of France. The only way to keep them out is to ban the IP address ranges as they are discovered.

Since implementation, the count of "guests" showing down the bottom of the entry page has reduced radically.

Why am I putting this out there ?? I may accidentally lock out a valid users IP !
  
If that happens then they need to email me via the address below quoting their public/external IP address and request the block removal.

webmaster (at)  ahrdf (dot) net.

Admin

[VK4BLP]

in addition to what the Admin has said, if you hear of someone who has suddenly been locked out of the forum, please get them to send an email to the above address.

I'm sure the Admin would like to get you back on if you haven't done anything wrong.

[VK5PJ]

Hello Admin,
 you may want to have a look to see if this particular flavour of bulletin board has a geolocation module that you can use to look up and lock out all ip ranges assigned to specific countries.
My work place does this for our internal resources that we only want to be accessed from AUS and a few other countries.

Regards,
Peter, vk5pj

[admin]

Peter

Thanks for the reminder. I use an IP2Location-based plugin on another CMS site but hadn't checked for a version of it for this Forum package. There was one so it is now active here and will make it easier to control access from unexpected countries.

The banned countries list will change over time based on unusual traffic and hacking attempts.

Thanks, Admin

PS : I am not against amateur radio operators in other countries registering and utilising the forum. It seems that the majority of hacking attempts have come from the areas listed in an earlier post but I will ban whole countries if only to stop just one hacker from that area. 

If you feel you are being unfairly restricted from accessing the Forum, email directly to the earlier address.

[VK2AZ]

Hi Admin,
Getting multiple errors from the IP2Location plugin.
Warning [2] unpack(): Type C: not enough input, need 1, have 0 - Line: 1118 - File: inc/plugins/ip2location/class.IP2Location.php PHP 5.4.45 (Linux)

[VK2YOC]

Hi Guys, same thing happening here.

John,   VK2YOC.

[admin]

Ok, thanks for that info. Have temporarily turned that function off pending tests.

PS: Looks like the database wasn't in the required folder - all seems ok now.

[VK4ADC]

It is probably time to bring this to users attention again particularly as more and more people are using VPNs for web access.

Many countries around the globe have had their IPV4 address groups inhibited from accessing this Forum. I try to keep the Australian and New Zealand IPV4 address series available at all times but they update them month to month. There is no IPV6 access to this webserver. 

What it does mean is that if you use a dedicated VPN or even a browser like Opera with its internal VPN function activated, you may not be able to access the Forum.  If you are physically located in VK or ZL, turn off your VPN and the Forum will allow access.

This Forum has little personal information stored about its users. It keeps your callsign (login name), your password and an avatar if set up, the IP address you registered from, your email address, the last IP address you accessed the forum from plus the times and numbers of accesses. Nothing else.  Not even your name is required, no phone numbers, birthdays.  Cookies on your own computer help establish who you are when you go to log in but they aren't stored here.

There are no trackers, no malware headers, no links to commercial advertising, no popups, so no real need to access via VPN.

New users: Provided I can find your info to confirm that you are where you say you are (by IP lookup and thus in VK, ZL or other acceptable country), and that agrees with info I can find on the ACMA Register or from other sources, I let your account stand. If not, I request info via email to the provided email address and may either remove or edit the user account. 

Doug, Admin