Messageboard visitors/posts

[brarydon]

When visiting a public messageboard, how can a site track its visitors? On a computer with cookies disabled, dynamic ip domain masks, how can the computer be tracked for repeat visits and post content?

[ss2chef]

Perhaps you may need to start blocking entire subnets..

Can kill forum traffic but as they say....Thats the breaks.

[brarydon]

That's a possibility. Would that be done on the web server (IIS, in this case)?

[MrLinus]

You might want to look at server side sessions. This technique is used in PHP and can be a method of tracking users. Is this question, however, about blocking users or keeping track of them as far as what posts they have read or what they have posted?

[brarydon]

Initially to track what they've posted (what they are reading is interesting also). Then blocking if they are continually posting objectionable/off-topic messages.

[MrLinus]

Two seperate processes then. IMHO, I'd use the server side sessions to keep track of users who don't use cookies and to avoid cookies usage in general.

Then to deal with users who do "no-no" things, I'd put in place specific bans through firewalls and/or local files that deny access (I'm think *nix and the hosts.deny/hosts.allow files). Start with specific bans based on IP and go broader if it becomes more problematic. Lastly, you may need to consider switching to a username/password login to limit who has access if they become specifically caustic.

[chsh]

If you're running Apache, you may also want to consider the Deny directive as supplementary to the hosts.deny/hosts.allow option. It can be placed within any .htaccess file, or within a <Directory> directive in the main configuration. For the sake of keeping it manageable, you'll probably want to go with your Deny directive.

[brarydon]

If IIS has such a mechanism, I'd need to deny an entire subnet?

I'm looking though IIS now for this option.

Many thanks.

[brarydon]

Great site.

So, we disable subnet, short of going to another network, what can a determined user do to get on the messageboard anyway?

[the_JinX]

the determined user could use a proxy..

if the user from the usa would use a proxy say in germany he'd have an entirely different subnet..