IP bans

[Christopher]

Hello,

Ban evading seems to be a big thing at the moment and it occurred to me that MCM uses CloudFlare and CloudFlare has an IP ban system, so why not use that, stop people at the gate rather then when they are already in the house?

And before you say it takes time, there is an API for a reason, ban them here and on CloudFlare. Just get Lyphiard to integrate it.

Anyway, just an idea.

 

[Chearful]

MCM has various other ways of detecting alts. These include:
- Cookies
- Local Storage
- IP Addrs etc

IMO this is not needed.

 

[Christopher]

MCM has various other ways of detecting alts. These include:
- Cookies
- Local Storage
- IP Addrs etc

IMO this is not needed.

Is it working though? Not really.

 

[Chearful]

Is it working though? Not really.

Oh yes it is.

 

[Christopher]

I don't know though. But I've heard from a couple of members that IPBanning on Xenforo isn't working properly. So, I don't think this will work.

Hello,

Ban evading seems to be a big thing at the moment and it occurred to me that MCM uses CloudFlare and CloudFlare has an IP ban system, so why not use that, stop people at the gate rather then when they are already in the house?

And before you say it takes time, there is an API for a reason, ban them here and on CloudFlare. Just get Lyphiard to integrate it.

Anyway, just an idea.

CloudFlare.

 

[Ansett]

I can see this working but i'm pretty sure there is a VPN that can bypass the VPN filter.

 

[Christopher]

I don't know though. But I've heard from a couple of members that IPBanning on Xenforo isn't working properly. So, I don't think this will work.

What are you saying? Using CloudFlare to IP ban, you said Xenforo.

 

[Ivain]

The problem with IP bans is the amount of false positives. In our IP checking tools there's often loads of members that have instances where their IP matches other users, including banned ones. If we were to completely ban those IP's, they would be banned from there as well until they reset their router, assuming they even have a dynamic IP.
Sometimes, the system already autobans people who share an IP with a banned member, but half the time, again, this is a false positive.
Not to mention half the actual ban evaders use a VPN or similar that has not been blocked by us yet. There's been numerous cases of there being a match only by an identical skype.

So all in all I don't feel having total IP bans will contribute a lot.

 

[Fire]

Unplug your modem, go and have a drink and a biscuit, come back plug your modem back in, then your ISP will assign you a new IP. As simple as that. False positives would be a huge problem, and ban evaders could just do the above.

 

[Hethempunch]

Unplug your modem, go and have a drink and a biscuit, come back plug your modem back in, then your ISP will assign you a new IP. As simple as that. False positives would be a huge problem, and ban evaders could just do the above.

I forgot where staff has Mentioned this before, But It isn't that simple, Staff doesn't just match the ips, They look at their Internet company if it's the same and if the ip is Smaller to the persons, They also Look at some other things but I just don't remember.

 

[Fire]

I forgot where staff has Mentioned this before, But It isn't that simple, Staff doesn't just match the ips, They look at their Internet company if it's the same and if the ip is Smaller to the persons, They also Look at some other things but I just don't remember.

The OP's suggestion is for an IP ban, i was stating how easy it would be to get around that, and that it would cause problems. I wasnt talking about what they currently do just what the OP was suggesting.

 

[Ajdin]

Unplug your modem, go and have a drink and a biscuit, come back plug your modem back in, then your ISP will assign you a new IP. As simple as that. False positives would be a huge problem, and ban evaders could just do the above.

This doesn't always work. Some providers have a really long IP lease time. My 'dynamic' IP hasn't changed for months.


Automatic IP bans are a terrible idea. A lot of people use MC-Market from a mobile network or other public connections, it wouldn't be wise to ban it.

So no, the XenForo IP banning system isn't broken. We just don't use it super often.

If you get banned and try registering, it wouldn't work anyways until you do some extra voodoo. Our detection methods usually catch ban evaders.