Need advice! Large forum seeking to block Proxies. Can it be done?

**Apoclypse** · 06-07-2008, 06:48 AM

Hello!

I am a staff member at Markee Dragon (MD Account Buy Sell Trade WoW Conan FFXI RS LoTRO L2 HGL MS SWG EQ2 WHO Warcraft - Powered by UBB.threads™), a large gaming targeted forum. We have a slight dilemma. We are looking for ways to stop as many proxies as possible from entering the website. We don't want the hassle of single IP banning and are looking for something somewhat automated. From my experience there is not much you can do with proxies but hopefully I am wrong and someone knows a solution to this.

The reason we are trying to have proxies blocked is because of the nature of the website. We are a trading site and scamming has given Markee Dragon somewhat of a bad name and we are trying to combat against that. Most of the scammers who are banned just evade the bans through proxies.

If you know of any tactics, programs, or anything please post them here. Costs are not a concern.

Thank you!

**Jolteon** · 06-08-2008, 01:01 AM

I don't know how it's done, but I know it is possible, there is a vBulletin mod that can do it. You might be able to take a look at it to find out how it tells a proxy from a real person. (or a university/ISP forced proxy)

Link to the mod, I know it won't work on UBB, but the principles it uses to detect the proxies may be of use to you: Web Proxy Redirector [BETA] - vBulletin.org Forum

I'm sorry I couldn't be of any further help.

**Sir TVDinner** · 06-08-2008, 02:48 PM

could your hosting company help with this? I imagine they could. Maybe it is a cpanel option or something you could contact them about?

also, great looking site. love the header dragon image.

**Exochat** · 06-10-2008, 01:42 PM

I know that some forum hosting companies have a blacklist of proxy sites and may be able to help supply that list and a way to block them all at once. It would just be a case of adding new proxy sites to that blacklist as and when you become aware of them.

I know that phpbbserver.com is a free forum hosting company that use phpbb2 and 3 and they have a proxy blocker in place blocking thousands of blacklisted sites. If they can do it for phpbb2/3 then it should be something you could do yourself if you ask the right people.