phpBB Live Email Validation failing?

[probedb]

Hi all,

I have a Live Email Validation plugin installed on phpBB to stop spambots registering. - http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=280755&highlight=lev

This worked fine when I was with 34sp.com, however on bluehost everytime anyone tries to register they get an error saying it can't connect to the SMTP server or something?

It basically does proper MX record checks.

Anyone any ideas as bluehost haven't responded to a ticket I opened about it :(

Cheers.

Paul.

[Objective]

This is a phpBB Mod install issue so you really need to go to phpBB for support. THe BH folks can't be responsible for sorting out coding problems really.

I found this mod did not work for me, but ascribed it to errors on my part rather than the mod itself, since others seem to be having no problems.

I suggest you remove the mod and reinstall it to double check you got it right. Also read all the dialogue on the phpBB forum abou this - there are 10 pages of discussion there.

I ended up abandoning this one and using some other anti-spam measures which are discussed in a different post in this forum (search will direct you).

Good luck

[Basil]

Instead of using email validation to stop spambots use CAPTCHA.

[dkinzer]

Instead of using email validation to stop spambots use CAPTCHA.
Unfortunately, the standard phpBB CAPTCHA can be broken fairly easily, 85% success rate, I think I read. It is well known that spambots can defeat it.

There are some replacement CAPTCHA mods that look like they may be better. There are other anti-spambot mods that may be useful as well.

[Basil]

The reason I bring it up is the email limit imposed by bluehost, which may or may not become a problem. phpBB does have an option to simply not use SMTP for outgoing email.

[probedb]

As already said CAPTCHA is easy to break. I've resorted to manually administering registrations.

The email validation thing isn't a phpBB issue it's a PHP issue with bluehost as all it is is PHP and all it does is things like trying to open an SMTP connection to do some validation, it's this that fails.

Like I said this works fine on other providers, the forum was moved wholesale from 34sp and now it doesn't work.

I'm going to dig into the code so I can replicate the error using my own PHP so it doesn't get thrown out as a phpBB issue, it's not, it's a PHP issue.

[dkinzer]

Like I said this works fine on other providers, the forum was moved wholesale from 34sp and now it doesn't work.
If the code is using the standard port 25 to connect to the SMTP server, that will be a problem. I have been having erratic problems using port 25 and the response to my ticket was that port 25 has been closed due to abuse. You can still connect to the SMTP server, just use port 26 instead. I changed to port 26 and that resolved my problems.

[Mazzic]

Your probably using a shared IP. IF so then you can not open any outgoing connections except for ports 80 and 443.

The script is attempting to open an SMTP connection to their server, for validating the user and this is not happening due to the port restrictions.

The purchase of a dedicated IP should handle this issue.

The use of port 26 is only for talking to the bluehost mail servers. They have added port 26 as a secondary listen port. This is to get around the issue of ISP's blocking port 25 on their networks.

[dkinzer]

You're probably using a shared IP.
If you were referring to me, I have a dedicated IP address.