Search for phpbb

MSN search engine is working good for all keywords except "phpbb"
http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=phpbb&FORM=QBHP
What could be the reason ?

 

I am getting this result when I search on msn for phpbb

We are seeing an increased volume of traffic by some malware software. In order to protect our customers from damage from that malware, we are blocking your query. A few legitimate queries may get flagged, and for that we apologize. Please be assured that we are hard at work on this problem and hope to get it resolved even better as soon as possible.
If you are using phpBB, please check out the phpBB downloads site http://www.phpbb.com/downloads.php and make sure you are not vulnerable.
- MSN Search Team

 

im seeing the same as above.

 

phpBB had a security flaw, and hackers were using MSN to find phpBB boards to hack, so MSN blocked all queries for the term "phpbb" to stop the hackers.

 

Could you give some reference ?

 

I run a phpbb forum and am getting spammed all the time with new sign-ups just to post the website in the personal information section of the member profile. These spammers are using bots to do this.

The worst part is that they don't post to the forum, so there is no way to record the IP and block it.

I'm thinking of switching to a different forum script. PHPBB really needs to fix this aspect in a future update, rather than relying on adding mods.

 

Do you have image and email verification?

 

I don't have image verification, but I'm thinking of installing that mod now. Thanks for the tip.

As for email verfication, I do have this set up, but it doesn't stop the user's profile from showing up in the member list. PHPBB shows inactive members as well as active members.

*EDIT...Ok, I set up a mod I found on PHPBB that removes them and their profile from the memberlist. This way their bots will keep adding new members to my forum member count, but it won't show their live links anywhere on the site.

 

It's actually not a mod it's standard in the latest version (not sure which version they introduced it). If you find it's not offered as an option in your admin panel you may have to drop the 'subsilver' admin template in and voila! it's there Had to do this today for a client as he had the same problem.

UPDATE: Be careful when doing this as it appears it doens't work on some templates. Remember to have a copy of your original template just incase.

Lux

 

thats really strange. They have intenionally blocked the query for some reason.

 

Did you actually read this whole thread? The 'reason' is pretty obvious.

Lux