I noticed FS was kinda sluggish when I was uploading memes a bit ago. I checked the server and the server load was way above normal. I tried rebooting the server while I was there. Didn't help.

I just checked to see how many members and guests online. There were close to 1500 guests with Chinese IP's. I've been banning the IP addresses. Hopefully it helps.

9 minutes ago, ckf said:

There were close to 1500 guests with Chinese IP's.

Oh no, they’re on to us! Soon they’ll know the moon landing was fake and their mayor spy was a democrat!

They were pissed we talked about their Mayor/Agent.

This morning it was slow as hell, much better now.

What is China??

It's down to around 600 now. The number should continue to drop unless they come back with a different IP range.

51 minutes ago, ckf said:

It's down to around 600 now. The number should continue to drop unless they come back with a different IP range.

Does that happen often? Seems odd.

Chinese joos.

37 minutes ago, akvanden said:

Does that happen often? Seems odd.

No,. It's been a while since it's happened that I know of. Last time I think it was Russian bots.

Having issues now, are we under attack again?

3 minutes ago, Stephen Hawking said:

Having issues now, are we under attack again?

Doesn't appear to be.

Freedom sledder coming into the Chinese Bots Algorithm

Had to be the Mayor Spy thread thats wild.

They are trying to share new information with Lloyd

You must pay 10 G's cash before we will return your "Snowmobile" website to your control.

You must post a picture of your Left Shoe and the 10 G's Cash before we provide you with the instructions on how to deliver the 10 G's to us and a possible location called "Sandys"

They are back....

30 minutes ago, ckf said:

They are back....

someone must have bumped the mayor thread again.

The leaning dick thread?

Since FreedomSledder.com runs on Invision Community (formerly IP.Board), admins have several ways to manage or block traffic from specific regions like China.

1. Geo-Blocking (Built-in)

Invision Community includes a Spam Prevention suite that allows for regional restrictions.

• Registration Blocking: Admins can go to Admin CP > System > Settings > Spam Prevention and use the Geolocation settings to temporarily block registration from specific countries.

• IP Ban Filters: For more permanent blocks, admins can manually enter China's IP ranges into Admin CP > Members > Member Settings > Ban Settings. However, manually maintaining thousands of IP ranges is usually inefficient.

2. Infrastructure-Level Blocking (The Better Way)

Most professional forums use a third-party service like Cloudflare to handle regional traffic.

• Firewall Rules: Using Cloudflare (which FreedomSledder appears to use, based on typical forum setups), an admin can create a single firewall rule to "Block" or "Challenge" (CAPTCHA) any visitor whose country is "China."

• Efficiency: This stops the traffic at the server's "front door" before it even reaches the forum software, saving server resources and being far more accurate than manual IP lists.

3. Challenges with Banning China

• VPNs & Proxies: Many users (or bots) use VPNs to appear as if they are in the US or Europe, bypassing country-level blocks.

• Collateral Damage: Broadly blocking a country can sometimes affect legitimate users or search engine crawlers if not configured carefully.

Summary for Admin

If you are the admin trying to curb spam:

1. Check Admin CP > Members > Ban Settings for individual IP blocks.

2. Use the Geolocation settings under Spam Prevention to stop new account registrations.

3. The most effective method is setting a WAF (Web Application Firewall) rule in your hosting control panel or Cloudflare to block all traffic by country.

We aren't using Cloudflare. I don't know much about it.

We are using Invision's built in spam prevention. They aren't getting through that as we aren't seeing spammers registering.

I did try some IP address range blocking using a few wildcats. But they just come back with a different IP range.

There are also some rules that can be added to the .htaccess file on the server. That might be what they are referring to as firewall rules.

Maybe this is something @NaturallyAspirated can help with when he has the time.

I just made CE completely invisible for guests. Maybe that will slow them down for a bit.

Server load is trending down for now.

Can you geoblock the whole country? Ain't much Freedom or Sledders in China anyways.

36 minutes ago, teamgreen02 said:

Can you geoblock the whole country? Ain't much Freedom or Sledders in China anyways.

It probably can, but that's above my pay grade. That's why I need Neal

3 minutes ago, ckf said:

It probably can, but that's above my pay grade. That's why I need Neal

Maybe it was Trump's entourage? Should die down any minute. They are wheels up and they took away their burner phones.

6 minutes ago, ckf said:

It probably can, but that's above my pay grade. That's why I need Neal

Change it so any and everybody has to be logged in to view the site for a couple weeks???