The spam was written in a simple “code” called HTML Entities. Any HTML-aware application, like Mail, will convert these entities into the characters they represent. But the Mailist system I wrote years ago that powers FreewayTalk only “speaks” plain text by design, so it converted these entities back to their original format.
Walter
On Aug 13, 2013, at 11:15 AM, suez wrote:
Strange my spam was in English and it changed when I shared it. I am sorry I do not understand code.
I am happy to purchase your form if it can help me. I guess I do not have that for I just used the standard one.
What is the easiest way to change what I have? Is yours fatcow friendly?
I am dyslexic . I purchased Freeway for it was easy to set up compared to others. Thanks for your help!
I imagine that the easiest thing to do would be to wait until Tim updates PHP Feedback Form. All that will require is downloading the later version of the Action and publishing again. Changing to EasyForm will require a new installation on your server, and a non-trivial one, because it will require confirming that the ionCube loader software is installed on your server. Many have it, but it’s by no means a non-issue.
As well as the code Walter kindly supplied there is another feature in there that silently checks two ‘email’ fields in the form to make sure that the addresses supplied match.
Regards,
Tim.
On 13 Aug 2013, at 16:23, Walter Lee Davis wrote:
I imagine that the easiest thing to do would be to wait until Tim updates PHP Feedback Form.
If you are already using the PHP Feedback Form Action (you should see it applied to your page somewhere) then simply download the updated version I posted earlier and drop it on your Freeway application icon. This should update the Action you already have. Publish your site again and upload and you should be set.
If you’re not using the PHP Feedback Form Action (or don’t know) then point us to a page online with your form on it and I’ll be able to tell you if it uses the Action or not.
Regards,
Tim.
On 13 Aug 2013, at 17:51, suez wrote:
Know I am really confused. Tim is this an upgrade to what I already have or something else altogether?
Another pattern I have found in the spam is the name. They just type in one word name with no space.
So what will be the most "stress free " way to go .
I am not very tech savy…why I picked this program, but the spam has to go.
Hi Tim,
I opened the updated action and it said it would replace the other one. I did not have to drop it in. It says 2.4.7 in the actions palette now. Is this correct? It seems to look the same as before. I have uploaded this also. If this is not the updated version what steps do I need to update it correctly? Thanks for your help!
You don’t need to do anything more. The code Walter Supplied is already in the PHP code that the Action creates. Upload your site and keep your fingers crossed that this fixes your spam issues.
If not then you could use the action to block the IP address of the machine that sent you that last spam message; 198.2.204.149. Enter this into the Action palette and the script will prevent that IP address from posting messages again.
Regards,
Tim.
Okay, just figured this out. The issue is with the PHP I provided. Without specifying that the resulting output should be Unicode, the output of my function and the input (in this case, since the input was in Japanese) would be identical, and thus the same number of characters. Here’s what the function should look like:
Thanks for the updated PHP Walter. Unfortunately I’m not going to be able to get the Action updated for a week as I’m going to be away but will look at this on my return.
Suez, looking at the spam emails you’ve been receiving I can see that they all originate from the same IP range in Sunnyvale, California (http://whatismyipaddress.com/ip/198.2.204.149). In the ‘Blocked IP addresses’ field in the PHP Feedback Form Action try entering the following IP address; 198.2.204.*
The asterisk at the end of the IP address is a wildcard and should match any number from 0 to 255 inclusive. I’ve not tried wildcards like this with the Action but I wouldn’t be surprised if they worked.
Regards,
Tim.
Hi Tim,
Unfortunately I’m getting more and more spam. In general they have a lot of numbers. I entered the IP address above as per your suggestion. I receive spam from 198.24.152.124 . I put it in with the* However I don’t think it matters because I’m checking the IP addresses and I’m getting the spam from all kinds of places. For example: Sadly there are many others. I look forward to when you can update the PHP again.
I just wanted to report back. Mike helped me I set up easiform and captcha using the simple math. So far so good, I haven’t received any spam. It was definitely worth $30 to not have to see that spam anymore.