This is a document for versions of E-Blah newer than Platinum 9.71 and is the offical document for CAPTCHA in E-Blah 10.0.

There is a new feature in E-Blah that allows administrators to request that their members are, indeed, members and not computers.  This is best known as captcha (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captcha).

To use this feature in E-Blah you must be using Platinum 9.71 or higher and have the following two modules installed:

- MD5
- GD

Most servers will have these installed.  If your server does not have them installed, ask your host to install them for you.  I've tried to make it where everyone can use this feature, but it's not possible because of the gdlib that are not the same for all servers.

If you have the two modules above, you should be ready to go on to the next step.

You'll need to download the GD::SecurityImage module (http://www.eblah.com/?v=downloads&f=SecurityImage.zip).  The directory structure should be straight forward as to how to install this module.  After this module is installed, enable the feature in Admin/Settings called "Enable Registration Human Verification".

After enabled, test it by logging out and going to "Register".  You should see an image if all goes as planned.

Also, please note that if you are upgrading you need to add the new folder "Random" to the /blahdocs directory.  You'll also need to make sure that directory is CHMODed, as the install documents say, 777.  Finally, you'll need to make sure that in Admin/Settings your blahdocs DIR is set (previously only URL was required).  Upon your first of your settings from upgrading E-Blah will ATTEMPT to locate this directory, it MAY not work and you'll need to maually set it.

I hope this isn't over anyones head.

Enjoy!

PS: Craig, there's a few new things the install docs need, as indicated here.  :)

dosn´t seams to work on win2003 server with iis, when i turn it on it just show a emty white page  :-/

You've got to install the modules and make sure GD is installed.

ok i have downloaded the files at they should be in the right folders, anything more i need to do, and how?  :) .. by the way, is working on a translation so the forum can work in danish to, but will take some time though  :D

Well, installing GD isn't always easy.  I forgot how, exactly, I installed it on my Win2K server.

Quoted from Justin

Well, installing GD isn't always easy.  I forgot how, exactly, I installed it on my Win2K server.

Ok Justin, but let me know if you remember  ;) would be nice if i got it up and running  :D

Hey,

I was searching on how to install the GD module on a windows server because I too have a windows server. Here is what I found:

1. Download the bgd.dll from GD library web site.
2. Copy the bgd.dll to your windows\system folder.
3. Run the following command at the DOS prompt:

    ppm install http://theoryx5.uwinnipeg.ca/ppms/GD.ppd (assuming Perl 5.8), or

    ppm install http://theoryx5.uwinnipeg.ca/ppmpackages/GD.ppd (for Perl 5.6)

Copy the attached files to your Perl install path library directory. i.e. C:\Perl\lib and rename to md5.pm and gd.pm
Hope this helps.

Great piece of software.

pcmantinker what an excellent set of instructions - many thanks!

Cheers,

Michael

where can you get different fonts if at all possible

You can use any true type font.  You can download them from the web, or use any of the standard ones that come with Windows.

Quoted from Craig

You can use any true type font.  You can download them from the web, or use any of the standard ones that come with Windows.

However, some of them are copyrighted and you could get in trouble for using just any you find.  ;)

May I recommend http://www.urbanfonts.com for some nice, obscure fonts. The decorative catigory is great for capatchas, but chose ones that will be slightly readable. Humans should be able to pass too!

Spammers are getting smarter, though. There was a recent news posted on CodeProject about how spammers are using new AIs to beat capatchas! May I recommend E-Blah use something like Microsoft's new Capatcha system, http://research.microsoft.com/sn/asirra/, which requires authenticators to pick all the cats from the pictures of cats and dogs. Plus they're all non-adopted pets, so it helps get them homes.

oh no... i enabled Registration Human Verification without installing  GD::SecurityImage module and now i'm getting an error on login

Internal Server Error
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.
Please contact the server administrator, webmaster@domain.com and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log.


Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

can i know how to fix this?

Go to Admin/Settings and disable Human Verification.

but now i can't even login so it's impossible for me to disable it.

Download your Settings.pl and edit it.
Look for:

$nocomputers = "1";

and change to:

$nocomputers = "0";

Now save and reupload.

hmm i'm still getting that same error when i try to login as administrator

Internal Server Error
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.
Please contact the server administrator, webmaster@domain.com and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log.


Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

If you want me to take a look then pm me your ftp login details.

Delete $ensids in Settings.pl then login.

thanks justin~ got it all worked out ;)

its never worked for me . so left the plans :-/

hey, i have uploaded this to cgi-bin/forum/(GD and Prefs) checked i have the random folder in blahdocs and checked my server has GD installed (it does v2.0.28) although i cant find any documentation on MD5. i looked at the install readme within the GD folder but didnt really understand what it was saying / if i needed to do this, what have i forgotten to do?

Im just getting a blank white page when i click register.

thanks  

If you pm your ftp password I can take a look for you.

I see you have changed the theme I made you, it doesn't look right being aligned left like that, any reason why you changed it?

Ok my server host has -MD5 and -GD and I installed the security thing i'm not sure if I did it right do you just upload the files and thats it?  I enable human verification and when i click register the image that is suppost to be there is an empty image a red X of death if you will.  So it's blank.  Am I still missing something?

Your host also needs to have Security Image module installed.
Make sure you have a folder under /blahdocs called Random and chmod to 777
Try reuploading the font.ttf to /cgi-bin/forum/Prefs

Well everythign on my end looks good what module should I look for on th servers list?

Add the font from the downloads page to your /Prefs directory.

Try the attached font, upload to your Prefs folder in BINARY

Hi

I am thinking of opening the forum up to guest posting does this work then or just when registering for membership?

What do you mean?

I understand, It means so he/she can allow guests to post on the forum but wants captcha on each guest post to stop bots posting. So whenever a user tries to post a comment or thread when they are not logged in they will need to enter the captcha. I think....

Use Akismet for that.

Thanks for replying... I enabled guest posting sure enough spam posts appeared within a couple of hours. but now as you suggest I enabled Akismet with an ASP key from word press. However nothing shows, do you have to download the plugin or is that already in the eblah code. Or am I missing something obvious?

What do you mean, nothing shows?

you answered when you replied to the other post, it shows up in extensive statistics.

Thanks Justin