csmicfool

The plugin appears to still default to predis. If I update the config to “pecl” like so, it still uses predis:

define(‘WP_REDIS_CLIENT’,’pecl’);

To clarify – I’ve build phppredis from source and installed but not via PECL.

(running an older distro)

• This reply was modified 8 years, 4 months ago by csmicfool.

I’m marking this topic resolved for now due to inactivity. However, if you can provide some additional data I’d be happy to help.

Please bear in mind that this plugin is not compatible with all cache configurations, but I am happy to help provide assistance and solutions when possible.

Hi Alan,

Are you still seeing these referrers? Perhaps you can private message me your website URL and I can help run some tests for you.

Please let me know.

Harley,

I just released a new update (1.4.3) which has a fix for the timeout issue.

As my list has grown, the process of parsing it server-side from each user’s request has begun to take more and more time. I’m now pre-processing some of the data prior to submission to greatly reduce the amount of data cURL needs to transmit and the server needs to crunch.

Would you please download the latest update, and let me know if it remedies the issue for you?

If the timeout increase did not help, then the communication is very likely being blocked.

Please try whitelisting the outbound traffic to spamblocker.jacobbaron.net in your firewall and let me know if that helps.

Thanks!

This error indicates that WP was unable to post your blocklist additions back to my server for review before being included in the public list.

WordPress generally has a graceful mechanism to post the data even if cURL isn’t installed on the host server. In this case it appears that cURL is installed and attempted to send the operation. The error means that either your hosting firewall blocked the outbound cURL request or my server was too slow to respond.

Please try adding this to your wp-config.php file and let me know if it solves the problem:
ini_set("default_socket_timeout", 10000);
-you can also attempt to increase the timeout, but don’t go above 30000 for performance reasons.

If that helps it indicates some performance issue in between our two servers and I can investigate more.

I would have to test it, but any caching plugin which initializes via wordpress instead of a proxy or apache shouldn’t be a problem.

If you’d like to privately (or publicly) share your website address and install the plugin I can test to see if it’s working for you by spoofing referrer on test requests.

Hi Antonynz,

Thanks for the question!

There are a few different methods of page caching. I can’t say for certain without more info. Is there a specific page cache plugin you are using?

Hi Marti. Do you have any extra details such as the site which wasn’t blocked?

With your permission, I can run some tests on your domain if you’re willing to share it (public or privately). These tests are non-invasive and show me whether or not the plugin is working immediately. I work hard to ensure this plugin is capable of blocking spam properly.

Please note that the plugin is not necessarily going to work if you are using CDN, or against “ghost spam”. If you are using CDN, client header forwarding is required in order for the plugin to work correctly.

I appreciate your updated review and feedback. Thank you. Do please contact me if you’re willing to allow me to use your use case as a test model for improvements.

I would guess that the main factor here is cloudflare. Are you using the rackspace “orchestration” of wordpress (which also includes varnish)?

Hi there,

I appreciate the feedback but don’t see a support case opened in the forums. I would very much appreciate the opportunity to help you in hopes that you will revise your feedback.

Please understand that this plugin will work regardless of how much text is given in the URL after the domain. All traffic from a given domain will be blocked. The plugin only looks at the domain and will ignore everything else.

If you are using CDN, proxy, or certain types of caching, it can prevent the plugin from being fully effective.

Additionally, there is what is known as “ghost spam” which occurs even if the spammers never visit your site. Unfortunately, my plugin has no way to combat this without preemptively loading the domains before your site is cached in their index. I rely on community submissions of these domains when users block them and periodically add the user submissions to the master list after review. I have worked with several of my users to review server logs and ensure that the plugin is blocking correctly.

My email address is [email protected]. Please privately message me your website’s address and I will happily run tests and work with you to help resolve this issue.

Thank you,
Jacob

According to the logs, they are not even trying to reach your site, but these logs only go back a few hours.

It is possible they are doing ghost spam, which occurs when they either cache a copy of your site which doesn’t hit the server at all (and therefore doesn’t work with this plugin).

Your server may have a .gz backup of yesterday’s logs or maybe even the past few days. If you have that, could you please email it to me for review? [email protected]

Those logs would be the same as above but with a larger window of time for me to analyze.

Hi Bookmonster,

This looks like the apache ERROR log. Do you by any chance have the ACCESS log available?

Hello,

I don’t think the redirection plugin would have been a cause. The log files will help us find the source of the problem. Is it possible for you to provide me with the current Apache Access log file?