I undertsand the principle behind the code that would be used to ban the ip address, what I don't know is how the ip is picked. For example, I've logged onto astahost from school, the library, and home, three different ips. So which ip would be banned if I get an ip ban. Banning the library would not be good because then no one in the library could log on. So how is it decided. And to clarify, just in case astahost is not of this system, I'm talking more about systems in which IP banning is used to prevent that ip from creating a new account. ~Viz

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its because of what you have described IP banning is rarely used.

Most home internet users have dynamic IP's
ststic IP's are often routers shareing a conenction across loads of users,
or maybe a public router.

when ip bans are used, they are only temporary, and designed to stop someone who may be attempting a DOS attack or something similar.

you can try and track users with cookies
but they can be deleted.

there is no way of 100% fool proof locking someone out without also kicking off evryone else on that ISP / router / proxy.

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Would it be a good idea to ban the combination of the username and (multiple) IP's?

For reference, in games like SoF2 or CoD, when you get banned, you have a big problem. Since you don't get banned by IP but by CDkey, and since you get only 1 cdkey for each time you buy the game (serialgenerators don't work) you can never play again.

So, what if you could have a ban based on a computers hardware specs or something. Something like MAC addresses ?

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MAC Address banning mught work. Is it possible to remotely see a MAC address? I know a couple of forums I've been on have used IP bans to prevent users who could not abide by forum rules from returning with a new email address and username, but I don't know how affective they were. MAC banning sounds like a good idea though. Thanks jip, I'll look into it.

~Viz

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