Originally Posted by edwmax

This forum appears to be based on a VB web server. IPs are usually blocked at the firewall or at the IIS, but on shared Host servers the forum admin may not have access to those. .... However, blocking can also be done by the server itself by adding a pre-connection blocking unit ( IPAddressBlocker; or some such) to the server. .... The the Mods & Admins can simply add a spammer's IP to a list to block them; or by using 'wild card character *) block entire networks. IP blocking is much more effective than blocking usernames or user email address and prevents a blocked user from making/using a new user name. .... For more detail see https://www.codeproject.com/Articles...ing-in-ASP-NET


This is to show that Spam can be stopped (greatly reduced) and how a well run forum can handle the problem. The forum owner/Admin doesn't have to do all the work if the forum server is set up properly and allows Mods access to the Block list.