Topic: You old timers -- I need help with the Satanic Mechanic site.

[fang]

Hey Guys.  Some of you may have noticed that the www. SatanicMechanic .com www.satanicmechanic.de site has been hit with 74 odd pages of porn spam.  Axel was a friend of mine (RIP) and it really pisses me off that his very valuable and unique collection of SOHC performance info has gone to $h!T.

I would like to volunteer to fix his site, clean up all the crap, and possibly take it over.  But now that he's dead I don't know who to contact to make it happen.

Thanks in advance,
Steve

[mlinder]

Current administrative contact for the site:

Registrant:
 J.M. Bell
 PO Box 1262
 Lakeville, MA 02347
 US
 508-508-5088
 
Domain Name: SATANICMECHANIC.COM

Administrative Contact:
 Bell, John
 PO Box 1262
 Lakeville, MA 02347
 US
 508-508-5088
 
Technical Contact:
 Bell, John
 PO Box 1262
 Lakeville, MA 02347
 US
 508-508-5088
 
Record last updated 08-27-2009 09:24:48 AM
Record expires on 08-18-2010
Record created on 08-18-2000

I'd start there.

[fang]

This is a good start.
Thanks Mlinder. 

[Fritz]

Hi!

Is it really satanicmechanic.com that you are referring to?

www.satanicmechanic.org and www.satanicmechanic.de seem to be ok.


satanicmechanic.de:

Type:             PERSON
Name:             Axel Beckert
Address:          XXX
Pcode:            XXX
City:             Zuerich
Country:          CH
Phone:            +41.xxx
Fax:              +41.xxx
Email:            hostmaster@xxx
Changed:          2009-09-19T13:12:55+02:00


satanicmechanic.org:

Admin Name:Hans Franke
Admin Street1:XXX
Admin Street2:
Admin Street3:
Admin City:München
Admin State/Province:
Admin Postal Code:8xxxx
Admin Country:DE
Admin Phone:+49.xxx
Admin Phone Ext.:
Admin FAX:
Admin FAX Ext.:
Admin Email:xxx


Tech Name:Axel Beckert
Tech Street1:XXX
Tech Street2:
Tech Street3:
Tech City:Zrich
Tech State/Province:Zürich
Tech Postal Code:8xxx
Tech Country:CH
Tech Phone:+41.xxx
Tech Phone Ext.:
Tech FAX:
Tech FAX Ext.:
Tech Email:xxx

/Fritz

[fang]

Thank you Fritz, Yes you are correct -- I made a typo.  I will go back and edit my original post.

Could you PM me the detailed info?
Thanks!
-steve

[ColinMc]

Steve, If you need a hand let me know...I don't mind helping with crap like that. I was not a member of the forum there but I read a lot of info off of it that's for sure. It's a freaken mess...

[Tim2005]

I am in contact with Axel B in Zurich about this, but the spam-bot problem is not the easiest thing to fix (we can delete posts manually but they reappear just as fast). He is planning to upgrade the rather obsolete software it is running on but does not have a free weekend for a few weeks, however this will enable fuller security and administration and ultimately should enable us to resolve the problem.

If anyone has actual experience of upgrading from phpBB2.0 together with the underlying upgrades of php and the database (presumably MySQL), it may be very helpful to him, especially if you speak decent German. Please send me a pm.

Many thanks

Tim

[fang]

I have some experience upgrading PHP, but I do not speak German at all.

[Glenn Stauffer]

You might want to start with deleting all the accounts used to post spam and then locking things down so registration requires admin approval.  

Ultimately, if you don't have a lot of time to keep up with patches and moderation, consider the forums we use, SMF (Simple Machines) with the anti-spammer module.  SMF has had very few security patches since I've been using it here and the anti-spammer module has cut down dramatically on the number bogus registrations we've had to chase after.

Maybe phpbb3 has similar improvements...

Thankfully, right now, you have only had to deal with spam posts.  Get things patched up soon and make good backups before some malicious hacker decides to delete everything on your forums - I've seen it done, especially once you annoy the spammers by deleting their posts.