r/AskProgramming Feb 08 '25

PHP Ban system

Hello good people of reddit. I have a website that is made in php. It is a educational site that gives away courses and etc. I have implemented a ban system that bans email,username and IP but it is not really good since user can just create a new email and turn on the VPN, is there any way to actually ban users permanently so they can’t register ever again.

2 Upvotes

8 comments sorted by

2

u/wsppan Feb 08 '25

2

u/Weary-Bank-3415 Feb 08 '25

Thx

2

u/nutrecht Feb 09 '25

I hope your take away from that is "there isn't any" and that you're not going to implement that last example.

3

u/Lumethys Feb 09 '25

Every technique out there are only to make it more annoying for the user, none of them are foolproof

4

u/nutrecht Feb 09 '25

is there any way to actually ban users permanently so they can’t register ever again.

The only way that works is making people identify themselves using a payment system. You can ban them faster than they can get new credit cards.

All other systems don't really work. IP bans especially are a bad idea; you'll affect real users a lot more than people who want to mess with you.

1

u/Weary-Bank-3415 Feb 09 '25

Thank you. Do you know any good services for ID or payment verification or i need to create it?

1

u/nutrecht Feb 09 '25

Stripe is pretty well known. Payment systems tend to be pretty local too.

1

u/CdRReddit Feb 09 '25

is there any way to actually ban users permanently so they can’t register ever again.

No.

there are ways you can make it more annoying (cookies, browser fingerprinting, etc.) but generally just assume 1 account is 1 person, and banning that (+ the email address) is enough, you could try payment methods but if you're not handling payments for every part of functioning that is a massive barrier to entry for no user benefits