IP.Board 2.3.6 Released

[william]

We are pleased to announce IP.Board 2.3.6 is now available

This update includes all previously released updates and introduces enhanced spam prevention measures.

• The included CAPTCHA system in IP.Board has been enhanced in an effort combat spam-bot (automated script) registrations.
• Introduces support for reCAPTCHA

What is reCAPTCHA?

The reCAPTCHA service is a widely-used system to minimize the impact of spam-bot registrations and form submissions all over the Internet. While no system is perfect, we believe that by implementing a system like reCAPTCHA which is constantly being updated will help to mitigate spam registrations. The reCAPTCHA service is updated remotely so updates can usually be "pushed" to your community without any intervention from you. This means that as spammers get more creative: so does your forum's ability to combat them.

The upcoming IP.Board 3.0 release already includes support for reCAPTCHA by default.

How to use reCAPTCHA

The code needed to implement reCAPTCHA support is included in IP.Board 2.3.6 automatically. Simply check that it is enabled in your IP.Board AdminCP under the Security and Privacy section of Tools and Settings or try to register a new account to verify. All new installations of IP.Board 2.3.6 will have this setting already enabled.

IP.Board 2.3.6 has a special global key for reCAPTCHA shipped with it which enables reCAPTCHA without you having to configure IP.Board at all. You can also go to http://www.recaptcha.net and get your own keys for your own use if you do not want to use our included keys.

Note: reCAPTCHA is optional and the standard IP.Board CAPTCHA system still exists in 2.3.6 (and has been enhanced) if you prefer this system over the reCAPTCH service. You can change those options in the AdminCP under Security and Privacy in Tools and Settings.

Downloading IP.Board 2.3.6

You can download IP.Board 2.3.6 in the IPS client area. You can also download a package which contains changed files only from 2.3.5 to 2.3.6 for easier upgrading.

Please contact our technical support staff if you need assistance. As always with new releases, responses from technical support may take slightly longer than usual as we work through the requests.


Component Updates

We have updated our components to use the new CAPTCHA system as well. These updates are only needed if you use the guest-posting CAPTCHA functions in these components. If you do not use that capability (i.e. you do not allow guest posting) then these updates may not be required.

• IP.Blog 1.4.2
• IP.Gallery 2.2.4
• IP.Downloads 1.2.2

Again, the updates for the components are only for compatibility with the new CAPTCHA system which is only used in components with guest posting enabled. No other features or enhancements are included in these updates. It is only necessary to upgrade if you use the guest-posting CAPTCHA in the components.



Our thanks to reCAPTCHA and Ben on their support team for assisting us in releasing this update quickly with a global key. Thousands of IP.Board users thank you for your service that helps to mitigate spam headaches.

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