anti-spam (Captcha) issue

Hi-- I have installed and built my first form very easily (using Joomla 1.0.15 Stable, ChronoForms V2.3.9 J1.0).

However, I would like to use a captcha on the form. I therefore edited my form, went to the anti spam tab and set the "Use Image Verification" to Yes. GD, Freetype and PNG support all show yes, and the sample captcha image displays fine.

When I save my changes and view my form from the front end, there is no captcha image displayed, and no form input for the captcha code. Do I have to manually add these fields?

Also, I tried to follow your FAQ on this topic, at this link, but when I attempt to edit the file /administrator/components/com_chronocontact/chrono_verification.php it does not exist!

Here is a listing of my com_chronocontact directory--

admin.chronocontact.html.php install.chronocontact.php
admin.chronocontact.php languages
chronocontact.class.php toolbar.chronocontact.html.php
chronocontact.xml toolbar.chronocontact.php
excelwriter uninstall.chronocontact.php
images

Any help appreciated.

Thanks

EDIT: I did find the chrono_verification.php in the root components/com_chronocontact directory (not in administrator/components/com_chronocontact as detailed in the FAQ). I modified it to text/html and the image shows up fine.

EDIT EDIT: Boy do I feel dumb. I read the tool tips on the anti spam tab and realized I had to add {imageverification} to the html in the form. I'll leave this here in the hopes that it helps someone else. However, I still am not sure why the captcha shows up on the right, and the input on the left. Is there a way to stylize this? I'll poke around the forum and hope I find an answer.

Hi pbass98,

I've just updated the FAQ to say that you need to add {imageverification} to your html code.

The only way to change the layout at present is to hack the ChronoForms html code. Not hard to do if you are OK with php.

Bob

thanks Bob. I hacked the php and it works fine. Nice component! I'll register as soon as the site goes live.

thanks

tooltip Use Image verification:

tooltip Select the type of image to show ?
GD Version
FreeType Support
PNG Support
Sample image:

Hello Sir!

I have two issues:

1) I dont see ne image right to the image verification code on my contact_test page
http://www.systemsadvisers.com/test/en/contact-test/2.html

2) Dont see ne details regarding the
GD Version
Free Type Support
PNG Support
Sample Image

these are empty...

can ne one help..sincerely Abhi

Hi Abhishka,

then GD is not installed at your server, contact your server admin regarding this!

Max

Thanks for the reply. Well I am a Web and Graphics Designer. Can you tell me whats a GD? If possible let me know how can I turn it ON???

Regards
Abhishek

Hi Abhishek,

GD is a module of PHP that handles graphics. It's usually compiled into PHP byt your ISP (Internet Service Provider). It's been a part of the standard PHP installation since PHP 4.3

You'll find the GD manual (in many languages) here, check the Installation sections.

Bob

Well here are some info which can be helpful I guess..


PHP Version 5.2.4

System Windows NT ACC 5.2 build 3790
Build Date Aug 30 2007 07:05:48
Configure Command cscript /nologo configure.js "--enable-snapshot-build" "--with-gd=shared"
Server API ISAPI
Virtual Directory Support enabled
Configuration File (php.ini) Path C:\WINNT
Loaded Configuration File C:\WINNT\php.ini
PHP API 20041225
PHP Extension 20060613
Zend Extension 220060519
Debug Build no
Thread Safety enabled
Zend Memory Manager enabled
IPv6 Support enabled
Registered PHP Streams php, file, data, http, ftp, compress.zlib
Registered Stream Socket Transports tcp, udp
Registered Stream Filters convert.iconv.*, string.rot13, string.toupper, string.tolower, string.strip_tags, convert.*, consumed, zlib.*


My Systems admin also dont have too much knowledge about how to install the GD. But can we upgrade it to new PHP version where we can have GD bundled?

If you can give some details on how to install and which tool to be used to install, like through FTP or ne other application, would be great.

I am stuck in between a job where i need to work out with Anti-Spam things with the registration page. Please HELP!

Hi Abhishka,

PHP 5.2.4 normally comes with GD enabled but that gd=shared suggests that your set-up is configured to use an external gd library that possibly isn't defined correctly.

Bob

Thanks Bob!

Well whats the solution? How can I configure the GD. Is there a way around? Or should I look for RSForm Pro!. I am already using RSForm, but needed CAPTCHA option on the site. That why I am trying to use Chronoform.

If you have any doc which can help me install GD, it would be of a great help.

Thanks
Abhi

Hi Abhi,

Really sorry but I haven't got the slightest idea how you should set up GD on your server. Your ISP is the person to talk to here.

There is a recent post here on using ReCaptcha with ChronoForms that should work without GD.

Bob

Hi!

to add ReCaptcha instead of Captacha, do I need a new version of Chronoform?

Thanks

Hi Abhi,

No, only the hack to do it

Cheers
Max

Hi Ahbi,

Please see this post the instructions and the files you need are all there.

Bob

Thanks Bob,

However, we are using IIS server, can you let me know how to Install PHP from there...my systems Admin seems dumb to me🙂

Thanks
Abhi

Hi Abhi,

Sorry, I know absolutely nothing about IIS :-(

Google finds plenty of tutorials though.

Bob

Hi!

I am still working on the chronoform and I didnt got ne great result. I asked mt admin to install GD support and he did it. Now I can see the images inside Chronoform menu. But when it comes to Explorer/Firefox, no image is displayed. Y? I dont have the idea.

Bob, once told me install GD support, but its not working with it also.

Am i doing ne thing wrong?

Please help me...!


Regards
Abhi

Hi Abhi,

AFAIK exactly the same code is used to display the image on the test page as is on the form itself. There might be a problem with sessions not storing the unlock key - or with permissions to access the file if you are not logged in.

Bob

try to access the direct file as I suggested in the other post!

Max

Hi Guys!

I have been working on the CAPTCHA thing. I left it for the test site, it was working fine, however, from past few days I am still getting SPAM mails from a Auto-Bot or something. The form is working fine and only after providing the Captcha code, the form is submitted and redirected. which leads to a mail to the form filler and myself. How can a bot read CAPTCHA image???
Is it possible?

Please let me know if you have a work around for this issue.

Regards
Abhi

Hi Abhi,

are you sure its an auto bot ?

we don't get spammed here at all, may be your website or web server has some security hole some where ? try to check your server logs ? is your site very busy or has something to attract bots to spam you ?

Max

Also, keep in mind that there are services out there that pretty much sell manpower to "de-captcha" protected sites.
Roughly put, they provide you with an API that you implement in your (evil) robot. When your robot encounters a captcha, it's transferred to that company's system where an operator reads the image and enters the numbers, sending it back to your robot. I'm not going to advertise any of these sites here, but a creative google would give you plenty of hits (unfortunately). These companies do charge for their services, so I'd assume people won't use them unless they are certain to get some pay-off for it (such as high page-ranking in search engines, bulk email sending, etc).

If captcha's aren't cutting it, your last resort is serverside validation, using pattern recognition and/or manual labour, or such.

Hi nml375,

Thanks for the helpful info, I didn't know that! Does this happen with reCaptcha too ?

Regards,
Max

Well, since I don't use these services myself nor reCaptcha, so I can't say for sure.
However, as long as your robot can make sense of the form content, it should be able to grab the image, send it off for processing, and entering the proper value into the form. The key in these applications, is that this robot simply acts as an automated web browser, downloading the whole page including captcha image. As such, the remote web server won't even see the decaptch'ing system at all.

One possible advantage with central systems such as reCaptcha, is that they could do cross referencing between sites and IP's, possibly spotting hosts dumping a large amount of posts across several forums/sites. I read something on recaptcha.net about them implementing something like that.

Great, thank you!!🙂

Regards,
Max

I've just started trying to use Captcha in my form and it doesn't seem to be working for me either. The GD Version, Freetype Support and PNG support seem to all be working, but nothing shows next the sample image section of the debug. I have added the section fro image verification to my form and switched it on in the anti spam. I checked the chrono_verification.php form (switching it to text/html) and i get about 14 warnings about how it cannot change the header (presumably due to the text/html swtich but i'm not sure). At the bottom it has what i can only assume to be the text version of the captcha (loads of symbols predominately question marks).

an anyone explain what the problem might be? Is it something insanely obvious?

Thanks

Hi healthyaddiction,

Not sure, someone else reported the header errors yesterday and we haven't see those before then. Which versions of ChronoForms and Joomla are you running?

Bob

i'm using chronoforms 3.1 and joomla 1.5

I'm running my website on a localhost which was installed using xampp on my Vista operating system. (maybe these might have something to do with it)

Hi healthyaddiction,

Running XAMPP on XP here but I haven't upgraded these sites to RC4 yet - in the morning now.

Bob

Hi healthyaddiction,

a problem with the captcha in RC4 was found, attached is a fixed file, I will add this in RC4.1 release!

Cheers
Max