Question

I don't understand how banning all of the addresses on the subnet a spammer is a part of solves the problem of spammers, trolls, etc., especially when it takes a fairly long period of time for someone with the ability to ban a person to actually be informed of the issue. I know that there are plenty of people that manage to evade being banned simply by resetting their modem or getting a new IP number. Besides, if the MAC address can't be blocked, then it's basically useless for them to block the IP address. It would be much more effective for OS to block proxies and ban overused IP addresses..

Answer 1

MAC addresses can be blocked. There are ways to do lots of things. There are also other keys than the IP that can be gotten from a browser about a computer.

In all cases, the issue is the assignment of developers and the resources that takes.

Answer 2

As far as I know, banning MAC addresses is not possible without extensions or scripts which can be blocked, not an expert in this field though.
The best solution is making it more difficult to create a new account. E-mail verification required, block chat/PM/medals/fanning until this is done. Most of that is going to be implemented this summer so let's hope the constant influx of new spam/troll accounts will be history by then.

Answer 3

It isn't possible to block a MAC address outside of a LAN. You can always block that address from accessing your own router, but the moment it actually crosses to another router, it changes to match whatever MAC address the router it passed has. It would probably stumble upon hundreds of routers between the user and the host of the website.. Besides, it can be diverted hundreds of other ways, depending on the traffic and load balancers blocking its path.

Answer 4

Incorret Jess. You forgot something. When you connect to a web site with a browser that is running scripts, you have given a lot more access to your local machine to that web site.

Answer 5

I may have forgotten to mention that, but that doesn't make either of us wrong. Either way, the user that has connected to that website has more control over his/her access to that site than the actual host, due to the host's inability to target and block the User's specific MAC address.

Answer 6

If a web site can use a script to read your MAC address, and they can, then that information can be used to block access. This method of banning people has been used before. Basically if there is a MAC match, they simply don't load the rest of the page when they do this sort of filter.

Answer 7

I suppose my understanding of this is just too meek for me to wrap my mind around your explanation. Is there any way for the host to, rather than block the MAC/IP address, block the actual email itself, along with any other emails associated with it (When you first make an email account, they still ask for some sort of back up email, I believe)?

Answer 8

What does this have to do with email? This is about a topic that has been called device fingerprinting. There are many ways to uniquily identify a machine that touches a web site. Cookies are the earliest example of this. People have pulled MAC addresses to do this. There are others. If a web site uses any of these methods, it can be used as yet another player of blocking to control trolls.

Answer 9

I was asking a separate question. I'd mainly like to know if it's possible for an email address to be blocked, preventing the user from using another email associated with it to make a new account.

Answer 10

Are you saying they are different email addresses?

Answer 11

Pardon?

Answer 12

"I'd mainly like to know if it's possible for an email address to be blocked, preventing the user from using another email associated with it to make a new account."

Is that one or two email addresses?

Answer 13

Multiple email addresses.

Answer 14

Then the only place that might know of any account association between them is the mail host.

Answer 15

Ah, I see.