Hello,
I recived an alert from my web hosting service because Mybb sent to many emails in a very short time ( dozens per second) and my email adress (used by Mybb) from their server could be blacklisted. I investigated the case and seems to be the notification system. I have 5000 users (500 with 10+ posts) and a very active forum. I use php option in ACP / Configuration / Mail Settings
There is a setting in Mybb ACP in order to introduce a timing when the system sent notification, according to the international Spam rules?
Or is something wrong with my forum?
Web hosting service report (path edited*):
To: [email protected]
Subject: lfd on serverXX.romania-webhosting.com: Script Alert for
'/forum'
Time: Fri Jun 15 16:00:02 2018 +0300
Path: '/forum'
Count: 101 emails sent
Sample of the first 10 emails:
2018-06-15 15:05:15 cwd=/forum 3 args:
/usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i
2018-06-15 15:05:15 cwd=/forum 3 args:
/usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i
2018-06-15 15:05:15 cwd=/forum 3 args:
/usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i
2018-06-15 15:05:15 cwd=/forum 3 args:
/usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i
2018-06-15 15:05:15 cwd=/forum 3 args:
/usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i
2018-06-15 15:05:15 cwd=/forum 3 args:
/usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i
2018-06-15 15:05:15 cwd=/forum 3 args:
/usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i
2018-06-15 15:05:15 cwd=/forum 3 args:
/usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i
2018-06-15 15:05:15 cwd=/forum 3 args:
/usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i
2018-06-15 15:05:15 cwd=/forum 3 args:
/usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i
Possible Scripts:
'/forum/contact.php'
'/forum/contactus_send.php'
'/forum/global.php'
'/forum/new.php'
'/forum/sendthread.php'
'/forum/member.php'
'/forum/xmlhttp.php'
'/forum/usercp.php'
Emails can be sent for numerous reasons so this doesn't narrow it down too much. Did they provide you with any of the contents of the emails sent? it could be used to narrow it down. Here's some of the reasons as to why MyBB might be sending emails:
- Mass Mailing
- Subscriptions
- Users emailing each other
- Receiving PMs
- Resetting passwords
- Contact Us replies
There's probably more but those are all I can think of off the top of my head.
Quote:There is a setting in Mybb ACP in order to introduce a timing when the system sent notification, according to the international Spam rules?
Emails are sent out instantly from MyBB otherwise it'll be troublesome for things like resetting passwords and stuff. You could always run a query turning off notifications for users or use a SMTP.
An active forum can send out a lot of emails and sometimes forums aren't shared hosting friendly on some providers. Just wondering are you running the most up to date version of MyBB and plugins? Do you know how many emails the host allows per hour?
Some options you could look into is
1. Upgrade to a plan that allows more emails to be sent.
2. Get a dedicated IP address. It might cost around $2 extra per month.
3. Look into a VPS. KVM or Xen based is the best, but on a tight budget OpenVZ will be fine.
4. Upgrade MyBB if you aren't using the current version, and all plugins.
Thanks guys,
@Wires - They provided me the subjects of emails sent and seems to be only notifications regarding the replies for new posts or new PM's. Actually they said that Mybb notification system behave like a spam sender when the forum is heavily used by users.
It's likely that changing the Mail System from php to SMTP, the claims of my hosting service would be the same, if I use an email adress from the same server.
But If I used a new Gmail adress (ex. notifcationsForMy
[email protected]), the situation would change? So is my host to restrictive comparing with Gmail rules?
@marcgo15 - Yes , I use to have all my software updated.
The host allow 6 emails / min. and Mybb can send 6-10 messages per second and there is no paid option to allow more because of the Spam rules.
I have a dedicated IP adress
The solution of my host service is to set Mybb in order to send 6 emails with notifications per minute. But, from what I know, it's impossible to change the sending timing, only ON /OFF. Or mybe I can introduce a timing / schedule php parameter in the field "Additional Parameters for PHP's mail()" ?
I have no solution right know and I try to think how thousands of forums cand send notifications without problems and my host claim for suspicious Spam actions....
The rate of notification emails is determined in inc/functions.php
function send_mail_queue($count=10)
{
global $db, $cache, $plugins;
$plugins->run_hooks("send_mail_queue_start");
// Check to see if the mail queue has messages needing to be sent
$mailcache = $cache->read("mailqueue");
if($mailcache['queue_size'] > 0 && ($mailcache['locked'] == 0 || $mailcache['locked'] < TIME_NOW-300))
For starters, change count=10 to count=1.
To guarantee a rate of under 6 emails per minute, more fundamental changes are necessary... mails are also sent directly without going through this queue mechanism.
Also depending on your user activity, it just can't be done. If new notification mails come in faster than they can be sent out, it will never finish.
Quote:how thousands of forums cand send notifications without problems
Many hosts do not impose such strict limits on the number of emails sent.
(2018-06-19, 10:52 AM)Lyvyoo Wrote: [ -> ]Thanks guys,
@Wires - They provided me the subjects of emails sent and seems to be only notifications regarding the replies for new posts or new PM's. Actually they said that Mybb notification system behave like a spam sender when the forum is heavily used by users.
It's likely that changing the Mail System from php to SMTP, the claims of my hosting service would be the same, if I use an email adress from the same server.
But If I used a new Gmail adress (ex. notifcationsForMy [email protected]), the situation would change? So is my host to restrictive comparing with Gmail rules?
@marcgo15 - Yes , I use to have all my software updated.
The host allow 6 emails / min. and Mybb can send 6-10 messages per second and there is no paid option to allow more because of the Spam rules.
I have a dedicated IP adress
The solution of my host service is to set Mybb in order to send 6 emails with notifications per minute. But, from what I know, it's impossible to change the sending timing, only ON /OFF. Or mybe I can introduce a timing / schedule php parameter in the field "Additional Parameters for PHP's mail()" ?
I have no solution right know and I try to think how thousands of forums cand send notifications without problems and my host claim for suspicious Spam actions....
I would honestly suggest looking into a different host. I ran many forums on shared hosting, I can only think of one time where a provider gave me issues about mybb and it turned out to be a shady host but that was years ago. I have a few shared hosting servers that send out more mail then 6 per minute and they don't end up on spamlist/blacklists.
If you want to stick with shared hosting that's fine but as your forums grows you'll need to upgrade. I really suggest a VPS with cPanel installed. This will give you more freedom and allow for more growth without getting restricted by software and limits a lot of shared host use.
As above really. This is a problem with your host rather than MyBB as they are placing limits on your account.
(2018-06-19, 05:08 PM)Ben Wrote: [ -> ]As above really. This is a problem with your host rather than MyBB as they are placing limits on your account.
My views also the same, I wonder what is happening to shared host these days. We are seeing so many different issues because of host issues.
(2018-06-19, 07:23 PM)WallBB Wrote: [ -> ] (2018-06-19, 05:08 PM)Ben Wrote: [ -> ]As above really. This is a problem with your host rather than MyBB as they are placing limits on your account.
My views also the same, I wonder what is happening to shared host these days. We are seeing so many different issues because of host issues.
Shared hosts are targetting people who only want to run wordpress.
(2018-06-19, 07:23 PM).WallBB Wrote: [ -> ] (2018-06-19, 05:08 PM)Ben Wrote: [ -> ]As above really. This is a problem with your host rather than MyBB as they are placing limits on your account.
My views also the same, I wonder what is happening to shared host these days. We are seeing so many different issues because of host issues.
Honestly shared hosting is a hard market to compete in. Very little profit due to the very low monthly plans. You have to offer something like management to get better profit. Most shared providers are packing servers as full as they can, and to do this you have to make limits low so you don't bring the server to it's knees. Then you add software like cloudlinux in the mix that can enforce more limits then the standard cPanel installation. Limits are set low and that can be a way to force customers to upgrade to VPS plans where there are high profits. I've seen some providers leaving the shared hosting market, sometimes it's just not worth it to them.
To be honest I've seen more issues with wordpress than most forum softwares. A lot of blogs are installed and never upgraded and it leads to nightmares. Haven't really seen that with the forums.