XF 2.0 Registration Fails

[Okiewan]

I've been investigating a drop in new registrations that began a few months ago. Long story short, I've basically turned-off everything that I think could possibly cause problems. Currently, email confirmations, StopForumSpam, DNS blacklists, manual approval, etc. are all turned-off. All that's on now is Q&A CAPTCHA (and askimet).

I'm getting 20-30 new registration notifications per day, some followed immediately with a bounce (more on that later). A number of those registrations are legit, I'm sure, 10-20 new users per day has been the average for years (until recently).

1) Checking the admin panel for the new user (for which I just received a notification), there is no record of them (by email or username). Seems that something is broken here?

Secondary Problem, maybe related? :

2) Why is XF sending email to new users after registration if "email confirmation" is turned-off? Is this normal behavior? Send welcome email is turned-off. Maybe I'm missing something here, but I need the forum to stop sending email for the time being (see bounces, below)

It seems that somehow, registrations are happening without going through the whole reg process? If I get a notification I would assume the process is complete and be able then to find the new user?

About the bounces. A short time ago, the site was getting hammered with registration attempts that used bogus (mostly) email accounts. Since email confirmation was on during that time, the site generated a boat load of non-deliverables, which in turn killed the site's reputation at gmail, .mac and microsoft, to name a few. The admin assumed the software was doing it's job, blocking the spammers and let the bounces continue. I'm now working to get the site de-listed, but need the forum to stop sending mail!

So the bottom line is this: there are virtually ZERO registrations happening. I realize part of this is that networks are sending our stuff to spam folders or refusing to deliver all together (while we were still using email confirmations) but now, even with all of the spam/confirmation stuff turned-off, registrations are still not coming through.

I sure hope that made sense and would very much appreciate some assistance in figuring this out!

 

[Chris D]

We don't send any sort of notification for new members, so I'd probably start there in case anything in that process is causing problems. I assume that's from an add-on?

FWIW, I just registered and I didn't get an email and the process seems to have worked.

Though, just to check, do you already have a user there called Chris D? That was the first name I tried to register and it said it was already taken. It's possible it's actually me, or indeed some other user called Chris D, but the main thing I want to make sure is it isn't symptomatic of the issue.

 

[Okiewan]

There is a Chris d already registered.
I see your new account and it's valid.
I did NOT get a notification that you joined.

After writing the post I realized that the bounces are probably notifications (posts, etc), I assumed they were still from the registrations (my bad).
Can I turn all notifications off (temp) ?

I am still getting notifications of other attempted registrations, with no record of the new user.

 

[Okiewan]

Update ... a bounce did in fact just come in as a result of a new registration:

The notification:

New user registration on your site | Dirt Rider:

Username: chris1999
Email: chris@warwood.com

The bounce:


This is the Spam & Virus Firewall at barracuda.techweavers.net.

I'm sorry to inform you that the message below could not be delivered.
When delivery was attempted, the following error was returned.


<chris@warwood.com>: host 204.209.20.21[204.209.20.21] said: 511 sorry, no
mailbox here by that name (#5.1.1 - chkuser) (in reply to RCPT TO command)

 

[Okiewan]

Currently running add-ons are :

TH Ui.X
TH Nodes
XenSticky
Ads Manager ( Siropu )
XenForo Media

 

[Chris D]

Having stuff logged as bounces isn't necessarily a bad thing. It happens, people's mailboxes fill up, they close their account, move to a different ISP etc. When XF picks up those bounces, we stop sending emails to that bounced email address automatically until the user rectifies it.

So, really, the problem should sort itself out. Email providers/hosts/ISPs do have a tendancy to penalise senders of emails with a high bounce rate but usually that would be in the thousands and mostly targeting mass mails rather than transactional type emails like this.

It’s worth investigating your email server set up to ensure various email authentication methods are in place like SPF and DKIM.

I’m still unsure where those notifications are coming from. As I said they aren’t coming from a core feature of the software. That said, I don’t particularly see any add ons you have which would be responsible for sending such things.

Even weirder would be if those users don’t actually exist. It’s almost as if you’re receiving the emails from a different XF install or something. Do you have any other instances of the site running anywhere? A test site, for example?

 

[Okiewan]

No other sites .... there was a test migration site before the upgrade to 2.x from 1.x, but it was removed a couple weeks ago. These problems have been going on for some time though, prior to the upgrade (spammers/bounces, etc).