I Want to Block an IP/Email/IP Network/Country/Domain

To use filters for Anti-Spam, you need to log in to the CleanTalk Dashboard and then:

1. Go to your Personal Lists of a particular service

Anti-Spam personal lists settings

2. Choose the Anti-Spam Service

Anti-Spam (default) - will block users from selected IP or networks using contacts/messages/registrations/comments forms.

Anti-Spam personal lists tab

3. Add a new filter and select its type

You can select the following filter types for Anti-Spam:

- IP address

- E-mail

- Country

- Domain

- IP network

- Stop-Word

Add new anti-spam filter

Select anti-spam filter type

4. Filtering by IP addresses

If you want to blacklist or whitelist an IP address, select the appropriate filter and input one or more IP addresses and specify a rule (Blacklist or Whitelist). As a result, records will be added to the table for your license.

Anti-Spam filter IP value

Anti-Spam filter IP records list

5. Filtering by E-mail

If you want to blacklist or whitelist an E-mail address, select the appropriate filter and input one or more E-mail addresses and specify a rule (Blacklist or Whitelist). As a result, records will be added to the table. You can use masks when specifying filters. Symbol asterisk "*" means any set of characters. *@mail.com - will block any address ending by @mail.com

Anti-Spam filter email value

Anti-Spam filter email records list

6. Filtering by country

If you want to blacklist or whitelist countries, select the appropriate filter and select one or more countries from the list, specify a rule, and click Add. As a result, the records will be added to the table.

❗️ Keep in mind that there is no tool for whitelisting a country as it will result in many false negatives (that means a lot of missed spam). The solution for allowing visitors is simple — please mark all records in your Anti-Spam Log as "Not Spam" and this will add the visitors' IP and email addresses to your Personal Lists automatically. The guide is here: https://cleantalk.org/help/faq#feedback_spam

Rules for countries:

Blacklist - selected countries will be banned and added to the list

Blacklist all countries except selected - all other countries will be blacklisted and added to the list

Anti-Spam filter country value

Anti-Spam filter country records list

7. Filtering by domain

If you want to blacklist or whitelist a specific mail domain, select the appropriate filter and input one or more domain addresses and specify a rule (Blacklist or Whitelist). As a result, records will be added to the table.

Anti-Spam filter domain value

Anti-Spam filter domain records list

8. Filtering by IP network

If you want to blacklist or whitelist specific IP network, select the appropriate filter and input one or more subnets and specify a rule (Blacklist or Whitelist). As a result, records will be added to the table.

Subnet blocking:

1.2.3.4 - IP address

/16 - subnet mask

If you don't know how it works simply put numbers for mask divisible by 8:

1.2.3.4/8 - all IP addresses starting from 1.n.n.n (from 1.0.0.0 to 1.255.255.255) will be blocked.
1.2.3.4/16 - all IP addresses starting from 1.2.n.n (from 1.2.0.0 to 1.2.255.255) will be blocked.
1.2.3.4/24 - all IP addresses starting from 1.2.3.n (from 1.2.3.0 to 1.2.3.255) will be blocked.

You can read about blocking subnets here: https://cleantalk.org/help/sfw-blocks-networks

Anti-Spam filter subnet value

Anti-Spam filter subnet records list

9. Filtering by Stop-Words

You can block comments containing Stop-Words to enhance spam filtering and block messages containing obscene words. You can add both specific words and phrases.

Anti-Spam filter stopword value

Anti-Spam filter stopword records list

10. Go to the plugin settings in your website dashboard and save settings

It is essential for changes to take effect even if you haven't change the settings. If you don't do this, changes will take effect only in 24 hours.

Note 1: If you want to block any IP/email and block access to comments/register, just go to CleanTalk Dashboard —> Log, find the necessary request and mark it as "Spam". This IP/email will be added to your personal blacklist.

More details are here: [ https://cleantalk.org/help/faq#feedback_spam ].

Note 2: You can use masks when specifying filters. Symbol asterisk "*" means any set of characters. *@mail.com - will block any address ending by @mail.com

Examples:

• name*@example.com (all e-mail addresses with any set of characters after "name" will be blocked).

• *aa44@example.com (all e-mail addresses with any set of characters before "aa44" will be blocked).

• *kkk*vvv*@example.com (all e-mail addresses with any set of characters before "kkk", before "vvv" and after "vvv" will be blocked).

Note 3: You should purchase the Extra Package to use Stop-Words and Country blocking: https://cleantalk.org/help/extra-package

If you still have questions you can always ask our Tech Support via creating a Private Ticket: https://cleantalk.org/my/support/open

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