CleanTalk's blog

    Sign up

    Author: Alexander

    • Changes in the spam_check() API method

      In the current version, the API spam_check provides additional parameters:

      frequency_time_10m - 10 minutes activity
      frequency_time_1h - 1 hour activity
      frequency_time_24h - 24 hours activity

      Learn more about all parameters:
      https://cleantalk.org/help/api-spam-check#response-explanation

      These parameters show the total activity for the scanned entry, both spam and non-spam activity. The practice has shown that these parameters are not effective and are not in demand.

      These parameters will be removed from the method API from October 7, 2021.

      If you have any questions about the API method, you can ask a question in the comments below.

    • Update CleanTalk Uptime Monitoring Service

      Update CleanTalk Uptime Monitoring Service

      We have updated our uptime monitoring service for websites.

      This update allows you to select the monitoring points from which to check the availability and loading time of the site.
      When adding a website URL, monitoring automatically checks the response time from all points and suggests setting the monitoring point that is closest to the website.

      Most sites do not need to receive data on the site’s loading speed from different locations of the world, since they are targeted at local users and when checking the loading time from all points at once, unnecessary requests to the site will be generated.

      For such users, it will be enough to select one or two points from the nearest location to the site.
      Learn more about CleanTalk Uptime Monitoring.
      https://cleantalk.org/help/uptime-monitoring-how-it-works

      If you have any questions, we will be happy to help you.
      You can leave a comment below or create a private ticket here.

    • CleanTalk updated the 2FA (two-factor authentication) option

      CleanTalk updated the 2FA (two-factor authentication) option

      Two-factor authentication is still one of the most effective methods of protecting your account. One of the most common ways to hack WordPress sites is to brute force passwords.
      CleanTalk Security plugin for WordPress already has two-factor authentication by sending an authorization code to the email account.
      We have now expanded the two-factor authentication options and added the Google Authenticator option.
      Now you can choose the most convenient 2FA option for you.
      You can learn more about how to set up two-factor authentication in WordPress here https://cleantalk.org/help/two-factor-auth
      You can further strengthen the protection of accounts and change the URL address of the authorization page. You can read more here https://blog.cleantalk.org/how-to-change-wp-login-url/.


      If you have any questions, we will be happy to help you.
      You can leave a comment below or create a private ticket here.

    • Spam Protection for Woocommerce forms without captcha

      Spam Protection for Woocommerce forms without captcha

      CleanTalk Anti-Spam has native spam protection for Woocommerce. Any web form on the website is subject to spam attacks and you can install CleanTalk Anti-Spam to protect all existing forms on the WordPress site at once and you do not need to integrate protection for each form separately.

      CleanTalk anti-spam processes more than 35,000 orders daily. Below is a list of the top10 countries from which order spam comes in for 1 day.

      Country | Number of spam |

      • | GB | 1460 |
      • | US | 642 |
      • | LT | 635 |
      • | PH | 436 |
      • | CA | 272 |
      • | RU | 218 |
      • | DE | 127 |
      • | NL | 91 |
      • | FR | 82 |
      • | PK | 61 |

      CleanTalk provides a powerful tool for spam, profanity, email validation, personal IPs/Emails lists and more.
      You can read more about all CleanTalk features here https://cleantalk.org/help/introduction.

      Whether you use Woocommerce on your WordPress site, you can use the CleanTalk Anti-Spam to protect any other web forms on WordPress.

      How to install CleanTalk Anti-Spam on WordPress

      To install the anti-spam plugin, go to your WordPress admin panel -> Plugins -> Add New
      enter cleantalk in the search box and click the Install button for “Spam protection, AntiSpam, FireWall by CleanTalk”.
      After installing the plugin, click the “Activate” button and go to the plugin settings and click the “Get Access Key Automatically” button and click the “Save Settings” button.

      Your WordPress site and Woocommerce are now protected from spam.
      Or use our installation instructions.
      https://cleantalk.org/help/install-wordpress

      You can find the options for managing spam protection for Woocommerce in the plugin settings WP Dashboard -> Settings -> Anti-Spam by CleanTalk -> Advanced Settings -> WooCommerce

      WooCommerce checkout form – spam protection for Woocommerce checkout form.

      Spam test for registration during checkout – this option protects against spam registrations that occur during Woocommerce checkout.

      How to test spam protection

      You can test the work of anti-spam protection for any web form by using a test email s @ cleantalk.org (without spaces). First, open the form in an Incognito browser tab. Fill in all the required form fields and send a form. After submitting the form, you will see a block message about the block on the form submission.

      If you have any questions, add a comment and we will be happy to help you.

      Update

      The protection works only for website visitors, not for website admins. Be sure to test the form protection using Incognito mode.

    • Spam Protection for Shopify store

      Spam Protection for Shopify store

      Hello,

      We are pleased to announce the release of the anti-spam plugin for Shopify. Spam Protection. No captcha by CleanTalk protects registrations and orders from spam, the app is available for installation from the Shopify app catalog https://apps.shopify.com/cleantalk.

      CleanTalk provides spam protection that invisible to visitors without using captcha or other methods when visitors have to prove that they are real peoples.

      What anti-spam features are available to you after installing CleanTalk Anti-Spam

      Spam Attacks log – all of the requests(allowed and denied) saved in the log and you can view the details of each request and includes data/time, IP/email and all necessary information in the details — block reason, a body of the message, additionally caught data.

      Personal lists by:

      Stop Words – all requests that contain stop words will be blocked. This can help stop profanity in texts and stop spam by specific words.

      Personal lists support for records by IP, IP Network, Email, Country. You can add records to your personal black or white lists.

      Real-Time Email Address Existence Validation and Filtering Disposable & Temporary Emails – will help to avoid not only spam but also fake email addresses.

      Instructions for installing the Anti-Spam app for Shopify is here https://cleantalk.org/help/install-shopify

      If you have any questions, add a comment and we will be happy to help you.

    • CleanTalk DNSBL check for spam IPs

      CleanTalk DNSBL check for spam IPs

      We have updated our capabilities of the blacklist database and added DNSBL access. More on CleanTalk BlackList Database https://cleantalk.org/blacklists.
      CleanTalk DNSBL allows you to simplify access for users who are already using DNSBL in their projects. You can use CleanTalk DNSBL to filter email spam as well as filter POST and GET requests to a website. You can see the price list here https://cleantalk.org/price-database-api.

      There are currently 4 options for accessing the CleanTalk BlackList Database

      Anti-Spam Blacklist API
      spam_check () – API method for checking IPs or Emails in the BlackList. Supports issuing additional parameters about spam activity.

      Download the Blacklist IPs Database
      You can download a database of IPs and Emails that are currently blacklisted. Two formats are supported, CSV and IPSet. CSV has extended spam activity data.

      CleanTalk DNSBL
      Access to check IP addresses for spam via DNS requests. Our instruction How to use the CleanTalk DNSBL service to check IP for spam.

      Bulk Check of spam IPs and Emails
      Web interface for bulk spam checking of IPs and Emails addresses. https://cleantalk.org/help/bulk-check-ip-email
      Information on all methods is available herehttps://cleantalk.org/price-database-api

      If you have any questions, add a comment and we will be happy to help you.

    • New option. Settings templates

      New option. Settings templates

      Dear customers, we are pleased to present you a new option that simplifies management settings if you have a lot of sites. CleanTalk allows you to create templates for the control panel and plugin settings.

      Templates for the control panel settings

      If you need the same site settings in the control panel, you can select the site whose settings you want to apply to all other sites and create a template based on it. Next, you can apply this template to one, all or several sites and the control panel settings will be applied to the selected sites.

      You can also set a default template and this template will be automatically applied to all new sites that you add to the service control panel.

      You can create several templates and apply the desired template when adding a new site. You can see detailed instructions on how to use control panel templates here https://cleantalk.org/help/dashboard-template

      Templates for Anti-Spam and Security plugins

      A new Import/Export settings option has been added to the plugin. With this option, you can create a plugin settings template and transfer the settings to your other site. When installing the plugin on a new site, you can import settings from an existing template. Import/Export option works only in the WordPress plugin.

      You can add control panel settings and site settings to one template and apply them to multiple sites at the same time, or set a default template.

      You can see detailed instructions on how to use plugin templates here
      https://cleantalk.org/help/plugin-template

      If you have any questions, add a comment and we will be happy to help you.

    • Spam Protection for WordPress Forminator – Contact Form Builder

      Spam Protection for WordPress Forminator – Contact Form Builder

      Forminator – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder is one of the popular WordPress form builder plugins. Any form on the website is a target for spammers and fraudsters. Like any web form, you need to protect your WordPress Forminator Contact Form from spam.

      Not your typical form-making plugin. Forminator is the easy-to-use WordPress form builder plugin for every website and situation. It’s the easiest way to create any form – contact form, order form, payment form, email form, feedback widgets, interactive polls with real-time results, buzzfeed-style “no wrong answer” quizzes, service estimators, and registration forms with payment options including PayPal and Stripe.

      CleanTalk Anti-Spam added direct integration to protect Forminator Contact Form from spam. Installing CleanTalk Anti-Spam not only protects your contact form from spam and protects also all your forms on the site, such as registrations, comments, etc.
      A complete list of CleanTalk Anti-Spam plugin features can be viewed here. https://cleantalk.org/help/introduction

      It will take you less than two minutes to protect your WordPress site with CleanTalk Anti-Spam.

      How to install CleanTalk Anti-Spam plugin to protect Forminator Contact Form

      To install the anti-spam plugin, go to your WordPress admin panel -> Plugins -> Add New
      enter cleantalk in the search box and click the Install button for “Spam protection, AntiSpam, FireWall by CleanTalk”.
      After installing the plugin, click the “Activate” button and go to the plugin settings and click the “Get Access Key Automatically” button and click the “Save Settings” button.

      Your site and your Forminator Contact Form are now protected from spam.
      Or use our installation instructions.
      https://cleantalk.org/help/install-wordpress

      How to test spam protection for Forminator Contact Form

      Create a new form or go to the page of an existing one.
      You need to log out of your WP account or open the page in incognito mode.
      Fill in all the required form fields and use the test email s @ cleantalk.org (without space).
      After submitting the form, you will see a message about the block on submitting the form.


      If you have any questions, add a comment and we will be happy to help you.

    • How to change wp-login URL

      How to change wp-login URL

      Hello,

      We have updated the WordPress CleanTalk Security plugin and added a new option that allows you to change the URL of the authorization page wp-login.

      This option helps you change the default wp-login URL. Hackers use scripts for massive brute-force attacks, and since most sites use a default login page URL, hackers configure scripts for such URLs. When you change the URL of the authorization page, hackers will not have the opportunity to perform brute-force attacks in scripts in automatic mode.

      How to enable option to change wp-login URL

      The option allows you to easily change the address of the authorization page to any desired one.
      To enable the option, go to the WP Dashboard plugin settings -> Settings -> Security by CleanTalk -> General Settings and check box Change address to login script. Then add a new URL and click Save Settings.
      You can customize the URL of the page to redirect users who visited the page with the default URL of the wp-login page.

      This option does not change files and does not rewrite URLs in system files. To return the address of the default authorization page, it is enough to disable the option in the plugin settings or set a new value.

      Using an authorization page with a non-default address significantly increases the security of your site’s accounts from hacking using brute-force attacks.

      If you are using caching plugins, then you need to add a new authorization page in the caching exceptions.

      Don’t forget to bookmark your new wp-login page URL.

      If you have any questions, add a comment and we will be happy to help you.

    • Download the Blacklist IPs Database

      Download the Blacklist IPs Database

      Hello,

      We are pleased to announce the expansion of the BlackList API capabilities. We have automated the process of gaining access to downloading spam IP/Email addresses that are on the CleanTalk blacklists.

      We have supplemented the BlackList API packages and added the ability to download the blacklist database, and when purchasing the BlackList API package, you are given access to the SFTP server. You can see the price list here https://cleantalk.org/price-database-api.

      The server uploads spam data to active IP/Email addresses that currently have the BlackListed status. You can select the required level of spam activity for download addresses. The data is provided in CSV and IPSet formats and is updated once an hour.

      Offline BlackList Database is included in the BlackList API package and you can use both the spam_check API and download files with spam active addresses for use in your applications or firewall.

      See our instruction, How to connect CleanTalk IPSet spam IP Database to IPtables.

      If you have any questions, add a comment and we will be happy to help you.