Order IP Banning Improvement needed

[TheHostingHeroes]

HI

This isn't so much a v8 issue as its in v7 too but its something you should change in the next upcoming version.

WHMCS for a long time has offered "Ban IP" when viewing an order.  

When you click Ban its always used 31/12/2020 23:59 as the ban expiry date, this means throughout WHMCS history all orders banned for everyone will automatically unban 31/12/2020 this year. (see attached example)

Today on my test Beta3 install i banned an order and it still uses 31st Dec 2020 which is only 4 months from now.  

can WHMCS change the logic so its something the administrator can configure, I think a good default for Ban IP is 1 year, for example if i banned an IP today it would unban 1 year today rather than all blocks be given the same date -- but the admin should be able to configure this as some may want block for 2yrs, 10yrs etc.

Based on the current system if it doesn't change if i blocked an IP on 1st Jan 2021 its ban expiry date would be in the past.

I did log this as a support ticket earlier this year but was told it won't be changed!  It needs changing.

 

 

Edited August 26, 2020 by cyberhostpro

[Kian]

It can be fixed easily. The URL itself defines the expiration...

configbannedips.php?ip=123.123.123.123&reason=Banned%20due%20to%20Orders&year=2020&month=12&day=31&hour=23&minutes=59&token=60a4b955378b04bab3a76b3709c6e607879ac881

So with this hook you can solve the problem. It replaces year/month/day parameters to make sure that the ban always last one full year.

[TheHostingHeroes]

WHMCS should take this and add it to the source code so every whmcs user can have this simple fix.

[Kian]

To be fair it's more complex. X wants the ban to last 10 days, Y wants 1 year, Z custom defined on the fly... multiply this scenario for every feature of WHMCS and voilà, software bloat is served.

[brian!]

2 minutes ago, Kian said:

To be fair it's more complex. X wants the ban to last 10 days, Y wants 1 year, Z custom defined on the fly... multiply this scenario for every feature of WHMCS and voilà, software bloat is served.

or make the link just go to configbannedips.php without passing any variables and let the user specify the reason and ban period themselves.

[Kian]

In my opinion even rebuilding WHMCS from scratch won't change anything. There are no settings in this world to meet customer needs. I could create the best possible "Ban IP" feature and there will always be someone asking for something different. Where do we draw the line? Too much customization takes you too far away from your project.

The core of problem is that people don't understand (or refuse to understand) the difference between customization and configuration. This happens a lot on WHMCS probably because there are very few developers and modules. I don't see it happening on WordPress, Magento and PrestaShop.

I don't think this is due to open vs closed source. We can already customize WHMCS with hooks/API (with a lot of limitations if you dig deeper). It's just that no one cares. I don't get why on WHMCS my specific need/problem should be addressed by WHMCS Staff by default. I'm not suggesting anything. I just don't get it.

[WHMCS John]

Hi @cyberhostpro,

Thanks for bringing this to our attention, I've opened case #CORE-15133 with our development team to look at future-proofing the ban expiration date.

Once we resolve cases and push features they are available at our change log, here:

https://changelog.whmcs.com/

Thanks again for taking the time to report your findings.