Strong Box VS ???
 

What are the latest alternatives to Strongbox or is Strong box considered the best members area protection money can buy?

Lets talk about it.

proxypass is better, simpler, more secure. use it, you;ll never have to think about it again.

Thanks Gleem, I assume thats proxypass.com ?? will check it out

i would say the opposite in that strongbox kicks proxypass's ass. only thing close i feel is phantom frog. still like strongbox better though.

I agree with ProxyPass however I've never used StrongBox. I know that ProxyPass is solid and VERY fast with support.

One big difference is that Strongbox is constantly developed, so you get
things like Wordpress and Drupal integration with Strongbox, as well as
all of the processors, big and small.

You'll notice that ProxyPass hasn't updated their site in several years.
On their front page they're still bragging about some big affiliate programs
using ProxyPass when in fact those programs dropped ProxyPass years ago
and switched to Strongbox. My impression is that their software is like their site -
it was good in 2003, but hasn't seen many updates. That means no Wordpress
integration, because Wordpress didn't exist the last time Proxypass had an update.
No PasswordByPhone integration for the same reason.

Hack tools HAVE of course evolved in the last few years, so I'd want to use
protection that keeps up with the times.

Yeah Proxypass is great, also good: http://phantomfrog.com/

hmmm, I've had proxypass since 2006, never had any security breaches since then, there is zero setup hassles, and they auto update daily the list of known proxies that are used for breaking in sites. The best is when you don't even know the software is there.

Why would a paysite owner care about wordpress?

You cant do better than strongbox period. The product does what it says and when you have a problem Ray is on it. Even if it is something new like wordpress or drupal I strongly recommend strongbox.

Plus nobody has better customer service period.

If you have never used both, then how can you 'agree' one is better than the other?

:2 cents:

For the record, I use SB/TB.

I use WP for several of my paysites and Ray was quick to make sure that SB worked flawlessly with WP.

Been using SB since the first version and service has always been top notch.

I also use TB and CB from Ray and both do the job well.

Switched from Sparta to Strongbox for our sites a few months ago and very pleased with it. The Strongbox guys made the installation pain free and the software has done it's job well.

We use both Proxypass (custom version) and Strongbox and both are great.

Strongbox runs smoothly on our paysites since years

Clearly, you don't use ProxyPass.

If Mike South sez strongbox is the best

you bet your ass strongbox is the best

Mike South said it, I believe it, that settles it.

I tried them all and stayed with proxypass.

PrimeAuth is free when you host with ISprime. They'll even customize it, do whatever you want it to do. Simple, effective, free, set it, forget it.

We have over fifty cash programs who use ProxyPass happily at MojoHost. Rayls StrongBox and also PhantomFrog are both excellent softwares, too, with a bunch of nice features. There have been updates to PP but Terry has been as remiss as I have about updating his site. I think these are the 3 solutions which pretty much encapsulate the whole industry and none of them is a bad choice. At MojoHost we warranty PP againat defect and members area overages if in error.

Cheers,

Brad

I've used StrongBox in the past, I use ProxyPass now. I see no difference between the two.

Member area URLs look different. And logging in is much more a pain in the ass on strongbox sites. I'm not saying its complicated, but why to make the 1 more click if you don't have to, I personally hate it and I'm sure members don't love it either.

strong box versus .................nothing!

We are running strongbox on ahshanae.com right now but to be honest I do not understand the system and have no idea if its doing anything or not

I will say that quite a few times it has sent me emails to let me know when something suspect is going on. I think the only reason I am shopping around for our new sites is that I do not understand the SB admin interface.

I suspect it is working and doing its job as since we installed it we have seen a decrease in member area download traffic


... heres whats most important to me

I want to definitely limit member downloads ... no site rips

I want the system to keep track of abusive user activity so that if he downloads 2 gb one week and 1 gb the next the system knows and alerts me while stopping him at the same time



What would really realy be awesome is if one of these guys could team up with a DRM provider and integrate video DRM into their system :)

That would be almost as pimp as Princeton Cash

Princeton Cash, contact Ray as he can help you block the site rippers or ask him about Throttlebox which limits downloads.

I know. I meant, I notice no difference in how well they work. The SB login is kind of a pain.

If I am not mistaken they all let you limit d/l per member per day in addition to # of connections.

Brad

*crickets*

Strongbox > ProxyPass

Yeah, when it comes to protection, both work great. But the other stuff...

we need protection software reviews!

You and I are on the same wave length on all three points. You talked about looking
at downloads over a week or two. We're the only ones who track any more than one
day on downloads, I think. The first people to try limiting downloads did X GB per day,
of course, but that didn't work all that well. Much more interesting is looking a activity
over several days, so Throttlebox does that. A new member might legitimately have
heavy usage on their first day, but very heavy usage EVERY day might be something
you want to control. Also interesting is usage over a very short time - you might allow
500 pictures in a DAY, but 500 pictures in ten 10 minutes would be something to look at.
Really, 24 hours is a really bad time period to look at, because you might be counting
one evening's session, and you might be counting two, you don't know. 36 hours is
much more effective, because then at least you KNOW you're dealing with their
downloads from two evenings. We figured even better would be to track forever, so
that's what we do with Throttlebox. The more sophisticated "linear" limits, which
calculate a decaying average, aren't quite as easy to understand as "x GB per day",
but it's much more effective. Throttlebox also gives you the option of a simple
"x GB per day" limit if you want to keep things simple.


On the DRM, too, we've been putting research into that. Like limiting bandwidth,
the first few people to try it, doing it in a fairly simple way, didn't get very good
results. All of the big music sites tried DRM, and all of them dropped DRM when
it just didn't work very well. So we look at that and ask "how can we make DRM
smarter, so it'll work a lot better?" The general idea of DRM seems like it should
be good in THEORY, but in actual use it seems to frustrate paying customers more
than it frustrates the bad guys. So we're working with a couple of partners to do
DRM better - much better. We're also looking at some DRM alternatives to control
people posting your stuff without frustrating the paying customer.

Now that Throttlebox, our intelligent bandwidth limiter, and Clonebox, our enterprise
grade backup spare server system, are completed, the next thing on our list is
the redesign of Strongbox admin that you mentioned. We've made some small
changes to make it a bit more clear. The current admin interface works very well for
half the people, and less well for the other half, depending on how your brain works.
Of course, as mentioned in most of those emails that Strongbox sends you when
something happens, you generally don't need to do anything. Originally Strongbox
didn't have any admin interface, because it doesn't need one. I just does it's job
without needing your attention, but provides the admin interface so you can see
what's going on if you care to look.

The new interface will be "task oriented" - it will revolve around what you're trying to
DO. You log in to Strongbox for a reason - to do something. We'll give you the
options of what you can do and I think that will make much more sense to you.
The current interface is "system oriented" - designed so you can see how Strongbox
works, and that works very well for a lot of people. We would love to have your help
and feedback as we design the new system. What I mean is, first we need to make
a list of which things you want to do with the Strongbox admin. Then for each thing
you want to do we give you a simple way to do it, and ask you to let us know if you
see anything that could be more clear.

As we integrate some advanced new features from our research version of
Strongbox, we may hire a world reknown designer to help with the interface.
We have some really sophisticated features, based on crazily complex mathematics,
to add. Our challenge is to take all of the sophistication and make it appear
as simple as possible, but no simpler. We'd just love for you to be involved so
we can make exactly the interface you'd want. Please shoot us an email at
[email protected] . We're here to meet your needs and the best way
for us to do that is to work directly with you to make sure what we're doing is
exactly what you need.

not sure if its ok to post the link, but ask this guys about security ... if you dont have the pfile, you dont have hits ... familytabu.com :thumbsup

So you'd like the log in button to click itself? That could be arranged. We already
have the "remember my password" check box, we can sure do automatic login if you like.
Of course, don't you have to click "log in" or "ok" with any system, including those
that are patches on basic auth (the gray popup box)? On my browser, I always have
to do that one click to log in, so it's one click with Strongbox, one click without, the
same either way. I do like the automatic log in idea, though, we can do a checkbox
for that - "log me in automatically next time".

S T R O N G B O X is the best so far ... but almost every site is with sb profile ... go strongbox upgrade go! :thumbsup

I use that to. It's is totaly great and it connect direct to nats no more htaccess

That would be surely a big plus, if you made that. And yeah, I meant the regular gray pop-up box.

Strongbox all the way! It's not just an amazing product that has kept people out of my sites that didn't belong there, but the quality of the service of installation, support and customization has been amazing from day one. Ray definitely knows his stuff, big thanks to both him and Ali for all their hard work!

Another Next Generation Protection System
 

I represent Phantom Frog and we track every access to
your members area by IP. Phantom Frog recently announced
a new relevant feature. Webmasters can selectively allocate
individual members more bandwidth without effecting the
bandwidth limits of other members. Another recent Frog feature
reports Bandwidth History for the previous 30 days for each member.

Our Hi-Resolution Geo-IP Tracking offers the most
accurate password abuse detection available anywhere.
It tracks all visits to the members area of a site
down to the city level. Furthermore, it takes
latitudal and longitudal data into consideration.
Therefore, Frog detects the fact that the same
password was used in L.A. and NYC. We pinpoint the
abuse instantly, allowing for the possibility of
legitimate travel. That level of resolution is
unique to Phantom Frog.

Our system is based upon the premise of providing
24/7 uninterrupted access to the legitimate members
while blocking out the leechers. This is accomplished
automatically through our Automated Member Support
(AMS) feature. When password abuse is detected, the
password is changed. The next time the valid member
tries to login, Frog uses their email address to
validate their identity and issues them a new password
directly via email. This strategy breaks the cycle of
password abuse and frees up the webmasters to do more
important work.

Frog is integrated with of all the major billing companies.
The user login is not altered in any way.

Phantom Frog is the ONLY system to offer a FREE Trial Version
which installs by adding one html tag or we can handle the
installation completely for you for. The Trial demos the
Hi-Res Geo-IP abuse detection feature.

Please feel free to contact me or click the links below to
setup a Free Trial or learn more.


Setup a Free Trial of Phantom Frog

Learn More About Phantom Frog & Check Out Our Webmaster Testimonials

Yeah, we'll do that soon, going from one click log in to automatic zero click login.
I'm pondering the best way to let them change it later. Maybe you have some ideas.

If they are logged in automatically, they never see the log in page, so they have no
chance to say "don't log me in automatically next time". We could add a link WITHIN
the members' are to allow them to do that, but I hate to require any changes in your
members' area. What happens if your designer accidentally removes that link and noone
realizes it for a while?

Another option would be what I have on one of my computers at home - a timed
automatic log in. The screen shows "automatically logging in in 5,4,3,2,1 seconds".
During those five seconds you can either uncheck the automatic log in box, or click
the log in button to skip the 5 second delay.

Those are the first things that come to my mind. What do you think?
Of course, we also need to carefully evaluate any security implications.
If it were to come right down to it, I'd rather let the user click "log in" than
have any significant security concerns that might be involved in an automatic
log in system.