Best way to stop spam being entered by form

Question

Hi there All,
Sorry this is a bit of a general question and I dare say
there is no cut and
dried answer.
I produce sites for automotive dealers using classic .asp.
Most of, not all
sites have feedback forms for which I've been using client
side validation.
But the dealers have been getting increasing amounts of spam
which looks
like someone has sat and entered via the form. IE. All the
mandatory fields
are entered and comply with the validation.
I've recently installed a html to email server component on
our server call
jMail
http://www.dimac.net/default2.asp?M=Products/MenuCOM.asp&P=Products/w3JMail/start.htm),
the upshot being I can now write some sort of server side
validation. The
problem is I can't think of a way to validate against
someone, or something,
inputting what appears to valid entries and then a load of
spam.... if you
see what I mean.
I suspect the people spamming my customers are actually
robots, that have
analysed how my feedback forms work and which entries must be
filled in and
with what. In which case the only way I can see of guarding
against it is to
use that "twisted numbers and letters" thing, where you get a
distorted
series of characters which must be entered correctly in order
for the forms
content to be accepted.
So, 2 questions really, is that the only way to do it?
And,
Would anybody know where I could get some info on how to do
it please?
Major sized thanks in advance.
@ndyB

Answer 1

Thanks for the info Kim.
@ndyB
"Kim" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:eutjth$g41$[email protected]..
> Hi Andy,
>
> This might give you an idea
>
http://www.geekministry.com/blog_article.php?id=93
>
> The zip wont work for you as you're using asp but you'll
get the idea...
> or google captcha
>
> Kim
>
> @ndyB skrev:
>> Hi there All,
>>
>> Sorry this is a bit of a general question and I dare
say there is no cut
>> and dried answer.
>>
>> I produce sites for automotive dealers using classic
.asp. Most of, not
>> all sites have feedback forms for which I've been
using client side
>> validation. But the dealers have been getting
increasing amounts of spam
>> which looks like someone has sat and entered via the
form. IE. All the
>> mandatory fields are entered and comply with the
validation.
>>
>> I've recently installed a html to email server
component on our server
>> call jMail
>> (
http://www.dimac.net/default2.asp?M=Products/MenuCOM.asp&P=Products/w3JMail/start.htm),
>> the upshot being I can now write some sort of server
side validation. The
>> problem is I can't think of a way to validate
against someone, or
>> something, inputting what appears to valid entries
and then a load of
>> spam.... if you see what I mean.
>>
>> I suspect the people spamming my customers are
actually robots, that have
>> analysed how my feedback forms work and which
entries must be filled in
>> and with what. In which case the only way I can see
of guarding against
>> it is to use that "twisted numbers and letters"
thing, where you get a
>> distorted series of characters which must be entered
correctly in order
>> for the forms content to be accepted.
>>
>> So, 2 questions really, is that the only way to do
it?
>> And,
>> Would anybody know where I could get some info on
how to do it please?
>>
>> Major sized thanks in advance.
>>
>> @ndyB
>>
>
> --
> Kim
> ---------------------------
>
http://www.geekministry.com