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Adding CAPTCHA protection to an Elgg site

A default Elgg installation is vulnerable to spamming by bots. Adding CAPTCHA protection can help secure your site. Learn how here!

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This article describes how to add CAPTCHA protection to a web site running the Elgg social networking engine. CAPTCHAs help protect your site from spamming by bots and other malicious actors.

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Note

For general information about what CAPTCHAs are and what they do, please see this article.

Adding CAPTCHA protection

To add CAPTCHA protection to an Elgg site, follow these steps:

  1. To download the CAPTCHA plugin, use your web browser to go to http://community.elgg.org/plugins/1172111/1.8.15b/elgg-captcha.

  2. Click Download 1.8.15b, and then save the gutwacaptcha.zip file to your local computer.

  3. Transfer the gutwacaptcha.zip file to your account using FTP.

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    Note

    Transfer the file to the mod directory where you installed Elgg. For example, if you installed Elgg in the document root directory, transfer the file to the public_html/mod directory. If you installed Elgg in a subdirectory, transfer the file that directory instead. For example, if you installed Elgg in a directory named elgg, transfer the file to the public_html/elgg/mod directory.

  4. Log in to your account using SSH.

  5. Type the following command: 

cd ~/public_html/mod

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Note

If you transferred the gutwacaptcha.zip file to a different directory, change to that directory instead.

  1. To extract the plugin files, type the following command:
unzip gutwacaptcha.zip

  1. Use your web browser to log in to Elgg as the administrator.

  2. On the top menu bar, click Administration.

  3. Under Configure, click Plugins.

  4. Locate the GutwaCaptcha 1.8.15b plugin, and then click Activate. Elgg activates the plugin.

  5. To modify the plugin's settings, click Settings. Select the settings that you want, and then click Save.

  6. CAPTCHAs are now activated for your site. To test this, go to the Elgg home page on your site, and then click Register or Lost password. Elgg displays a CAPTCHA.

More Information

For more information about Elgg, please visit http://elgg.org.

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Updated about 18 hours ago