The war on Spam

[Tudsta]

Anyone who uses Matt's Archive Formmail should consider downloading and using nms FormMail.

Matt Wright, author of Matt's Script Archive, has himself recommended using nms scripts for replacing his CGI scripts. "In many cases the nms code is better written and more secure."

While the free code found at my web site has not evolved much in recent years, the general programming practices and standards of CGI programs have. nms is an attempt by very active programmers in the Perl community to bring the quality of code for these types of programs up to date and eliminate some of the bad programming practices and bugs found in the existing Matt's Script Archive code.

I would highly recommend downloading the nms versions if you wish to learn CGI programming. The code you find at Matt's Script Archive is not representative of how even I would code these days.

http://nms-cgi.sourceforge.net

http://www.scriptarchive.com/nms.html


Ben

[ppeay]

I have been using the nms formail for a while now. I like it cause you don't have to have an email address in the form.

[msbeachbum]

I use Matt Wright's script for online tests I administer to my students. The program I use, Hot Potatoes, is formatted to this script. I've tried other scripts but the email is to difficult to read. Does the nms script retain the same formatting?

Also, in another thread it mentioned renaming formmail to something else. I did this with mine. Is is still at a risk for being used to send spam? If so, I'll explore the nms script.

David

[ppeay]

WoW Someone else from Mississippi.
As far as I noticed the email output of the nms formmail is about the same as matts formmail. As far as I can tell, the nms formmail is at least as safe as Matts against the spammers maybe more so?
I use it myself because I don't have to list my email address in the form code, you can tell it who to mail the results to in the script. I think formmail type scripts are always at risk for being abused by spammers so just have to keep a close watch over them.

[NexDog]

The NMS version is far superior and much more secure than Matt's. Pretty soon we will be informing everyone of this new formmail and may even standardise it on our network.

Daid, I propose you do a test and try the new NMS version.

[MikeMann]

Originally posted by mobstory
I don't have any form mail installed but I used to use alienform. Are you aware of any problems with that program before I set it up?

I've used alienform at my previous host and use it here as well. I like it because it uses templates for the emails. I don't think there are any issues with it being used.

[ppeay]

I looked at the alienform 2 script and i see where you can set @Referers (who can use the form) but nowhere do i see in the script where you can set @recipients (who can recieve the mail). The @referers appears to be set up similar to what it was in matts formmail version 1.9 and earlier which is not very secure at all. Maybe cause its not as popular as matts formmail, the spamers have not tried using it. I think that they would have little trouble if they did try.
The NMS formmail is much more secure than this formmail program.

[MikeMann]

Thanks. I've switched over to using NMS Much more secure.