Simple IP Ban List (SIB) README
Author: Kenneth Power <kenneth.power@gmail.com>
Modified: July 28, 2005
License: GPL

    Greetings, and welcome to the README for this very basic ban list plugin for
bBlog-0.7.x. SIB is the most basic of ban lists. Each time a connection is made
to your bBlog installation, the connection IP address is compared to a list on
your server. If a match is made, the connection fails. This effects reading, 
posting comments, sending trackbacks and anything else that tries to interface
with bBlog.

  What SIB does is provide a nice interface for maintaining the ban list. With
SIB you can:
  * Easily add IP Addresses from SPAM comments;
  * At a glance see which addresses are in the ban list
  * Add and remove in batches, rather than a single IP address at a time
  
  All from within the familiarity of the bBlog administration interface.
Combined with the batch comment deletion, you have a very basic way of handling
SPAM postings. For those wanting more abilities, check out the BlackList plugin
under development for future versions of bBlog.

================================ INSTALLATION =================================

1. Copy the simpleIpBan directory, and all its contents, to the
bblog\bBlog_Plugins directory.

2. Copy the simpleipban_admin.html file to the bblog\inc\admin_templates\plugins
directory.

3. Copy the admin.simpleipban.php file to the bblog\bBlog_Plugins directory.

4. Copy the banned_list.php file to the bblog directory.

5. Make banned_list.php writable by your web server.
   [Note:
     *nix users, chmod 0666 is probably sufficient
   ]

6. Open the bblog\inc\init.php file in your text editor.

7. Find the line that reads:

  $bBlog = new bBlog();
  
8. Add the following text before the line you found in step 6:

  include_once(BBLOGROOT.'bBlog_plugins/simpleIpBan/sib_config.php');

  [This portion of the file should now show:
  
  // start your engines
  include_once(BBLOGROOT.'bBlog_plugins/simpleIpBan/sib_config.php');
  $bBlog = new bBlog();
  
9. Save the changes you made to init.php.

10. Close your text editor.

11. Log into the admin section of your bBlog installation.

12. Access the plugins section to load the SIB plugin.

13. Click the "Scan for new plugins" button at the bottom of the plugin list.

13b. You might need to do a page referesh after the above step to see the
     Simple IP Ban option appear in the admin menu.
     
14. Click the Simple IP Ban menu option to manage the ban list


This plugin is compatible with the 0.7.x branch of bBlog. Future compatibility
is not guaranteed as an official plugin (referenced above) is under development.
This serves merely as a stop gap until the real one arrives.
