I did send you all some advice on how I've been banning spambots which I think has been helping in the past year and half I've been a mod. It often seems like there is an average of 3-4 spambots a day that join up on our forum. A lot of times, I'll check the newest members that joined the next day I check in the forums and compare their profile information with sites that hunt/list spambots and ban them before they strike. Still going to get ones that spam as soon as their profile is created but I think it helps keep the activity down that way and by banning their IP address early, it can prevent duplicate spambots using that same IP address from accessing the forums. About 5 or 6 days ago, I checked out this space and was banning some spambots and as I did so, 3 of the 4 accounts had IP addresses used by other spam accounts that had been banned earlier but only the username and e-mail tags were checked.
Also, I highly recommend going to the Core theme if you are having trouble banning spambots. There are no drop down menus for me when I ban the bots. I'm using an iPhone 4 and can ban an account while adding the extra triggers as check marks and remove the spambot posts as well as track it for any other similar accounts with 1-2 minutes. I almost feel like I need to make a video of this to show how easy it can be with just the Core theme considering Insanolord's constant blaming of his phone and the site not working for him.
I'm going to send another message off to this internet provider I'm trying to use. They said they'd get back to me in a couple days about arranging a date for Internet hook-up and that was a week ago. (Plus, the e-mail contained a completely different name from my own which doesn't inspire more confidence in me about their abilities). If they can't get anything done still after 16 or 17 days since I called them then I don't know how they can call themselves an Internet provider since they seem unable to provide Internet service. So frustrating. And now my internet usage in my phone has exceeded my plan so I'm getting charged extra there. Khushrenada is getting upset!