I have released the version 0.3 of the DNS Trackback antispam plugin for b2evolution. You can download this zip file and upgrade the previous version, just by overwriting the old files in your plugins/ directory.

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This new version of the plugin addresses the issue of trackbacks coming from legitimate third-party servers, so to speak. There are two know cases of this, as I explained in the original announcement: Wordpress.com hosted sites and Haloscan.com. There are possibly more cases, for instance typepad.com hosted sites, but we need more testin to discover them.

The issue with wordpress.com hosted sites is that Wordpress.com uses a different server to send trackbacks than the one hosting the blog. Therefore, in previous versions of this plugin, all trackbacks sent from wordpress.com hosted blogs were being wrongly blocked. So far I've discovered 6 different hosts which are used by wordpress.com to send trackbacks. The IP addresses of these 6 hosts, in addition to one from Haloscan, have been added to a local whitelist, which the blog administrator can modify to his/her own needs in the Backoffice. All IP addresses stored in this whitelist will be spared the IP checking the plugin does by default.

We still don't know how many hosts are used by wordpress.com to send trackbacks. There could be more. Also, we don't know if other hosted blog services use the same approach of decentralized trackback delivery. Therefore, we need more testing to see if we require more additions to the current IP whitelist. What you can do to help is send trackbacks from any wordpress.com (or typepad or any other similarly hosted blog service) blog to any post on the following blog I have enabled for testing purposes: Ninguno Presidente. Since this blog is very low traffic and nobody is using it (if you understand spanish, you'll see the pun here) for anything important, it is easier and less disruptive to test here. So, if you have the chance, send your trackbacks and let me know.

Enough said, download the 0.3 version of the DNS trackback anti-spam plugin for b2evolution and have fun. Standard warnings apply: This plugin is provided as-is, use it at your own risk, backup everything before doing anything, if you destroy your server by using this plugin, it is not my fault and you had it coming, etc., etc.

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