Support

Hi,
A couple of times recently I find that after restoring my site from backup, I then get blocked with the 'You are a spammer, hacker or an otherwise bad person.' message.
Is there anything I can do to prevent this?

This is not a normal situation for a restore. The reason for the block would be in the Security Exceptions Log in Admin Tools. You can disable Admin Tools from outside Joomla! with the instructions here: https://www.akeebabackup.com/documentation/troubleshooter/atwafissues.html.

Thanks Dale,
I have a number of sites using Akeeba software, but the one I am dealing with at the moment seems particularly prone to security exceptions. Most are template=in URL, but the ones in the log around the backup restore problem seem to be Admin Query String. Fortunately I have a dynamic IP address, so when I get locked out I simply reset the router to get a new one. However, when I have a moment I must try and learn more about what is going on. To be honest, I am wary of experimenting too much in case I break something and then have to spend ages getting it back up again!

The "template=" can be legitimate. But mostly it's not. You can disable it for legit traffic by setting "Allow site templates" to yes.

There are a number of things that can trigger the admin query string. Those little screen shots that your browser shows you of recently visited sites - that triggers an exception when your browser visits the site to take the screen shot. That would take some investigation.

You can always turn Admin Tools off with the link I gave you above.