Help & Support

Your Cbox embed code is available at your control panel. You need this code to install your Cbox on your website.

Also on that page is your Quick Link — a URL which you can use to access your Cbox directly in your browser or on your mobile device.

Once you have created your Cbox account, go to the Publish page of your control panel. The code and steps for embedding your Cbox are provided there for a number of common platforms.

If you install your Cbox and all you see is code, or nothing at all, your web host may be removing or otherwise interfering with the HTML iframe tags that Cbox uses. Your Cbox code needs to be pasted into an area of your site that accepts HTML without modification. This may mean switching your editor from "rich text" or "WYSIWYG" mode into HTML-editing or "raw" mode, or you may need to open your template files in a plain-text editor like Notepad.

Remember that you always have the option of posting or sharing your Cbox Quick Link — this gives visitors direct access to your Cbox in a full-screen layout, so it's perfect as a mobile option or for stand-alone use.

Go to the Theme editor in your control panel. There you can specify the fonts and colours of your Cbox, using a point-and-click editor. You can always reset your theme to one of the preset defaults there, if you would like to start again.

If you have a Premium or Pro Cbox you can edit CSS, which gives you complete control over presentation.

If you have a Premium or Pro Cbox, you can create a moderator name for yourself at your Users page, and then log in on your Cbox using the "profile" link. You will see a delete icon [x] next to each message in your Cbox, and you will not have to log in at your control panel at all to delete messages.

Alternatively, visit your Messages page to delete messages individually or in bulk. Deleted messages are removed from your public Cbox history, but are preserved in your Archives.

Yes. In the Theme editor, simply delete the colour codes for the main and form background ("BG") elements. This will make the Cbox transparent, allowing whatever is behind the Cbox to show through.

Note that any pop-ups generated by a transparent Cbox will have the default background colour — usually white. If your font colour is light, it may be invisible in popups. You can fix this by editing the CSS to introduce a background-color rule for popups.

We're excited about this feature, but please note that the technology that supports it is relatively new; there are some limitations and there may be some disruptions as we work on it in future.

You will often want to know when a message has been posted on your Cbox while you have been away from the chat. Today on Android smartphones and tablets using Chrome browser, and for Chrome on the desktop, it's possible to subscribe for push notifications for Cbox messages.

This feature is only available to paid Cboxes, at your Quick Link, and for technical reasons it's only available when the page is loaded over SSL/TLS. Your browser address bar should start https://my.cbox.ws/[your_Cbox_name]

Note: If you accidentally click "deny" to the browser permission request, you will need to reset your browser's privacy settings: in Chrome, delete the Cbox entry at chrome://settings/content under "Notifications" -> "Manage exceptions..."

If you see the bell icon at the top right, you are all set: click or tap the bell to subscribe. The first time you do this, your browser will ask permission to send you notifications on behalf of Cbox. Once we have subscribed you, the bell icon will change — you can click it again to unsubscribe from this Cbox.

Once you are subscribed for notifications, you will receive messages in your device's notification bar whenever new messages are posted to your Cbox. This will work even if the tab is closed. On desktop, Chrome may need to be running but you will not need to have Cbox open in any window.

You can have multiple subscriptions for different Cboxes and you will receive notifications for each. We combine notifications for channels and also rate-limit them to minimize potential disruption.

We are looking forward rolling this important feature out to more browsers and devices in future. Your feedback is invaluable during this process — let us know what you think.

Creating a Cbox is quick, easy, and free. Simply visit this page, and fill in the form. Your Cbox will be created instantly, and you will be able to get started right away.

This can be caused by Internet security software or other plugins or extensions installed in your browser.

For example, if you have Norton Internet Security, the Chrome browser extension that is installed with this software has been known to cause this issue. Disabling the extension will fix it. To do so, enter chrome://extensions in the browser address bar, locate the Norton extension, and disable it.

If you have McAfee Internet Security installed, your Privacy Service may be interfering with the loading of Cboxes. Try the following steps to resolve the problem:

1. Right click the McAfee icon in your system tray.
2. Select Privacy Service | Options.
3. Click on "Block Ads".
4. Uncheck "Block ads on this computer".

First decide whether the messages appear to be automated, or coming from an individual user.

Cbox works hard to prevent automated spam from reaching your Cbox. However if you are having trouble with such spam, you can require all users to solve a CAPTCHA before posting, by changing your CAPTCHA setting to "Strict" at your Settings page.

For spam from an individual user, first try banning the user. At your Messages page, select the unwanted messages and click "Ban". With a paid Cbox, you can ban the user from within your Cbox by logging in as a mod user.

Abusive users may attempt to evade bans by accessing your Cbox from behind an anonymizing proxy, via a VPN, Tor, or similar service. With a Pro Cbox, you can enable "Auto-ban proxies" at your Settings. You can also enable "Strong bans" there, which makes bans more resilient against changing IP addresses. However, it also increases the risk of bans affecting other users.

You can also strengthen individual bans by selecting them in your Blocked users list and clicking "Strengthen". This "widens the net" on an IP ban. Note that this can prevent other users of the same ISP from accessing your Cbox, so you should ensure the duration is short on such bans.

If you have a Premium or Pro Cbox, you have more access control options. It's recommended to always enable the option "Users must be registered to post". Normally, you would also enable "Users can password-protect their names" so that they can register themselves; for more control, you can disable this option and register users manually.

You can also choose to disable new registrations temporarily to "lock down" your Cbox. Existing users will still be able to log in and post.

Finally, if you disable the option "Users can password-protect their names" you can still enable "Users can authenticate via Facebook" — now new users can join your Cbox via Facebook, but if they are banned then their Facebook identity is also blocked.

Some other things you can do if you experience recurring abuse of your Cbox:

• Place your Cbox in a members-only or private area of your site, such that users must log in to your site before they can see your Cbox.
• Implement User Integration (Cbox Pro), which ensures that only users who are registered on your own site can post.
• Configure and enable the Site whitelist (Premium and Pro). This prevents your Cbox embed code from being displayed on any other site.
• Delegate moderator authority (Premium and Pro) to trusted users who are able to monitor your Cbox during times you are not.
• Generate a new Security tag and republish your Cbox embed code. This revokes access for any user who may have a link to your Cbox but no longer has access to the page it is embedded on.
• Disable the Quick link. This will prevent users from being able to access your Cbox except via the page you have embedded it on.

Finally, if abuse continues, you should contact us. We want to keep all Cboxes free from spam and abuse, and will do what we can to assist.

In the Date options in your control panel, there is a "Zone" setting. Click the [reset] link to have Cbox attempt to figure out the correct time zone based on your current clock time. If it's still not correct according to the example shown on that page, add or subtract 1 from the Zone number until the example time shown is correct. Your time zone may be negative or positive.

You can also change the "Date display" option to show relative timestamps — this way the clock time is not shown on your Cbox at all, but rather a relative time, such as "2 minutes ago".