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.

The user's IP address is probably changing. Cbox has a feature that allows you to strengthen bans so that certain kinds of changing (dynamic) IPs are blocked by a single ban. Cbox Pro has additional features that can pre-emptively ban users of proxies.

Go to your bans page, and select the ban(s) that are not effective. Then click the "Strengthen" button in the top-right. This will "widen the net" on the selected bans. You can click Strengthen again to widen the net even further.

Note that strengthened bans are more likely to affect other people, especially other customers of the same ISP, because they constitute a range of IP addresses. A doubly-strengthened ban covers about 65 000 IP addresses.

If you have a paid Cbox, you have access control features you should enable, including the option to require users to register their names before posting. You can also control whether your users are able to register their own names. You can disable this second option to take control over registration; simply deleting a registered user will then prevent that person from posting, regardless of IP, because they cannot register a new name.

With a Pro Cbox, you can enable "Auto-ban proxies" at your Settings page. Your Cbox will detect proxies, VPNs and Tor exit nodes and will automatically and temporarily ban users who attempt to post from behind such services.

Microphone brings voice notes to your Cbox. Users will see a microphone symbol below the message input box, which they can press and hold to record a note. The note is then posted into their message using regular boxcode.

On the first tap of the button, the browser will request permission to use the device microphone. The user must Accept this request the first time. On future visits, the permission should be preserved.

Compatibility

This feature makes use of recent browser technologies. As such it requires a modern browser such as Chrome. It will work on Android smartphones as well as desktops.

Importantly, you must have SSL (HTTPS) enabled both in your Cbox and your site. If your site does not support HTTPS, then you will still be able to use this feature at your Quick Link, but you will receive an error from it on your embedded Cbox.

Security

We recommend using this feature in conjunction with a Moderated Cbox. This way, you or a moderator has to give explicit voice permission to users before they are able to post messages (and also therefore, voice notes.) In other respects, voice notes are just like other messages with media in them.

Installation

After enabling the feature, you may need to increase your Cbox form height. Otherwise, the button might be cut off and not be fully visible in your Cbox.

The option "Enable site whitelist" at your Publish page will prevent other websites from displaying your Cbox to their visitors.

When using this option, ensure the web address we have on record (also on that page) is the simplest possible address for your site. For example you should generally not include the "www." part nor any trailing path, like "/index.html".

When you renew your service with us, your paid term is extended by the additional time that you purchase, regardless of the remaining credit. This means you never lose any time. For example, if your term ends on 21 September, but you renew early, purchasing 12 months in July, then your term is extended to 21 September next year.

Upgrading Premium to Pro

When you upgrade from Premium to Pro, your credit is reset for the new plan. Remaining Premium credit is however held on your account, and if you have sufficient credit, you can contact us to request a pro-rated conversion after your upgrade.

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:

• Delegate moderator authority (Premium and Pro) to trusted users who are able to monitor your Cbox during times you are not.
• Use Moderated Chat mode (Pro) to prevent users posting directly to public chat. Their messages will need to be approved by a mod.
• 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.
• 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.