Whats the crack with getting loads of members with random names like "occeergghy" or such forth with often similar email addresses, that never post.
They make my forum member figures look better but is there anything sinister behind them?

They're usually spam bots you need to introduce a question on sign up to stop them.

spambots, they may include a website they're trying to advertise in their profile details with the intention of getting more google search references and/or getting people to click on the link. Or they'll remain dormant for a while and then blat a load of spammy posts on the forum. I mod the forum a bit to include a question when you register e.g. "what is the answer to 1+1= ?". Defeats the spambots.

(err, what Drac said 😉 )

Ive got Captcha enabled which I thought would stop bots. Do I need to increase the complexity of it?

Captcha isn't so good these days even more so if it's an old one, questions still stump them just make them simple like allthepiessays also more user friendly as captcha is bloody awful sometimes.

Is this something I need to get my web guy to do then, as I dont see any option for setting this up in the admin control panel.

(sorry for being such a dinosaur!!)

No you could do it may need a plugin I can't remember now so long since I did it.

http://www.phpbb.com/ has loads of helpful hints but make sure you search before asking a question or you may well get flamed.

OK. Many thanks for the help, Ill go get flamed!!!

http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=427852

Try that first.

Or

http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=561677