Miscellaneous Hacks - Ban Spiders by User Agent

What this mod does
With this mod you can enter User Agents to watch or ban, you can also recieve emails or have an Output.txt created and updated with time and date of visits. It doesn't just have to be spiders, you can watch, log or ban any useragent!

How to install
Simply import the product ban_spider, the mod is active by default but none of the other options are turned on.

What is a UserAgent?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_agent

Understanding a UserAgent string
http://user-agent-string.info/parse

Genuine User Getting Blocked?
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=105

Tools to help
http://whatsmyuseragent.com/SwitchingUserAgents.asp
http://www.botsvsbrowsers.com/SimulateUserAgent.asp

FAQ
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=137

How does it work?
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=381

What's a bot?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spambot

How do i ban a bot?
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=318
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....7&postcount=51

Where's output.txt located?
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=216

Bad bot lists
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=259
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=224
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=281

Tested on vb3.7.x, vB3.8.x , vB4.x.x but should work on any version.

__________________________________________________ __________________
Special thanks to:
Lior
KH99
BoP5
for helping me sort out a few issues

...and beta testers
ForceHSS (Special thanks to Force for latest testing)
ozzy47
GreyHost

If you use this please mark as INSTALLED

History
9th June 2011 Orginal xml added
12th June 2011 Added both email notification and text file logging
22nd June 2011 Version 2.0.0, Added create thread on activity

1. Added match facility you can now use something like Yandex and it will match MOZILLA/5.0 (COMPATIBLE; YANDEXBOT/3.0; +HTTP://YANDEX.COM/BOTS)
2. Added clickable link to visited thread

22nd September 2011 added user redirect url selection
08th October Beta testing started for thread creation.
20th October Beta testing started for emailing.
21st October Beta testing complete Ver 3.0.0 uploaded
29th October minor fix added to cope with empty userid on thread creation
30th October Beta testing automatic redirection to spiders/bots IP
31st October New xml uploaded with automatic redirect to IP
25th November Minor fix for blank forumid fixed
26th November 2011 Fixed version check & create thread Off by default
17th December 2014 Version 3.1.0 uploaded, Hook changed extra logging and statistics added by Ozzy47 (Chris)
18th December 2014 Version 3.1.1 uploaded, prevented spiders being counted when mod turned off.
17th December 2014 Version 3.1.2 uploaded, due to rogue code from another mod
The Bad Bots list is now included in the product
Please prune out all those that you wish to be able to see your site (i suggest you definately prune out "DA" and "Custo" :

Support will now only be given to those who have this mod marked as INSTALLED

[ozzy47]

Proximic Spider
http://www.proximic.com/spider.html
Magpie Spider
http://www.brandwatch.com/magpie-crawler/

[CAG CheechDogg]

Originally Posted by ozzy47

Proximic Spider
http://www.proximic.com/spider.html
Magpie Spider
http://www.brandwatch.com/magpie-crawler/

I have had those 2 blocked for a very long time ..no need for them for my forums ....

[CAG CheechDogg]

Originally Posted by Max Taxable

Harmless crawlers but if you want them blocked you can put them on the list.

It's not so much about if they are harmless or not, it's the amount of resources they sometimes use up crawling and the amount of sessions they leave open and the amount of spiders crawling at the same time ....for those 2 in the past I saw 23 different ips for proximic at one time and like 10 for magpie as well .. way too many sessions and spiders to be running around at the same time....

[Gadget_Guy]

So if I want to add them to my list, what do I enter?

D.

[Max Taxable]

Originally Posted by Gadget_Guy

So if I want to add them to my list, what do I enter?

D.

Proximic
Magpie

[CAG CheechDogg]

Make sure you leave no trailing spaces or space at the start

[Gadget_Guy]

Okay.. now I am ready to bang my head on the wall.

Baidu is back.

Just saw it in WOL

(I grabbed two to show)

D.

[Simon Lloyd]

If you see them again please take a snapshot showing their useragents.

[Gadget_Guy]

Here are snapshots.

I included magpie which I added yesterday.

[CAG CheechDogg]

Originally Posted by Gadget_Guy

Okay.. now I am ready to bang my head on the wall.

Baidu is back.

Just saw it in WOL

(I grabbed two to show)

D.

Just deny those IPs access to your site with htaccess ... that is what I also did even though I use this mod ...