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

[Simon Lloyd]

Originally Posted by CAG CheechDogg

The Artabus spider is still getting through even though it's on the list, anything else that can help ?

I've said this before..........go to WGO click users online (online.php), at the bottom from the dropdown choose to view user agent and check what Artabus has as its UA, it probably doesn't have artabus in the UA.

[CAG CheechDogg]

The following is what shows there Simon:

pool-109-191-73-49.is74.ru
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.5; Windows NT 5.0; T312461)

What should I use to block it here?

[Simon Lloyd]

to be safe block the entire string, this way you wont accidentally block legitimate users

[CAG CheechDogg]

Simon I feel like a fool asking this...but which one would be the entire string to use?

pool-109-191-73-49.is74.ru

or

Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.5; Windows NT 5.0; T312461)

I don't want to block legitimate users! lol..

[Simon Lloyd]

the second one, the first is to do with the IP address.

[CAG CheechDogg]

Thanks Simon! lol....I feel like what my Son calls me at times a "Goober"...hahah...

[Max Taxable]

VERY few legitimate human users are going to be on MSIE 7 or older.

I block ALL MSIE except 8. Amazing how much that alone cut down on bot registration attempts.

[CAG CheechDogg]

Originally Posted by Max Taxable

VERY few legitimate human users are going to be on MSIE 7 or older.

I block ALL MSIE except 8. Amazing how much that alone cut down on bot registration attempts.

so what do you use to block all MSIE except for 8 Max, htaccess or some other way?

[TheSupportForum]

Originally Posted by CAG CheechDogg

so what do you use to block all MSIE except for 8 Max, htaccess or some other way?

heres an example

Chrome/10.*
Firefox/4.*
so i asume MSIE will work as

MSIE/6.*
MSIE/7.*

and so on

[Max Taxable]

Originally Posted by CAG CheechDogg

so what do you use to block all MSIE except for 8 Max, htaccess or some other way?

I just have it in like this:

MSIE 1
MSIE 2
MSIE 3
MSIE 4
MSIE 5
MSIE 6
MSIE 7