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

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

VB4.x Version of Ban Spiders By User Agent

Tested on vb3.7.x, vB3.8.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, Extra logging and statistics added by Ozzy47 (Chris)
18th December 2014 Version 3.1.2 uploaded, due to rogue process from other mod
18th December 2014 Version 3.1.3 uploaded, due to previous one being VB4 mistakingly uploaded

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

[Dan49]

What does MSIE 7 stand for?
What about Mozilla/4.0?

Is there a list somewhere that explains the meaning?

[Simon Lloyd]

Microsoft Internet Explorer
Mozilla is firefox, use google to find out what these terms are if you are unsure, there's not a list that I know of or have even searched for but you can use the tools I've shown in the first post to help you find some info around these

[Max Taxable]

Originally Posted by Simon Lloyd

I know I sound like a broken record but it really is a personal choice about who you want to block, less fortunate countries will have older browsers and it's probably safe to block up to MSIE6, later browsers will still be in use, so you really need to check your demographics and make sure you are catering for your intended audience.

Sorry but that's the best advice I can give.

That's the main point really.

[Max Taxable]

Originally Posted by Dan49

What does MSIE 7 stand for?
What about Mozilla/4.0?

Is there a list somewhere that explains the meaning?

Do NOT enter the term "Mozilla" into this mod! You will be blocking just about every windows computer on the planet if you do!

Here's a fairly typical Windows computer user agent string:

Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; Trident/6.0; SLCC2; .NET CLR 2.0.50727

ALL windows computer user agent strings are going to have the word "Mozilla" in them no matter what browser the computer actually uses.

[Dan49]

Entering Mozilla/4.0 is different than entering Mozilla correct? If so, is blocking Mozilla/4.0 unreasonable? All the Russian IPs are using it and no one else.

[Max Taxable]

Originally Posted by Dan49

Entering Mozilla/4.0 is different than entering Mozilla correct? If so, is blocking Mozilla/4.0 unreasonable? All the Russian IPs are using it and no one else.

NO Mozilla AT ALL!

Most ALL windows computers gonna have that "Mozilla4.0" yours probably does too! Have you studied your OWN user agent string?

[Dan49]

But Simon's original list of UA that comes with the mod contains:

Mozilla.*Indy
Mozilla.*NEWT
Mozilla*MSIECrawler

And my understanding is that will only block those particular strings? It looks like this is true because they're on my list and there are plenty of Mozilla/5.0 and Mozilla/4.0 in my forum.

So if I understand correctly; adding Mozilla/4.0 (which I will not do as per your recommendation) will not affect Mozilla /5.0?

[Max Taxable]

Originally Posted by Dan49

But Simon's original list of UA that comes with the mod contains:

Mozilla.*Indy
Mozilla.*NEWT
Mozilla*MSIECrawler

And my understanding is that will only block those particular strings? It looks like this is true because there are plenty of Mozilla/5.0 and Mozilla/4.0 in my forum.

I never saw that on his list or any other list, but yes as long as "mozilla" isn't on a line by itself you got no problems.

But what i am telling you is, blocking "Mozilla/4.0" gonna block billions of computers, not just the Russian ones.

Find something unique in their strings to block, if you want to use this to block them. You might not find any such.

[Dan49]

Understood, thanks.

[Dan49]

Max, you may be interested in this. I had a legit user blocked out of my forum. I checked and rechecked his UA and could not figure out why he was blocked

Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MSIE 10.0; Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; Trident/6.0)

Of course turning off the mod unblocked him, so I knew it had to be something.

On a hunch I looked at the MSIE entries I copied from your old post:

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

I realized that MSIE 1 is the culprit being the first part of MSIE 10.0;

Have you since removed MSIE 1 from your list?

Is there another way to make MSIE 1 work without affecting MSIE 10? As well as the other MSIE, like MSIE 2 for when IE gets to version 20 ?