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]

Are you isning my Ban Ip mod? that mod actually gives the Die(); command which breaks the connection. This mod allows first connection but redirects immediately so their request never completes.

[voglermc]

Nope, only this mod of yours

[Simon Lloyd]

Well you can rest assured it's only banning or stopping complete connection for those in your list

[ForceHSS]

Originally Posted by Simon Lloyd

Hows the testing going ForceHSS?

going good no bugs in it so far that I can see
one thing would be nice to see as it seems to miss Thread Prefixes even if I make it forced to use them on a section it wont add them

[ozzy47]

If a spider is banned, how do I get them to crawl my site again, I tried your full ban list, and now my website monitor services are no longer checking my site.

I removed all spiders from admin except Baidu.

[GreyGhost]

Originally Posted by Simon Lloyd

No pressure but im looking for testers

Hi Simon, I just sent PM to test beta.

I have the released version installed on our vBCMS 4.1.7 but it doesn't seem to be banning Baidu. Our forums are located in the root with the CMS (so no /forums/), not sure if it's to do with this.

I have Track Guest Visits installed and it still shows 40-50 Baidu every day.

I've double checked my settings... only have "Ban Spiders In List" selected, no logging etc.

My List is:
Yandex
Yeti
Baidu
soso
sogou
ichiro
speedy
spinn3r
mlbot
psbot
SBIder
Ezooms
snap shots
metauri
YoudaoBot
youdao

Anyway, will try beta and see if that fixes it.

8-)

PS. I hope your daughter and grandson are doing well.

[Simon Lloyd]

Originally Posted by ForceHSS

going good no bugs in it so far that I can see
one thing would be nice to see as it seems to miss Thread Prefixes even if I make it forced to use them on a section it wont add them

It wont add prefixes as they are added when the forum loads, your actual url stays the same, a prefix is never added to them - have you ever seen a url like this http:www.mysite.com/showthread?t=[solved]12345 ???

Originally Posted by ozzy47

If a spider is banned, how do I get them to crawl my site again, I tried your full ban list, and now my website monitor services are no longer checking my site.

I removed all spiders from admin except Baidu.

You added your site monitoring service as a bad bot? bad move!, remember we're sending them a 301 which is a permanent redirect, if you don't see them back in a week check with them, you may ask for your url to crawled again.

Originally Posted by GreyGhost

Hi Simon, I just sent PM to test beta.

I have the released version installed on our vBCMS 4.1.7 but it doesn't seem to be banning Baidu. Our forums are located in the root with the CMS (so no /forums/), not sure if it's to do with this.

I have Track Guest Visits installed and it still shows 40-50 Baidu every day.

I've double checked my settings... only have "Ban Spiders In List" selected, no logging etc.

My List is:
Yandex
Yeti
Baidu
soso
sogou
ichiro
speedy
spinn3r
mlbot
psbot
SBIder
Ezooms
snap shots
metauri
YoudaoBot
youdao

Anyway, will try beta and see if that fixes it.

8-)

PS. I hope your daughter and grandson are doing well.

Right, firstly, thanks they're now doing great , your "Track Guest Visits" mod will ALWAYS show the spiders but your native vBulletin WOL will not, the reason why the TGV mod picks them up is because they are actually accessing your site (so that mods doing it's job and recording them) but my mod prevents them from having their request completed i.e direct request for a url is a forum access but they are redirected permanently before the thread loads (so my mod is ALSO doing its job )

Hope that clears things up for you all.

@GreyGhost i'll PM you details of the beta

[ozzy47]

Yeah my site monitoring site was in your bad bot list, and I did not see it.

[ozzy47]

OK I got them back, 1 was missing, the other one was showing as guest, I upgraded and forgot to re up the spiders xml from WolfsHead

[GreyGhost]

Originally Posted by Simon Lloyd

Right, firstly, thanks they're now doing great ,

Excellent!

your "Track Guest Visits" mod will ALWAYS show the spiders but your native vBulletin WOL will not, the reason why the TGV mod picks them up is because they are actually accessing your site (so that mods doing it's job and recording them) but my mod prevents them from having their request completed i.e direct request for a url is a forum access but they are redirected permanently before the thread loads (so my mod is ALSO doing its job )

Hope that clears things up for you all.

Yes, suspected this was the case. Just after posting I tested it @ http://www.botsvsbrowsers.com/SimulateUserAgent.asp and Baidu were indeed being redirected (straight back to Baidu ).

Great stuff!

8-)