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

[DemOnstar]

Originally Posted by ForceHSS

You can change that if u want

Thank you... I will leave as is for the present...

[Simon Lloyd]

You have the option to redirect to a site (i.e the one already installed) or directly back to the ip of the banned useragent, its all about choice really

[DemOnstar]

How do I know if this is working?

Haven't seen any evidence so far...What do I look for?

[Simon Lloyd]

it will take over 30 minutes to start to see differences in the WOL as the spiders get the message and a bit longer until they stop trying altogether.

The easiest way to see it working is to turn on writing to the log file, or if you dare have threads made in a forum of your choice, i advise against it as you can get thousands of posts quickly!!!!! it's only there for test purposes.

[Max Taxable]

Originally Posted by DemOnstar

How do I know if this is working?

Haven't seen any evidence so far...What do I look for?

Smoke. Smoke starts coming out of your hard drive.

[Simon Lloyd]

Originally Posted by Max Taxable

Smoke. Smoke starts coming out of your hard drive.

Thats only if you're a power user

[K4GAP]

Should I make any changes to my robot.txt file?
Right now it is blank.

[Simon Lloyd]

Hi Gary this thread has nothing to do with robots.txt files, the mod bans anything whose useragent contains any string you enter in to it.

And as a standard you should have something in your robots file as you've been shown here https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=304164, there are many threads here that contain details of robots.txt.

[K4GAP]

Oh, I guess I need to learn more about user agents and robots.

Thanks'

[Simon Lloyd]

Hi Gary, all that you need to know about useragents...etc is in the thread description. Not all bots follow the robots.txt so, with this mod you can block those bots completely and many others. What you need to do is identify your target audience, so if you are not catering for China then you'd want to block Chinese traffic, to sort the bots out you can block the likes of Baidu Sogou....etc.

I'll try and help you with whatever you need along the way so that you get to keep your bandwidth for more important users