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]

Firstly it looks like your clients UA has been altered in the past, i have two suggestions you can try right now, firstly change DA in your list to something like DA1 and ask him to try, if that doesn't do it try altering Net Extractor to NET1 Extractor, these are the only things i can see may be a problem, if that doesn't work i'll look at it more in depth but in the mean time your user can perform a UA switch by following the instructions here http://whatsmyuseragent.com/SwitchingUserAgents.asp

[Simon Lloyd]

I've got some new for you, i tested your clients UA against my forum using your spider list and was able to gain access to my site so it's not this mod keeping him/her out.

You can check for yourself here http://www.botsvsbrowsers.com/SimulateUserAgent.asp just enter his entire useragent in the test window and your site below, hit Go and enter the Captcha that pops in to the results window, hit Go again and you'll see your site

So from that this mods fine and not causing a problem.

EDIT: BTW do you know that every one of the bots you supplied in that list has a space before it? the mod will look for a space before each of those words if thats how it appears in you ban spider list.

[niteflyer32]

We changed DA on the UA list and now the member can access the forum????

I'm not seeing the space before the UA in the list I posted. The list appears to be working as it has knocked many of the bots off our WOL list.

[Simon Lloyd]

Well, if it's working for you all well and good

At least you now have the tools to test any future queries with users having problems with access because of their UA.

[Simon Lloyd]

Hmmm seems to be a problem with page 5 of thread....this is a test post!

Edit: thread back to normal now

[niteflyer32]

Thank you for your time and help. This mod rocks.

[Simon Lloyd]

Since you like it and it works for you can you mark it installed please!

[niteflyer32]

Oops, I thought I had already marked that. Done. And MOTM done too.

We have 2 other users saying they are getting blocked now. I think I may have gone overboard on blocking UAs.

Your User Agent is:
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; AOL 9.0; AOLBuild 4327.5204; Windows NT
5.1; Trident/4.0; GTB6.4; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR
3.0.4506.2152; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; customie8)

and

Your User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1) AppleWebKit/535.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/14.0.835.163 Safari/535.1

Also, I selected the option to have a log created and written to output.txt in the forums root but I'm not seeing that log txt file. Any idea why that log is not appearing?

[Simon Lloyd]

Thanks for that, have you used the tools (links) i gave you, you can test their useragent against your site to see f it is the mod blocking them, what you have to remember is that when you enter something like DA then the mod looks for anything that contains just that, your other members issues were sorted because you changed DA to DA1 but in their useragent was "Creative Autoupdate, when it comes to banning UA's that have just a couple of letters or such like then you are best entering either a longer string or best entering the entire useragent.

The logging and create thread i only tested on their own, that is to say i didn't have the option for banning them turned on, it seems that there is a small glitch that i'm working on, when banning the spider they are banned as your forum style is being compiled for them but the notifications are created after the forum is shown to them completely, so the spiders are taken care of well before it ever gets to the notification stage, youre not seeing notifications because there's nothing to notify.

I am working on getting them both to work together and will post here when i manage that

[Simon Lloyd]

Your first UA is being blocked because you have "custo" in your block list!