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

[CAG CheechDogg]

Originally Posted by Gadget_Guy

I have implemented your list.

In regards to your comment about "my list".... I have no idea to be honest.

Those I put in there based on what I was seeing in my WOL and putting things in there to try and block them.

I am sure I was way off base and incorrect in doing so.

So.... in light of this... if you want to provide a "proper" list... I am happy to take your guidance.

I don't know the first thing about any of this stuff and am looking to experts like yourself to assist.

D.

Gadge my Man... what you need to do is ask yourself a few questions ... like how much do rankings mean to you, if you want every single search engine to crawl your site ... are you on a shared or dedicated server and if you are already having problems with bots and especially bad bots hitting your site too much ..

I for one don't care for any other search engine except for google and yahoo ... I have completely blocked most search engines that are foreign and facebook as well ... as you can see from the screenshot I only have like 10 different spiders/bots that even crawl my site and that is just how I want it ...

So put together a list of the engines and spiders that you know are giving you hell then you can add those to the list that I have or Simon and Ozzy have and you can give it one last look and just remove the ones you want your site to be crawled with ....

I added my list in a txt file if you want to try mine out and see how it works for you ...

Here it is as well ...

[Simon Lloyd]

As i've said many times in this thread, the fact that they are showing up in Paul Ms mod doesn't mean they are getting through, his kod logs them as they visit, mine redirects thema t the same time, both mods are working fine!

Just copy CAG CheechDogg's list and prune as needed. There is no "proper" list its all a personal choice!

[CAG CheechDogg]

Originally Posted by Simon Lloyd

As i've said many times in this thread, the fact that they are showing up in Paul Ms mod doesn't mean they are getting through, his kod logs them as they visit, mine redirects thema t the same time, both mods are working fine!

Just copy CAG CheechDogg's list and prune as needed. There is no "proper" list its all a personal choice!

Right Simon ... it logs the actual visit (detection) ... I check to see what is actually getting through by going to the online.php page and selecting Display: Search Bots from the drop down and then you can see what is actually crawling the site ...

[CAG CheechDogg]

I actually use this mod here by the Great Boobo (RIP) to also display the spiders in the whos online list and it is hell of accurate !!!!

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=243460

[Gadget_Guy]

Guys... I can't thank you enough for all the help and advice.

I feel like a huge blindfold was lifted from my eyes with the last couple posts.

I tried reading all 45 pages of this mod to really understand it... but I missed the point about the detections being just that.

I was scratching my head when WOL didn't really match up with online.php list

I want to be crawled... but only by the right spiders..... the ones that really count for a north american audience and people who use the "traditional" engines like Yahoo, Google, Bing etc

I certainly don't want to jeopardize my Google adsense ads and things like that.

I want my site to be found.... and be a source when people search for information pertaining to what we do.

D.

[ozzy47]

I took a quick look at your list, it looks like you are only blocking bad bots, so it should be ok.

[Max Taxable]

On my own vB 4, the only time I ever see Baidu in either Paul's mod or in WoL, is when I turn off this mod.

Paul's mod fires before this one, that is true. But that is not the reason some people get Baidu there. Baidu is also in WoL, if you look, on boards that are showing Baidu in Paul's mod.

[ozzy47]

Well I think I might have taken care of the issues, as well as added a few more things to the mod, but I need to test it a bit more to be totally sure.

[Gadget_Guy]

WOL seems to be pretty clean now....

What is this spider? I see a lot of entries for it on WOL

Proximic Spider
54.175.33.76
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; proximic; +http://www.proximic.com/info/spider.php)

Edit...

This one as well:

Magpie Spider
94.228.34.203
magpie-crawler/1.1 (U; Linux amd64; en-GB; +http://www.brandwatch.net)


D.

[Max Taxable]

Harmless crawlers but if you want them blocked you can put them on the list.