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]

Yes, the current product only allows you to either ban the spider OR have a notification like output to log, email or create a thread, i have a beta which allows you to do both at the same time, a couple of people are trialing it right now.

You only need to have the mod active, ban spiders in list set to yes and some spiders in the list to ban

Thanks for voting MOTM, you will recieve an update when this beta is proven

[ozzy47]

Originally Posted by Simon Lloyd

Thats great, thanks for testing, It is also being banned?

As far as I can tell it is.

[Kat-2]

This mod is awesome. Thank you so much. I was so sick of the Baidu spider on my site. I installed this mod and watch as they left one by one, and haven't been back.

[Simon Lloyd]

Glad you're happy with it - watch out for the new release after this beta has been tested a while longer

[voglermc]

Is anyone getting this in your error log?

[11-Oct-2011 08:33:56] die 3
[11-Oct-2011 08:35:19] die 3
[11-Oct-2011 08:35:26] die 3
[11-Oct-2011 08:35:29] die 3
[11-Oct-2011 08:35:30] die 3
[11-Oct-2011 08:35:40] die 3
[11-Oct-2011 08:35:40] die 3
[11-Oct-2011 08:35:49] die 3
[11-Oct-2011 08:35:49] die 3
[11-Oct-2011 08:35:51] die 3
[11-Oct-2011 08:36:00] die 3
[11-Oct-2011 08:36:00] die 3
[11-Oct-2011 08:36:08] die 3
[11-Oct-2011 08:36:08] die 3
[11-Oct-2011 08:38:35] die 3
[11-Oct-2011 08:38:58] die 3
[11-Oct-2011 11:32:59] die 4 true
[11-Oct-2011 11:32:59] die 4 true
[11-Oct-2011 13:24:17] die 3
[11-Oct-2011 13:27:56] die 3

[ForceHSS]

are you using the beta or the one from the first post

[Simon Lloyd]

It would be natural i suspect to get those, the mod performs all the redirects...etc at style_fetch, so in other words even though spiders...etc go straight for a url they never get to see it as it never completes for them hence the connection for them dying, however this mod does NOT give a Die(); command, it gives a 301 redirect.

@ForceHSS there's only you and one other using the beta and another has just requested to be a tester so that will be 3 of you

[ForceHSS]

Originally Posted by Simon Lloyd

It would be natural i suspect to get those, the mod performs all the redirects...etc at style_fetch, so in other words even though spiders...etc go straight for a url they never get to see it as it never completes for them hence the connection for them dying, however this mod does NOT give a Die(); command, it gives a 301 redirect.

@ForceHSS there's only you and one other using the beta and another has just requested to be a tester so that will be 3 of you

Did not know how many thought that might of been from the beta the reason I asked

[Simon Lloyd]

Hows the testing going ForceHSS?

[voglermc]

Not the beta