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

[Max Taxable]

Originally Posted by simonhind

for those who want to block blocks accesses through Facebook external hit

facebookexternalhit/1.0

I don't block that because it's just facebook getting image and text information from a thread or a post someone has posted to facebook. It's self defeating to block this, it's your friend. Same with twitterbot.

[Simon Lloyd]

Originally Posted by Max Taxable

I have had no problems, Ahrefsbot is in my collection, and I never see it hit my site anymore.

Pretty sure the OP is saying he sees "ahrefsbot" in his WOL after adding it to your mod.

Well if thats the case and its actually in vbulletins standard WOL then it will either disappear after his online timeout setting in admincp or the Ahrefsbot is using a UA that doesn't have Ahrefs in it, if he is using Paul M's Who has visited or a similar mod then it will appear always as both mods are doing their job!, i've mentioned this a few times.

EDIT: this is actually mentioned in the FAQ thats referrenced in the mods description.

[Disco_Dave]

Originally Posted by Max Taxable

It blocks that spider, how did you add it?

There user agent was comingup as this: choopa: choopa.net: I placed both of these in. They had at least 20 different ip addies.

[Simon Lloyd]

You only need to enter choopa if that displays in their UA and they'll be banned immediately and will disappear from WOL after the WOL timeout, the ip's are of no consequence, i have a ban ip mod but this one ban's the string found in the UA so they can use 100 different ips for the same UA and still they will be banned

[Disco_Dave]

That's what I did yesterday morning, but in the afternoon I had around 36 ahrefsbots under the UA Choopa.net I added choopa in the morning to your mod but they where still there in the afternoon that's way I asked. I haven't seen them this morning though..

[Simon Lloyd]

Do you use any mod for who visited statistics? if you dont the only other explanation is that they had already accessed a thread or area prior to you banning them, the only time they can be banned is when they release that thread or area to move to another, after that they're history

[Disco_Dave]

I have boofo's mod for displaying spiders. I'm not sure if any spiders can view our site you need to be registered to view any content on our site.

Great mod and thanks for your help..

[Simon Lloyd]

It doesn't matter that they cannot view any content, your thread url's are being indexed which is why you are being crawled, naturally they see the same as guest, just viewed your site you should also turn off displaying WOL for guests, it will save you queries and bandwidth

[Disco_Dave]

Cheers Simon

The feckers are still getting in: AhrefsBot Spider 02:15 PM / Viewing Index NIRC: 173.199.115.83.choopa.net

[Simon Lloyd]

If thats form the logging then yes you will get that until every thread they have tried to index previously becomes a 301 permanent redirect, if not, if you want to pm me temp admin access with all permissions i'll take a look and see what i can do for you.