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

[TheWhite]

Well guys, I have a decent forum with 185k members with a decent dedicated server and an acceptable Google adsense income.

In the last few years I've tried to "ban" the vicious Baidu Spider by using the robot text (useless because it don't obey it), then by using the .htacess (was great) which worked fine for a couple of years but since a month ago it has somehow found a way in not obeying that either.

In the last week or so I started banning the Ips as a last resort but these guys come out with a new one in a couple of days so this morning I did a Google search and came to this WONDERFUL VB MOD, this coder deserves a medal and not only the MOD OF THE MONTH (so vote for him!!). After an hour, Baidu is NO MORE!! I hit 253GB of bandwidth this morning which is over my average monthly (time period) rate by at least 75GB not mentioning the server slowdowns.

Baidu doesn't bring any good traffic (adsense wise), it only does harm by eating up your resources and slowing down your forum thus causing the Google Crawlers (GOOD BOTS) to take more time on indexing your forum which is bad.

I haven't tested the logging and emailing reportings yet but I will in the next few days.

Cheers!!

[Simon Lloyd]

Hi Guys, thanks for your kind words , the logging seems to work fine with the banning but i suggest you only turn logging on at least 30 minutes after setting the banning as the text file can get huge quickly. I'm only a few more tests off releasing the fix for "Thread Creation" so maybe later today when i have time or first thing tomorrow

[TheWhite]

Hi Simon, great work!!

I don't want to turn on the server logging because I don't like big files but the thread creation ( similar to the Multiple Login Detection one) would be very much appreciated.
The mod must remain lean and mean

I'm using VB 3.6.12 so I hope you keep this mod compatible.

Regards

[Simon Lloyd]

As an extra thought, if you have a large .htaccess your forum will slow down as every user has to be compared against it or at least thats what i've been led to believe!

[Simon Lloyd]

Originally Posted by TheWhite

Hi Simon, great work!!

I don't want to turn on the server logging because I don't like big files but the thread creation ( similar to the Multiple Login Detection one) would be very much appreciated.
The mod must remain lean and mean

I'm using VB 3.6.12 so I hope you keep this mod compatible.

Regards

I hadn't tested this that far back but glad it works for you, it should remain compatible .

[Boofo]

Originally Posted by Simon Lloyd

I'll just add another attachment, i gave the list openly like that so folk could just either copy it or pick out the ones they wanted to ban, plus its no mystery as to what they're getting but i'll definately do that tomorrow

Any word on this yet?

[Simon Lloyd]

Boofo i've been a little preoccupied, promise to do it in the next hour

[TheWhite]

When are you going to fix/add the thread notification?
Regards

[ForceHSS]

still does not post here are my settings

[Simon Lloyd]

Lol the update you were notified of was just for the text file with bad bots being added, still working on getting banning and thread creation working at the same time