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]

Lol thanks for that, although it kind makes it unique

[ForceHSS]

Thanks to ozzy was getting a error with this mod he was kind enough to help fix the problem. If you want access to my site Simon to see the fix I can give it to you pm me if you need it

[ozzy47]

I think it was unique to your site, as I don't remember getting that error in the logs when I was running this mod.

[ForceHSS]

Maybe other mods were messing this one up hard to know if you want to post the fix you done, please do then Simon can run whatever tests he needs

[rob01]

Spiders/Bots Activity Blocked From Site: 4,052

i got this, any idea?

[Simon Lloyd]

got it where? how?

[adnedarn]

I've had this installed for a while but recently went to check the logs and it hasn't had any updates in a loooong time. So I deleted the log file and uninstalled the mod. Then reinstalled the mod, set the settings back up and it is showing on the bottom of my forum that spiders are being blocked, but hasn't recreated the log file... I tried manually making the file and setting the permissions but it still didn't write to it. Any ideas?
Thanks!
Andrew

[leeluther252]

installed

[Simon Lloyd]

Originally Posted by adnedarn

I've had this installed for a while but recently went to check the logs and it hasn't had any updates in a loooong time. So I deleted the log file and uninstalled the mod. Then reinstalled the mod, set the settings back up and it is showing on the bottom of my forum that spiders are being blocked, but hasn't recreated the log file... I tried manually making the file and setting the permissions but it still didn't write to it. Any ideas?
Thanks!
Andrew

Chances are you dont have permissions to write to the location it's trying to create the log at, if you do then the log permissions need looking at, you'll have to CHMOD them on your server so you can write to it.

[MrPink]

Installed. Let's see what we get!