How to STOP Bots!

[Scott X]

Ok, my site isnt even a week old and i have already had one bot spam it, i have the sign up code and everything, how do i stop them?

[Noppid]

This is what I did. Stop Spam Bots

I did it at the server level.

If you don't have your own server, maybe your host would install the php API at least?

It was well worth the effort for us. But it may not be easy to get installed for folks on shared hosting.

[Scott X]

This is what I did. Stop Spam Bots

I did it at the server level.

If you don't have your own server, maybe your host would install the php API at least?

It was well worth the effort for us. But it may not be easy to get installed for folks on shared hosting.

hey what's up noppid if you want to sign up on my UN-FINISHED site, i'll make you an admin finally. (I'll PM you the link)

[StirCrazy]

Hi noppid.

Just had a look at your thread @ http://www.cpurigs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4189
I get the updates from maxmind for GeoIP targeted advertising. I noticed you said that you tried PHP before opting for htaccess blocking. Is that just preference or because of server load?

Was thinking of trying something similar with the pluggin I hooked up to global_start

if (!isset($_COOKIE[COOKIE_PREFIX . 'GeoIP']))
{

include("/home/geoip.php");
$GeoIP = geoip_open("/home/geoip.dat",GEOIP_STANDARD);
$countryCode = getCountryCode($GeoIP, $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']);
geoip_close($GeoIP);

vbsetcookie('GeoIP', $countryCode, permanent);

}
else
{
   $countryCode = $_COOKIE[COOKIE_PREFIX . 'GeoIP'];
} 

...and then just use $countryCode to block.



You've obviously tried this, any advice?

[Noppid]

I had no problems on php4 with the mindmax php extensions and used them exactly as you had, but without the cookie. The cached DB and the 400K per second queries possible in the DB made me confident. I'm not getting millions of hits anyway. I wish I was.

However, once I went to php5.2.3, the php interface, even after compiling it by hand, just would not work.

That's when I went after the apache mod_geoip.

The php implementation also meant a snipped of code on every page on the site.

So anyway, to answer your question, it turned out to be a performance issue, it's faster in apache, out of necessity for my needs. I didn't go the apache mod route for the performance, it was the only method that would work for me.

I need food. My mind is mushy I think. Did that make sense?

EDIT:
AH HA. It just hit me where you were going.

Yes, the apache mod is faster. You can grab the variables you need in php site wide then too. Just follow the compile advice and make your ENV vars look like HTTP_GEOIP_COUNTRY_CODE instead of plain GEOIP_COUNTRY_CODE.

[StirCrazy]

made perfect sense LOL thanks



(how annoying is the forum moderation :cry: )

[epctechno]

You may wanna use some of this within your .htaccess:

SetEnvIf User-Agent "compatible ;" keep_out
SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "^(Agent¦\ Agent¦AnsearchBot¦\ AnsearchBot¦Bot¦\ Bot¦cfetch¦\ cfetch)" keep_out
#RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Mozilla.*(Seekbot¦Septera¦ServerGear¦Sextant¦SezamFile) [NC,OR]
#RewriteCond %{REMOTE_HOST} \.(exabot\.com¦cuill\.com¦exava\.com¦fast\.no¦fastclick\.net¦fastsearch\.net)$ http://127.0.0.1/ [R,L]

This helps out a lot too!