Who the Hell, Is -
Google [Bot] user/member?
Online now. Have seen this since the new forum set up. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?
Online now. Have seen this since the new forum set up. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?
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The bots (there are more than one) scan for specific topics and then link the results to their respective search engines. The bots can't post, but they search for subject matter 24-7. The bots have always been around, but are only now "visible". They are one of the reasons that Captain Fun wanted the discussion certain topics banned. 0 -
Can not be banned/eliminated?
Every since I spotted this on the new change over, I have been leery.
Thank you for replying Mark.0 -
KenK/84Bravo wrote:Can not be banned/eliminated?
Good Question. That Capt. Fun chose to eliminate some topics rather than lock them out, suggests not.0 -
He/they could lock out "Members," why not a "[Bot]?" 0 -
"If a webmaster wishes to restrict the information on their site available to a Googlebot, or another well-behaved spider, they can do so with the appropriate directives in a robots.txt file,[2] or by adding the meta tag <meta name="Googlebot" content="nofollow" /> to the web page.[3] Googlebot requests to Web servers are identifiable by a user-agent string containing "Googlebot" and a host address containing "googlebot.com".[4]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Googlebot0 -
Smitty500mag wrote:"If a webmaster wishes to restrict the information on their site available to a Googlebot, or another well-behaved spider, they can do so with the appropriate directives in a robots.txt file,[2] or by adding the meta tag <meta name="Googlebot" content="nofollow" /> to the web page.[3] Googlebot requests to Web servers are identifiable by a user-agent string containing "Googlebot" and a host address containing "googlebot.com".[4]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Googlebot
And yet, here he is.
Online again now. I guess his/it's name precludes an investigation/look at the situation.0 -
Ken, there's bots, crawlers, and spiders, all 3 pretty much do the same thing. It used to be there were good bots and bad ones. That Google bot is a search bot. You search something on Google, and the bot roams the web looking for that term you entered. If it finds it on GB, you'll see the bot here.
There was a time when Google, Bing, and Yahoo bots were good bots, now, not so much. When you see bots like Majestyk, Yandex, Amazonas, or Baidu, they are up to no good on a forum.
Usually looking for a backdoor into the forum software, and once they do, they harvest the members email to spam, or sell to other spammers. That's the best case least amount of damage they can do. Then they relay how and where that backdoor is to all their buds on the darkweb. Most forums can block these bots to an extent. Knowing that, the darkside has found ways to use formally good bots, to do the same thing. So you never really know if that Google bot is just some guy trying to find information on grampa's old gun, or some bottom feeder in his mom's basement trying to hack into the forum software. It's a never ending battle.0 -
TRAP55 wrote:Ken, there's bots, crawlers, and spiders, all 3 pretty much do the same thing. It used to be there were good bots and bad ones. That Google bot is a search bot. You search something on Google, and the bot roams the web looking for that term you entered. If it finds it on GB, you'll see the bot here.
There was a time when Google, Bing, and Yahoo bots were good bots, now, not so much. When you see bots like Majestyk, Yandex, Amazonas, or Baidu, they are up to no good on a forum.
Usually looking for a backdoor into the forum software, and once they do, they harvest the members email to spam, or sell to other spammers. That's the best case least amount of damage they can do. Then they relay how and where that backdoor is to all their buds on the darkweb. Most forums can block these bots to an extent. Knowing that, the darkside has found ways to use formally good bots, to do the same thing. So you never really know if that Google bot is just some guy trying to find information on grampa's old gun, or some bottom feeder in his mom's basement trying to hack into the forum software. It's a never ending battle.
Good to know Sir.
I do know, that I have been receiving quite a bit of unsolicited contacts trying to "sell me stuff." I am wondering where it is coming from. I keep things pretty close to the vest, try to fly under the radar, as much as possible, except for this site.0 -
mark christian wrote:The bots (there are more than one) scan for specific topics and then link the results to their respective search engines. The bots can't post, but they search for subject matter 24-7. The bots have always been around, but are only now "visible". They are one of the reasons that Captain Fun wanted the discussion certain topics banned.
They?re like Siri, Alexis and that google wench...? Always listening. Always reporting back to big brother.0 -
"Google [Bot]" back online now. 0 -
If you think Mark, Nunn, Joe, and all the other mods have a thankless job here, the ones you never hear about maintaining the forum software and security like Ana, are the ones that keep this up and running. On a forum this big, it's a full time job!
phpBB is the software provider, and they have a full time crew that does nothing except find ways to block the holes the hackers make. When the forum techs get the alert that a security update is ready, the darkside grapevine already has bots programmed to search out all phpBB based forums that haven't installed the update yet. Installing their updates is a PITA too, it isn't just a "click and run" program.
The next hero of the tech world will be the guy that invents a virus that searches out these bot searchers, and blows up their computers. :twisted:0 -
TRAP55 wrote:If you think Mark, Nunn, Joe, and all the other mods have a thankless job here, the ones you never hear about maintaining the forum software and security like Ana, are the ones that keep this up and running. On a forum this big, it's a full time job!
phpBB is the software provider, and they have a full time crew that does nothing except find ways to block the holes the hackers make. When the forum techs get the alert that a security update is ready, the darkside grapevine already has bots programmed to search out all phpBB based forums that haven't installed the update yet. Installing their updates is a PITA too, it isn't just a "click and run" program.
The next hero of the tech world will be the guy that invents a virus that searches out these bot searchers, and blows up their computers. :twisted:
I understand it is a thankless job. I find it hard to believe that a Member can be locked out, blocked. (But) An admitted "Google [Bot]" can not.
Admittedly I am a Luddite, but ??0 -
PHPBB is a very popular open source forum platform. Being open source means anyone can write addons and those addons can and will allow holes to open up.
Me and Trap have been fighting spammers attacking our PHPBB for awhile now. Yes, you can ban/turnoff the bots but they still get in and sometimes it is hard to know the good ones from the bad.
I have been searching for a better alternative to PHPBB that won?t have the issues GB had when switching over. While PHPBB is a good platform it is a security nitemare. We have gone through several versions, uncounted updates, went as far as me building a file on the server to ban entire countries and we still get hammered with spammers trying to attack. Denial Of Service is easily implemented on this platform and Trap has busted a few attempts.
I locked out forum down, you can only see the forum when logged in, guest accounts are disabled but when in the admin panel you can still see from time to time a banned IP snooping in an area where they should not be.
Trap had to quit his job to be a full time security ban hammer wielding spammer nuker
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Great.. something else to worry about. :? 0 -
bots are assigned to a specific user group ("bots") and can be shown on the memberlist (or not) in whatever color the forum admin wants. they can be banned individually or all of them.
like BSR said, some bots don't play nice. they can say they are something else, disguise their identity, view pages they are not allowed to, etc.
spammers are another problem. spamming has got so bad I think all spammers caught spamming should be shot. the best easiest thing to do is use the add-on from stopforumspam.com to block known spammers and report new ones.
the BEST thing you can do, is use an IP blocker which would block IP's, anybody on a list of blocked countries, anybody coming from a certain website, anybody using a browser with a foreign language, anybody using a TOR IP, etc. etc.
problem is there is no such thing.
so I wrote one myself. uses MySql, has an installer, imports database files of IP ranges to block, all that stuff.
but it's not in the public domain. it's my own software that I wrote myself.
one day I might release it. I haven't had time to mess with it.0 -
buschmaster wrote:bots are assigned to a specific user group ("bots") and can be shown on the memberlist (or not) in whatever color the forum admin wants. they can be banned individually or all of them.
like BSR said, some bots don't play nice. they can say they are something else, disguise their identity, view pages they are not allowed to, etc.
spammers are another problem. spamming has got so bad I think all spammers caught spamming should be shot. the best easiest thing to do is use the add-on from stopforumspam.com to block known spammers and report new ones.
the BEST thing you can do, is use an IP blocker which would block IP's, anybody on a list of blocked countries, anybody coming from a certain website, anybody using a browser with a foreign language, anybody using a TOR IP, etc. etc.
problem is there is no such thing.
so I wrote one myself. uses MySql, has an installer, imports database files of IP ranges to block, all that stuff.
but it's not in the public domain. it's my own software that I wrote myself.
one day I might release it. I haven't had time to mess with it.
May have to contract you for some help!0
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