The Dot Bot

[Charter]

Hi. There were these requests coming from a user agent with ...... as part of said user agent.

So I was watching these requests, and after deciding that it was probably a bot, I blocked it. Well, then it requested images, not too usual for a bot.

64.3.224.131 - - [14/Apr/2004:16:03:12 -0500] "GET /images/clear.gif HTTP/1.0" 403 0 "-" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.0; Windows NT; ....../1.0 )"

216.254.30.204 - - [14/Apr/2004:16:03:45 -0500] "GET /images/newhotfolder.gif HTTP/1.0" 403 0 "-" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.0; Windows NT; ....../1.0 )"


Not wanting to block a real person, I watched it some more and decided that yes, it's a bot.

64.3.224.131 - - [14/Apr/2004:16:10:10 -0500] "GET /showthread.php?amp;threadid=362 HTTP/1.0" 403 0 "-" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.0; Windows NT; ....../1.0 )"

216.254.30.204 - - [14/Apr/2004:16:10:31 -0500] "GET /member.php?amp;action=getinfo&userid=49 HTTP/1.0" 403 0 "-" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.0; Windows NT; ....../1.0 )"

64.3.224.131 - - [14/Apr/2004:16:10:51 -0500] "GET /member.php?amp;action=getinfo&find=lastposter&threadid=362 HTTP/1.0" 403 0 "-" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.0; Windows NT; ....../1.0 )"

64.3.224.131 - - [14/Apr/2004:16:10:59 -0500] "GET /showthread.php?amp;goto=lastpost&threadid=362 HTTP/1.0" 403 0 "-" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.0; Windows NT; ....../1.0 )"

64.3.224.131 - - [14/Apr/2004:16:11:36 -0500] "GET /member.php?amp;action=getinfo&find=lastposter&threadid=243 HTTP/1.0" 403 0 "-" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.0; Windows NT; ....../1.0 )"

216.254.30.204 - - [14/Apr/2004:16:11:53 -0500] "GET /showthread.php?amp;goto=lastpost&threadid=243 HTTP/1.0" 403 0 "-" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.0; Windows NT; ....../1.0 )"


Now you may be wondering why I would block certain bots, especially since PhpDig is a bot.

The answer is simple: If I allowed all bots, bandwidth overuse charges would come out of my pocketbook. Those charges could possibly be enough for me to simply close down this site rather than continuing to pay to offer PhpDig for free.

Of course, the "big player" bots are allowed on this site, but if you are using PhpDig or another "homemade" bot, please be courteous of the fact the bots use bandwidth, and that bandwidth costs someone money.