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  2. WordPress (Managed)
  3. Blackhole for Bad Bots - proposing this as a default install

Blackhole for Bad Bots - proposing this as a default install

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved WordPress (Managed)
19 Posts 5 Posters 2.3k Views 3 Watching
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    • d19dotcaD d19dotca

      @robi I was thinking about that, but the problem is a couple of my client websites are access from various countries around the world, so I can't really blanket block a country by CIDR rules or something, I'd be worried at that point of blocking people that shouldn't be blocked to visiting my client's website. He's a highly respected ENT surgeon so he has "fellows" and people join him for training for a year from all over the globe. It's crazy where everyone comes from to train with him, haha. Really cool to see, but makes it hard for me to block countries that we'd normally not care about for other sites for example. lol.

      robiR Offline
      robiR Offline
      robi
      wrote on last edited by
      #7

      @d19dotca I hear you.. tough but still worth doing the correlation for other insights.

      The other thing you can look into is post comment/form filtering. Perhaps add your own question to solve that is accepted either way, but later helps tell you if you're dealing with a bot or human.

      From there there may be a few other things to try 😉

      Conscious tech

      d19dotcaD 1 Reply Last reply
      0
      • robiR robi

        @d19dotca I hear you.. tough but still worth doing the correlation for other insights.

        The other thing you can look into is post comment/form filtering. Perhaps add your own question to solve that is accepted either way, but later helps tell you if you're dealing with a bot or human.

        From there there may be a few other things to try 😉

        d19dotcaD Offline
        d19dotcaD Offline
        d19dotca
        wrote on last edited by
        #8

        @robi Actually you lead me onto a great idea. I went and did some RBL checks on those IP addresses I see sending the forms, and sure enough most of the recent ones are in the Spamhaus XBL list. Now to see if I can somehow get that data into Cloudron as a large listing or something, may be a huge help in reducing spam / bots to the websites.

        --
        Dustin Dauncey
        www.d19.ca

        jimcavoliJ robiR 2 Replies Last reply
        2
        • d19dotcaD d19dotca

          @robi Actually you lead me onto a great idea. I went and did some RBL checks on those IP addresses I see sending the forms, and sure enough most of the recent ones are in the Spamhaus XBL list. Now to see if I can somehow get that data into Cloudron as a large listing or something, may be a huge help in reducing spam / bots to the websites.

          jimcavoliJ Offline
          jimcavoliJ Offline
          jimcavoli
          App Dev
          wrote on last edited by
          #9

          @d19dotca Now that's a good thought!

          1 Reply Last reply
          1
          • d19dotcaD d19dotca

            Interesting plugin, hadn't seen that before. Looks promising and seems logical too in it's approach.

            @marcusquinn - In your experience using this plugin, has this been seen to reduce spam in forms by any chance? That's a problem I've been having lately on a few sites, not a big deal as I don't get too much but maybe a few a week use a form on a website that's just spam. Even using Google reCAPTCHA and honeypot form fields won't do the trick for some reason. When I checked Google reCAPTCHA it saw those as basically perfectly valid, so if I were to up the score limit it may start to have false positives which I don't want to risk for some of my clients.

            marcusquinnM Offline
            marcusquinnM Offline
            marcusquinn
            wrote on last edited by
            #10

            @d19dotca not had any spam issues TBH, so I think so. Like I say, we have the pro version but not harm in trying the free.

            Web Design https://www.evergreen.je
            Development https://brandlight.org
            Life https://marcusquinn.com

            1 Reply Last reply
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            • d19dotcaD d19dotca

              @robi Actually you lead me onto a great idea. I went and did some RBL checks on those IP addresses I see sending the forms, and sure enough most of the recent ones are in the Spamhaus XBL list. Now to see if I can somehow get that data into Cloudron as a large listing or something, may be a huge help in reducing spam / bots to the websites.

              robiR Offline
              robiR Offline
              robi
              wrote on last edited by
              #11

              @d19dotca
              Nice work, that's a great start - existing known spammers.

              Now they just need to be in the right format list.

              It would help to make a new thread with your findings and share the list.

              Conscious tech

              1 Reply Last reply
              2
              • d19dotcaD d19dotca

                Interesting plugin, hadn't seen that before. Looks promising and seems logical too in it's approach.

                @marcusquinn - In your experience using this plugin, has this been seen to reduce spam in forms by any chance? That's a problem I've been having lately on a few sites, not a big deal as I don't get too much but maybe a few a week use a form on a website that's just spam. Even using Google reCAPTCHA and honeypot form fields won't do the trick for some reason. When I checked Google reCAPTCHA it saw those as basically perfectly valid, so if I were to up the score limit it may start to have false positives which I don't want to risk for some of my clients.

                jdaviescoatesJ Offline
                jdaviescoatesJ Offline
                jdaviescoates
                wrote on last edited by
                #12

                @d19dotca I always install Wordfence which I really like. You could also try https://wordpress.org/plugins/goodbye-captcha/

                The idea of bringing in spam IP lists sounds like a good plan too.

                I use Cloudron with Gandi & Hetzner

                robiR 1 Reply Last reply
                2
                • jdaviescoatesJ jdaviescoates

                  @d19dotca I always install Wordfence which I really like. You could also try https://wordpress.org/plugins/goodbye-captcha/

                  The idea of bringing in spam IP lists sounds like a good plan too.

                  robiR Offline
                  robiR Offline
                  robi
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #13

                  @jdaviescoates Looking at WP Bruiser I can't tell what it does.. there's a lot of marketing around it but it also seems like a lot of cloak and dagger.

                  It would be nice to know how it works.

                  Conscious tech

                  marcusquinnM jdaviescoatesJ 2 Replies Last reply
                  0
                  • robiR robi

                    @jdaviescoates Looking at WP Bruiser I can't tell what it does.. there's a lot of marketing around it but it also seems like a lot of cloak and dagger.

                    It would be nice to know how it works.

                    marcusquinnM Offline
                    marcusquinnM Offline
                    marcusquinn
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #14

                    @robi We use WP Bruiser with a bunch of add-on licences, generally we check everything for performance and code quality before committing to a choice, so it was a while back now but I don't recall any issues since.

                    Web Design https://www.evergreen.je
                    Development https://brandlight.org
                    Life https://marcusquinn.com

                    robiR 1 Reply Last reply
                    0
                    • marcusquinnM marcusquinn

                      @robi We use WP Bruiser with a bunch of add-on licences, generally we check everything for performance and code quality before committing to a choice, so it was a while back now but I don't recall any issues since.

                      robiR Offline
                      robiR Offline
                      robi
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #15

                      @marcusquinn that's nice. do you know what it does to stop bots?

                      Conscious tech

                      marcusquinnM 1 Reply Last reply
                      0
                      • robiR robi

                        @marcusquinn that's nice. do you know what it does to stop bots?

                        marcusquinnM Offline
                        marcusquinnM Offline
                        marcusquinn
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #16

                        @robi I know we don't have a bot problem 🙂

                        Quick look at the reports on one website would suggest so:

                        20014755-6e1f-470c-a921-e0744f0999de-image.png

                        Web Design https://www.evergreen.je
                        Development https://brandlight.org
                        Life https://marcusquinn.com

                        robiR 1 Reply Last reply
                        0
                        • marcusquinnM marcusquinn

                          @robi I know we don't have a bot problem 🙂

                          Quick look at the reports on one website would suggest so:

                          20014755-6e1f-470c-a921-e0744f0999de-image.png

                          robiR Offline
                          robiR Offline
                          robi
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #17

                          @marcusquinn it's ok to say you don't know how it works too 😆

                          Conscious tech

                          marcusquinnM 1 Reply Last reply
                          0
                          • robiR robi

                            @marcusquinn it's ok to say you don't know how it works too 😆

                            marcusquinnM Offline
                            marcusquinnM Offline
                            marcusquinn
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #18

                            @robi I truly don't care how it works. I care about how things work that no-one else has solved 🙂

                            Web Design https://www.evergreen.je
                            Development https://brandlight.org
                            Life https://marcusquinn.com

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                            0
                            • robiR robi

                              @jdaviescoates Looking at WP Bruiser I can't tell what it does.. there's a lot of marketing around it but it also seems like a lot of cloak and dagger.

                              It would be nice to know how it works.

                              jdaviescoatesJ Offline
                              jdaviescoatesJ Offline
                              jdaviescoates
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #19

                              @robi I've no idea how it works either!

                              I use Cloudron with Gandi & Hetzner

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