wilderness - 8:46 am on Nov 8, 2012 (gmt 0)

Just curious whether most bot blockers in the spider forum block all data centers just as a matter of policy or do you wait until something happens before quarantining an IP range?

Bill,
I'm more reactive, however there are instances, where I've used ranges and/or names that have been provided by other forum members.

I'm kind of 50/50 myself as I'll try to make sure I have all known ranges for places well known for bad traffic like AWS, The Planet, etc. but I don't look too hard for companies that run a pretty clean shop like Peer 1, RackSpace, etc. Therefore I'm proactive where I know there's trouble and more reactive in other places and address them only as they come along.

Not to sidetrack from data centers, however from the beginning of my web activities in 1999, my denials (for all visitors) have been primarily reactive, at least until the activity increases to a point of frustration (temporary or otherwise) where reaction prevention is currently too overwhelming.

ARIN-Whois use to function quite effectively and easily, however today its quite a PITA (even impossible) to determine sub-net ranges or related organizations IP's.

Despite the constant work of black-listing it allows me to remain quite flexible with widget visitors whom come in all shapes and sizes.