Blocking IP of anonymizers

Foiling forum trolls

[helleborine]

Can blocking IPs of anonymizer services themselves (though not of the proxies they use) prevent users of such services from accessing a forum?

I'm not real knowledgeable, I hope my question makes sense to those who are...

[keyplyr]

Yes, but I prefer to use:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Anonym [NC]

It gets some of them. Otherwise I'd need to know all the IPs.

[helleborine]

I did some homework and I found the IPs of 38 anonymizer services, and blocked them all. The troll has not striken since! I don't use such services myself so I had no way no know whether the IP block worked, or the troll had been run over by a bus.

Thanks for confirming that the block works! I'm delighted.

If anyone wants the list, just sticky me.

[helleborine]

And another thing...

What is "RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Anonym [NC]"?

I only know html...

[keyplyr]

Sorry, Apache mod_rewrite [httpd.apache.org].

[picnic_new]

Hey Keyplyr,

How do I setup Apache mod rewrite? Where do I actually install this command?

Thanks

[keyplyr]

picnic-new you can get all this info by reading theads in the Apache Web Server [webmasterworld.com] forum. Of course your website must actually be on an Apache web server :)

[madmatt69]

How come you want to block them? What's a forum troll exactly?

[helleborine]

Trolls are people that post aggressive, insulting, and/or destructive messages in forums.

They do not want their identity known, and they use anonymizer services. Their IP changes with every post.

[madmatt69]

Ahh I see.

I keep guest posting off, and that seems to help. But of course, people tend to slip through.

[eaden]

If you have root access ( and it's a linux box ) :
route add -net 123.123.123.0/24 reject

blocks the C class 123.123.123.*, they won't be able to visit the site let alone troll.

[bose]

helleborine stated:

I did some homework and I found the IPs of 38 anonymizer services, and blocked them all.

Do they change their IPs or they remain pretty much the same?

Glad to hear you have been able to keep them off your sites.

What does a typical log entry involving an Anonymizer look like? I was wondering if blocking by UA would be enough/effective.

[helleborine]

The IPs of the anonymizers themselves remain the same. Some appear to own an IP block.

The anonymizer USERS, however, have a different IP each time.

My board is on a remote host, and I don't have access to the raw logs, so I can't tell you what the entry looks like. Perhaps someone else could answer this question?

[helleborine]

If anyone's interested, I caught my troll. Hurray! He was poofing IPs.

I made a web page explaining how I did. Since I can't post URLs in this forum, PM me and I'll send it to you.