Opera 9 - acting like bot

[tangor]

The last three days a single IP (ARIN reports Chicago area) has been hitting my site three times a day for the same 463 files. The agent is "Opera/9.0 (Windows NT 5.1; U; en)"

Anyone else seen the same behavior? Does Opera/9 have robot properties? Is the sky blue?

I have had no other Opera/9 entries in my logs.

Just gosh darn weird behavior!

[Pfui]

A number of things could be going on, from the UA being faked, to the user running a pre-fetch script or download extension, etc.

Checking the Opera site, it looks like the current version is 8.5 so methinks whatever you're seeing isn't Opera:)

But even if it was Opera, that kind of 'visitor' is more abusive than not. I'd block the host or IP address in a heartbeat.

[tangor]

My website is pretty much a narrow niche (fan site for an American author). Knew there was no Opera 9. Was looking for feedback re: IP's reporting Opera 9 and acting strangely.

HOWEVER, a little gumshoe work eventually unveiled this particular culprit, who happens to be one of my regular visitors trying out a new for him site sucker with an automated check back. He screwed up the program setup, agent line, and frequency.

I asked him if he ever accessed what he snagged, filling up his hard drive. "No, I usually go to your website."

We had a private discussion and resolved the matter. He can suck my site once a month with an agent line I can recognize, or I kill all the IPs in Chicago (won't do that, of course).

[Pfui]

Good sleuthing! Solving mysteries (and/or stopping really irksome annoyances;) is a great feeling.

FWIW, I did a bit more looking around and there are Opera 9s out there. Preview versions/betas, apparently.