Is it a hacker, code thief, or other

what's this guy up to?

[TomJones]

I have a site that is doing great. In monitoring my stats, I noticed a few months ago that this one IP was biting off 100+ pages a month. My site is only around 30 pages. This one static IP on Covad.net is still at it (viewing more pages than even me).

I am pretty convinced that it's a competitor trying to copy my site code and design. I have a very valuable backend database with a client list that many would love to have. I am mildly concerned about someone hacking into it. I'm hosted on a remote server so, I really don't have access to all the tools that I should.

I'm pretty convinced that this is not just a bored surfer. What would webmaster worlders do (WWWWD!). I don't want to ban an honest user. Is there a way to post a message to a particular incoming IP? I know I can ban it but, I am trying to avoid that.

[Dreamquick]

If it bothers you all that much and it's a fixed IP I'd be tempted to revoke access to that IP, instead taking them to a page which explains your fears and asks for them to contact you to regain access.

If they are genuine they will contact you, alternately if they aren't nice they may well give up when they realise you are on to them - if they just hop to another IP when they get banned then you know they are bad and can block that IP too/instead.

I would say that you need to make sure you've explored who they could be so you don't shoot yourself in the foot by blocking a search engine crawler or something similar - but it sounds like you've narrowed it down a lot already if you're sure that IP belongs to an ISP rather than a specific company.

- Tony

[TomJones]

Yeah, I've dug into it. Covad is an ISP, mostly stringing cable as a DSL provider for small businesses that want to host inhouse(I think). I have been monitoring my competitiors (man, they know nothing about SEO) and, I have found a competitor who is mirroring many of the features of my site. He's actually in the process of creating searchable databases that do what mine do. He even words his navigation buttons like mine.

Now, I am deeper into my theory at this point. My hypothesis is that he has contracted a web developer to copy my site functionality. I am page one on all my keywords so, he wants to be like Mike.

Alas, all of this is tempered by my original reservations about harmless surfers. He's almost to the point where his Dbs are up anyway so, it may all be a mute point. It will be interesting to see if the static IP's activity on my site chills after he's fully functional. I really doubt that I can enforce any copyright violations but, I'd love to. I'm keeping all of the logged IP activity, in any case.