203.219.236.102

Who is this?

[Stefan]

I had this show up in the logs yesterday for the first time. 203.219.236.102 The only identification is Mozilla/4.0+(compatible;+MSIE+6.0;+Windows+NT+5.1;+.NET+CLR+1.1.4322;+MSIECrawler) -
All it took was robots.txt and the index .htm and .jpg (several times).

I tried a site search here with no luck. A reverse DNS seems to suggest it's coming from Aus but I'm not sure on that. Anyone recognize this?

[wilderness]

Stefan,
That's such a small range as compared to the overall number of ranges available in Austraila. 203.219.
I wouldn't tolerate any misbehavior from a small range. That's me.

Austraila in population is close to Canada, around 30-40 million. With pouplation being very scattered amongst many different IP's.

I've been working for some time to separate the Oceanic ranges from the APNIC ranges, at least in the 203 Class. There are 202, 210, 211, and some slight others as well.
Until Jim provided an htaccess solution I had most of the Oceanic ranges denied. As a result I've opened up some traffic.
As of yet (knock on wood) I haven't had any misbehaving recently. Although I can recall some Oceanic intrusions when I first started my websites.

[DavidT]

Population Australia: not more than 20 million.

[wilderness]

David,
I was off by a few ;)
Compared to the US (around 250M) and then China (a bunch) most numbers tend to be rather small.
The only reason I was even aware of the Canadian population was the result of reading an article some time back on the comparison between the US and Canada in regards to implementing a national health plan in the US and how Canada's was effective because of the smaller count.

[waldemar]

Until Jim provided an htaccess solution I had most of the Oceanic ranges denied.

What's to worry about oceanic requests? What is suspicous about some IP requesting only robots.txt and the index-files?

[wilderness]

waldemar,
Nothing is to worry for the Oceanic requests. At least as a rule.

The initial goal was to separate all the Oceanic IP's from the overall APNIC ranges and ONLY allow those Oceanic ranges access while denying the remaining APNIC/far-east traffic.

What is suspicous about some IP requesting only robots.txt and the index-files?

It really depends on the IP range and UA request.
One possibility could be compared to a thief knocking on your door to make sure your not home?

A regular website visitor does not have any reason to read robots.txt or make anything except a GET request.

If you've not learned these things from monitoring your logs?
Hopefully you will eventually and the process will save an unnecessary or multiple intrusions.

[sanuk]

Hi,

Well I do request robots.txt files from sites.
I am still new in all this stuff of deniying spiders, HTaccess and mod_rewrite and many times to see what other webmasters put in their "robots.txt" as an example, I have a look at it.

And by the way, I am one of these 20 million expatriate families living in the Far-East, using the Internet to stay in contact with the rest of the world.

So please do not advise everyone to DENY IP's from the Far East just as a rule.

Most connections in the Far-East are still dial-up connections and deniying 1 IP can result in deniying many million of people (including Europeans and Americans) living or working here.

Regards,

[wilderness]

Sanuk,
My reference to APNIC and the far east are not any reflection on the people. Rather, the traffic from that portion of the world, is not beneficial to my sites.

The same rule applies to portions of Europe and RIPE as well. They draw bandwidth and content without any chance of return. Their content, I'm unable to read. Nor, do I desire to do so.

These references to the traffic from those portions of the world, I have expalined more than a few times.
I'm neither directing or requesting anybody to deny reigons, continents or countries.

As I have specified again and again. . . In the end each webmaster must determine what goals and traffic are benefical to his site(s) and act accordingly. Knowing your demograhics is part of a business realtionship.

[sanuk]

Hi,

Widerness, I understand completely that you have your reasons to deny what ever you want.
And I surely don't blame You or critisize!

Just be carefull on this board with newcomers, as they still have a learning curve to follow, just as myself, they sometimes just blindly follow the examples of this board without knowing or understanding what they are doing!

As an example, when I started with HTacces and Mod_rewrite, I also blindly copied from this board any example of a Spider or IP that someone said they had denied for one or other reason.

Result of this was that I had blocked my own secondary dial-up connection and could no more reach my own website!

Not only had I locked myself out with following this example, but I had also, without knowing, denied access to my site for about 6 million other people living in my city and denied access to all tourists and expats using Internet in the hotels and the many Internet-Cafe's.

So again, Widerness, be carefull with your advice about entire countries or regions, as many newcomers see You as a professional and will just copy without understanding that what is good for your situation is maybe not good for their situation.

Cheers,
Sanuk

[wilderness]

Sanuk,
You mean I may be RIPE after all? ;)

Don

[MarieC]

I locked myself out

I do this occasionally - intentionally. Just to make sure my 403 is working right.

[wilderness]

I do this occasionally - intentionally

No need to do that Marie.
Try this and see how you like it :)
http ://www.wannabrowser.com/

[MarieC]

Wilderness, thank you, thank you, thank you. That is great. You are just a wealth of resources. :)

[wilderness]

just a wealth

Actually the credit goes to somebody else either here or in Usenent.

I did have it bookmarked and spent some time finding it as I could not recall what folder in my extensive structure I saved it under. Nor could I recall the name.

Don