Looks like they have found a new home at Abovenet Host: n2.sea.ces.cvnt.net IP Address: 64.124.98.nnn CIDR: 64.124.0.0/15
Shadowing users with a fake UA:
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.1) Gecko/2008070208 Firefox/3.0.1
wilderness
3:50 pm on Oct 23, 2010 (gmt 0)
caribguy, I've a 2007 reference to Covenant for the IP 69.41.14.zzz.
Might you (or anybody) be aware if there were other IP's between 2007 and their recent migration to Rackspace?
TIA.
BTW, any idea if Covenant is acting in some other capacity than as a "content filter"?
Pfui
4:50 pm on Oct 23, 2010 (gmt 0)
No UA info beyond these bits from 2007-2008 notes. All robots.txt: NO --
spider0.ces.cvnt.net libcurl-agent/1.0
spider1.ces.cvnt.net libcurl-agent/1.0
db2.sld.ces.cvnt.net (a.k.a. 69.41.14.32) [no UA; hit pattern = real person]
auth.ces.cvnt.net Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; {5537B515-A4E2-459F-A1B7-A3D2DEEB46AB}; .NET CLR 1.1.4322) [referrers only; hit pattern = real person]
fgrep 'Covenant' /etc/ipf/ipf.conf block in log first quick on bge0 from 64.124.0.0/15 to any # AboveNet / Covenant Eyes, US block in log first quick on bge0 from 69.41.14.0/24 to any # Covenant Eyes, US
jdMorgan
12:20 am on Oct 24, 2010 (gmt 0)
Covenant Eyes is a "reporting service" for parents (typically of a deeply-religious persuasion) who make a covenant among their family (children) to stay away from the 'ugly' side of the Web.
As they surf, Covenant Eyes sort of "follows them around" and checks the pages they visit (immediately or within 24 hours, typically). At the end of each month, the family receives a report that lists all the sites (or possibly only the "known-bad" or questionable ones) that they visited, along with grading information on how good or bad those site are, based on their particular covenant.
The idea, as I understand it, is to teach the kids how to stay out of trouble on their own, rather than trying to set up and maintain a comprehensive blacklist, block those sites, and leave the kids eager to go see what all the fuss is about.
At any rate, CE is not a robot, it is a "page checker/categorizer," so it does not fetch robots.txt. Although I got the above info from an acquaintance who uses their service, I do not know the effects of blocking them.
I'm not saying block or don't block -- Just providing background info here.
Jim
incrediBILL
2:16 am on Oct 24, 2010 (gmt 0)
I've always blocked them.
As long as I'm paying the bills for the server, a leech is a leech is a leech, I don't care what the intent or purpose, still a leech.
