ATT CERFnet

[wilderness]

NOT California Education and Research Federation Network

rather. . . .
"Nov 1, 1996. . . .Internet service provider CERFnet, claiming to have the most advanced Web server farm in the world"
end of quote

The only reference I was able to locate at Webmaster World was a mere inclusion within a mass-IP-listings in 2002.

Anybody have a clue how much of the CERFnet organization ATT scooped up?

I've 25 ranges saved from a 2006 ARINS name search, however with the exception of one range, there is not any disticntion on what is the "server farm" and what is "anything else".

[incrediBILL]

Why not just continue to block it and track the activity on those ranges?

IMO the only way to find out an IP range usage is to monitor what's happening on that range, such as throwing them a CAPTCHA instead of a 403, and see it anyone answers.
You can actually put a CAPTCHA on a custom 403 page and let any potential real users unblock their specific IP as anyone answering the CAPTCHA could, as part of the form that validates the CAPTCHA, throw their IP into an whitelisted IP rewritemap.

Would be fairly simple to implement, a simple file append would do it.

Then you wouldn't have to worry about usage of things you've blocked as anyone could get themselves out of the block and you would get a record of what IPs have humans operating in that range.

The only trick here is you would have to allow any submits from the custom 403 page to be whitelisted to give it unrestricted access prior to all your block lists.

[wilderness]

IMO the only way to find out an IP range usage is to monitor what's happening on that range, such as throwing them a CAPTCHA instead of a 403, and see it anyone answers.

Bill,
Many folks perceive the now 1,866 lines that I have in my htaccess as slowing down the server.

Fortuantely my web pages are simple HTMl with a minimum of CSS.
With exception of two pages (a php contact and singe fifteen image slide show) from an approximate 550, I don't use any PHP, Java, cookies,CAPTCHA, or anything else that would slow the server down.
In addition, nearly all my denials are 403's.
I've less than a handful of redirects from old pages to new pages (and these will not remain in place permanently.

I've simply no interest in adding complexity to either my websites, or improving the skills to administer the web sites. There may come a time, when everything I use on pages is deprecated and perhaps then I'll take on new tasks.

I've enough widget crap to keep me busy until I'm in the ground.