Portlane

[lucy24]

General question: can Portlane be classed as Shoot to Kill? They're apparently Scandinavian-- mostly Sweden, but I've met at least one in Denmark.

So far it's an academic question because I've only met them while looking up robots, so always server or colo. Their website says nebulously "hosting and IP related services". Can an "IP related service" ever be human?

[dstiles]

I have 5 portlane ranges, all blocked.

46.246.0.0 - 46.246.127.255
80.67.0.0 - 80.67.31.255
178.73.192.0 - 178.73.255.255
188.126.64.0 - 188.126.127.255
193.105.134.0 - 193.105.134.255

[tangor]

Are they over the top or malicious in roboting? One can spend a lifetime blacklisting when whitelisting is easier to control.

[wilderness]

Are they over the top or malicious in roboting? One can spend a lifetime blacklisting when whitelisting is easier to control.

If this debate is going to be introduced into each and every thread, than this forum should definitely be shut down.
When the forum topics are focused primarily upon whitelisting, there are simply not any threads introduced, and the few that are introduced are not discussed because the syntax for whitelisting is not available.

It's bad enough this forum remains moderated, and each new thread must be pre-approved, with a policy that was instituted back in 2003 or 2004 due to participants that are no longer even participating in this forum.

The simplest solution is to shut the forum down.

Don

[lucy24]

For the record: I meet hardly any "pure" robots these days. ("Hi. I'm StinkyBot. spamsize dot biz sent me.") They're still trying, but they get the 403 they deserve, so I don't think about them. It's primarily botnets with humanoid UAs. I could fine-tooth-comb the UA and continue filtering out the spurious ones. But honestly, at this level of detail, with a site the size of mine, it's less trouble to go with IP blocks.

dstiles, there's also one at 5.249.161. But I blocked all of 5.249.160.0/21 (all Sweden) for the heck of it. Oh, and 5.254.128.0/19. Both of those are from recent botnet activity; I pulled the past month and did some more lockouts.

I reserve judgement on two recent ones from 137.135. Look it up :)

[tangor]

If this debate is going to be introduced into each and every thread, than this forum should definitely be shut down.

Yikes! Sorry... I've been away for a year, didn't realize there were touchy subjects. Trust me. I'll just lurk from here on out. I'm sure many find the forum extremely useful.

[keyplyr]

I also block Portlane (an SE hosting company.)

[dstiles]

Lucy - thanks. According to DNS, though, this is netalia not portlane, although there may not be an ownership difference: I haven't checked. 5.254.128.0/19 is another netalia range (which I already had). 137.135 - yes. :)

My netalia range (all blocked and including Lucy's ranges above):

5.249.160.0 - 5.249.167.255
5.254.128.0 - 5.254.159.255
185.5.44.0 - 185.5.47.255
212.59.64.0 - 212.59.95.255

I'm quite prepared to believe there are more. :(

[keyplyr]

Thanks dstiles, I didn't have 5.249.160.0/21