Identifying off-line browsers

[mikeworld]

Hi

my site was recently crashed by Webstripper which was hitting my cgi programs

so - whats the best strategy for denying access to these unfriendly characters - I am about to use .htaccess to trap the referrer - is this the best way ?

thanks for any help .. Mike

[Will]

Hi Mike,

The more information you have, the better. So ideally you should look to block access based on a combination of IP address, hostname, referrer, accept, etc and lastly useragent. Most of these programs can be spotted easily once you've got your eye in.

[littleman]

What Will said, though I would put UA up higher in the priority, just a personal taste thing.