Ten Spider Business Center Blog

More Known Trackback Spammers

Tue, 22 May 2007 12:40:02 GMT

Since I began utilizing the blacklist feature in my blogging software, I've been having little difficulty with trackback spammers. As quickly as they appear, I zap 'em! If you are having a similar problem, check your blogging software or features that your blog service offers to see whether you can do the same. I'm offering an update to the blacklist of trackback spammers I provided on 13 May 2007. New entries are highlighted...

Known Trackback Spammers

Sun, 13 May 2007 10:45:48 GMT

Since I discovered that my blogging software has a blacklist / whitelist feature, I've been kicking hell out of the trackback spammers. If you are having a similar problem, check your blogging software or features that your blog service offers to see whether you can do the same. Prior to my discovery, I complained about one trackback spammer, who mysteriously disappeared several days later. It is far easier and faster, however, to simply blacklist them within your blog if...

The Zombies Are Coming -- And They Are You!

Wed, 25 Apr 2007 11:30:50 GMT

I have insomnia. It's because I can't stop thinking about the zombies. They're taking over, you know. They're everywhere! What's worse is that you may have already become one of them. You may be a zombie! I'm not talking science fiction here, although it is nearly as scary. I'm talking about zombie computers. They're taking over the Internet. And, if you are not diligently -- even aggressively -- taking measures...

Trackback Spam - A New Battleground for Bloggers

Sat, 24 Mar 2007 00:30:41 GMT

Trackback spam is a relatively new form of spam being employed by nefarious individuals who refuse to work honestly for a living. I began this post early this morning in response to my recent experience with trackback spam. The post grew larger and more robust until I realized that what I was writing required its own dedicated web page and that I did, in fact, have sufficient material to create one. I set aside the blog post until I was able to deploy the new...

Stealth Tactics by Microsoft

Wed, 24 Jan 2007 15:45:34 GMT

Late Monday evening my website was barraged by a series of anonymous probes (no User Agent string) requesting an assortment of pages. This went on for nearly two hours, then stopped as suddenly as it had begun. The requests were from two IP address blocks, 131.107.0.xx and 207.46.89.xx. Since I consider this to be highly suspicious activity, I investigated. I was shocked to discover that both of these IP address blocks are assigned to

Bot Watch - An Annoying Little Bot

Sat, 20 Jan 2007 01:30:32 GMT

OK, time for a less serious look at the serious subject of "bad bots". The bot named "bot" is, simply put, an annoying little bot! This crawler comes in two flavors. The first, identifying itself simply as bot/1.0, appeared on our main Business Center page beginning 5 May 2006 from IP 202.96.51.151, which belongs to —...

Bot Watch - Recently-Detected Web Spiders & Bots

Sun, 23 Jul 2006 17:45:48 GMT

Mammoth/0.1 -- This bot spiders websites for an experimental search engine owned by S.L.I. Systems, Inc. The User Agent string for this bot contains the URL of the company website. Since I could find no information relating to the bot on the website, I decided to call the company using their toll free telephone number.

EDITORIAL: The Future of Affiliate Marketing

Sat, 03 Jun 2006 04:00:04 GMT

The editorial below focuses upon affiliate marketing and pay-for-performance advertising. Marketing REPRINT INFORMATION: This editorial may be reprinted electronically provided that it is reprinted in its entirety, it is not framed, your "robots" metatag does not specify "no follow", and the complete byline at the end of the editorial, including...

Bot Watch - IP Address Block

Tue, 09 May 2006 17:45:26 GMT

We have blocked IP address range 195.225.177.0 - 195.225.177.255 because we believe it is being used by a highly aggressive spammer or malicious agent. We first noticed suspicious activity on 27 April when inspection of our server logs revealed IP 195.225.177.80 using the POST method on multiple directories of our website, apparently in an attempt to gain access to unprotected web forms through which they could spam. I reported this to our...

Bot Watch - Recently-Detected Web Spiders & Bots

Wed, 05 Apr 2006 15:00:42 GMT

voyager/1.0 -- This bot provides no identification. It has been visiting our websites for some time now, but we could find little info about it other than the fact that it appears in the access logs of numerous other websites. There has been a great deal of uncertainty relating to this bot because there are a variety of web applications claiming title to "Voyager 1.0", including an internet adventure game. We have been blocking this bot...