Tag: Unix

Check htaccess Deny From lines for Alpha Characters

My htaccess file is getting large as I continually ban more bad bots of the world. As it gets larger there are bound to be more mistakes. One of the mistakes can occur in “deny from” lines, which account for the vast majority of lines in the htaccess. If you add any alpha characters to the ip addresses in “deny from” lines, the Apache server will do all host lookups and try to not return IP addresses. This means that some spammers’ ip addresses will be hidden behind bogus host names. For accuracy it is best for the Apache server to return their IP addresses. Using IPs you can then do host and search lookups, find them and ban them.