While investigating errors in my php_errors log file yesterday I stumbled across someone leaching data from one of our sites. I blocked him with a .htaccess entry but by the time I left work yesterday they hadn’t noticed that their application wasn’t working.
I came into work this morning and saw that the requests had stopped. Good! Then I grepped for libwww-perl and was disappointed to see requests going to our main server for the same data. A .htaccess file stopped that too but it’s tiresome.
I should check referers but that’s not guaranteed to work and that method actually bit us hard a few years back when a partner couldn’t access data from their site. 🙁
Are there any apps out there for detecting this sort of thing from the log files? I’m guessing that a statistical analysis of the logs would show up lots of the same or similar requests over a short period and/or repeated on a regular basis.
Anyway, thank you 66.33.193.57 for adding one more job to my list of things to do. I’ve already mailed abuse at your ISP. They may be in touch soon.
Author Archives: Donncha
SpamPal for Windows
Nice design in CSS
More from the Css Zen Garden – A friend of Simon WIllison contributed a really nice design to the site.
That was quick…
I ordered a DVD writer and HD from komplett.ie yesterday morning. Earlier I checked the tracking page and saw that my purchases were shipped from Norway last night and arrived in the DHL depot this morning. They arrived a few minutes ago!
This is my second purchase from komplett and I’m very happy with them so far!
Good! Looks like my favourite CD burning software, gcombust supports DVD-r burning!
It looks a bit more complicated if you want to use DVD+RW though. 🙁
Mozilla Firebird tip
In Mozilla Firebird. when using the find-as-you-type feature always go to the top of the page before you start typing. On a big page my browser hung for several seconds while doing the search.
So, hit the ‘Home’ key before you search!
For those who don’t know, start typing on this page, (try ‘ILUG’) and a link with the characters you type will be highlighted. Press ‘/’ and your search and it’ll match any text, not just links! If a link is highlighted, even partially, just press return to go to that link. It’s a wonderful feature!
Busy, busy, busy
Just when I think I have a project finished and sorted out a spanner is thrown into the works clogging everything up and requiring fixing. *bah*
Science quotes
These quotes are good! I especially like the second last one about the biologist, statistician, mathematician and the computer scientist. 🙂
Linux. The future is open.
The latest IBM Linux advert is crap. Oh well, they’ve produced better in the past. (Here’s a link to the quicktime version.)
Welcome to RipOff^H^H^H^H^H Ireland
Are you thinking of visiting Ireland? You should take a look at RipOffIreland.org before you do. It’s a sad state of affairs but Ireland is one of the most expensive places to live in Europe. There’s no denying that, but don’t believe everything you read online too. This site was mentioned on Red FM last night and some of the stuff said was simply speculation and opinion.
Also of interest is Irish Fuel Prices.com, ‘a site which monitors fuel prices from around the country.’
Lots of other good links via Google too.
DAG: Apt RPM repository
I just found another apt repository: DAG: Apt RPM repository
This has Epiphany, a browser based on Galeon. Should make it dead easy to try out! 🙂