Bot-Trap
Downloads of Bot-Trap are restricted to logged in users. If you do not have a user account on the TNG Wiki use the Request Account link to request a user account | ||
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The mod Bot-Trap needs a new support person since the original mod developer or subsequent developers are no longer available to support the mod |
Bot-Trap | ||||||||
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Summary | Creates a honeypot or trap to block bots that do not adhere to robots.txt standards | |||||||
Validation | ||||||||
Mod Updated | 10 Jan 2025 | |||||||
Download link | For
Bot-trap_v14.0.4.7.zip For
Bot-trap_v12.0.0.5.zip For
Bot-trap_v10.1.0.4.zip | |||||||
Download stats | Downloads Stats | |||||||
Author(s) | Bryan S. Larson Based on the Bot-Trap tool by Daniel M. Webb | |||||||
Homepage | Bot-Trap (This page) | |||||||
Mod Support | TNG Community Forums | |||||||
Contact Developer | TNG Community Forums | |||||||
Latest Mod | 14.0.4.7 | |||||||
Min TNG V | 10.1 | |||||||
Max TNG V | 14+ | |||||||
Files modified | meta.php stdsitecredit.php css/genstyle.css .htaccess robots.txt Files added: bot-trap/settings.php bot-trap/.htaccess bot-trap/forbid.php bot-trap/functions.php bot-trap/index.php bot-trap/pixel.gif bot-trap/unban.php | |||||||
Related Mods | ||||||||
Notes |
Purpose of the mod
This TNG modification places a link on every page of your site that is invisible to humans, but which machines can see. Clicking on the link automatically blocks the visitor by adding an .htaccess restriction for the offending IP address. If a human is curious enough to find and visit the link, there is an easy mechanism to get removed from the list of banned IP addresses.
The way Bot-Trap works is that it adds an entry to robots.txt (and creates the file if it does not already exist) which instructs bots to avoid the bot-trap directory. If a bot does follow the robots.txt protocol, as good bots do, it will know not to visit the trap. Bad bots that do not follow robots.txt standards will see the link and visit it; thereby getting blocked via an entry to .htaccess.
Developer
This mod was developed by Bryan S. Larson. Beta testing of the original mod was done by Ken Roy and Rick Bisbee. Version 14.0.4 was developed by Steven Davis.
Requirements
- A working TNG installation.
- A backup of all affected files (see the list in the summary to the right)
- An installed current version of the Mod Manager.
- A server that supports .htaccess 2.2 for TNG 10.1-14.0.3 (most do)
- A server that supports .htaccess 2.4 for TNG 14.0.4+ (most do)
Revision History
Mod Version | TNG Version | Date | Contents |
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14.0.4.7 | 14.0.4 | 10 Jan 2025 | Fixed syntax error in Check Files that caused a blank page on PHP 8.1+. |
14.0.4.6 | 14.0.4 | 11 Oct 2024 | Updated Check Files to avoid inserting multiple Bot-trap anchors if RequireAll tags are used in the Files and/or FilesMatch directives. |
14.0.4.5 | 14.0.4 | 07 Oct 2024 | Changed code so check files must be run first instead of creating missing files automatically. Updated code to prevent checking permissions echoing code before the header loads in bt_check.php. |
14.0.4.4 | 14.0.4 | 01 Oct 2024 | Fixed unescaped quotations in Dutch and Norwegian languages. |
14.0.4.3 | 14.0.4 | 20 Sep 2024 | Updated code to remove PHP 8 warnings. |
14.0.4.2 | 14.0.4 | 05 Jul 2024 | This update uses the Apache 2.4 directives Require and Require not instead of Allow/Deny. Includes instructional files for upgrading directives. Uses TNG send email function so email from was removed. Removed links from log files so admins don't ban themselves accidentally. Bot-trap link is disabled when a user logs in. Bot-Trap pages are XHTML compliant. Updated the Bot-trap link so SEO is not affected. |
12.0.0.5 | 12.0 | 23 Jul 2018 | This update corrects an error in the bot-trap pages as well as some updates for TNG V12 Mod Manager changes. |
10.1.0.4 | 10.1 | 22 Aug 2017 | Small update to better recognize TNG installations that are not in the web root. Also an update for better compatibility with modern versions of php. |
10.1.0.3 | 10.1 | 30 Nov 2016 | Small fix in check file; it was not checking for .htaccess as it should have been. Corrected. |
10.1.0.2 | 10.1 | 08 Nov 2016 | Update to use footer rather than meta.php. This resolves validation problems associated with previous version of mod. |
10.1.0.1 | 10.1 | 06 Mar 2015 | Initial release of the Bot-Trap. |
Conflicts and Issues
The End Of Life for Apache 2.2 was January 2018. So Apache created the mod_access_compat_module so 2.2 directives can be used with Apache 2.4.
Trouble is, some servers do not have this module installed. Additionally using mixed directives will cause a Server 500 ERROR in some cases.
If this version of Bot-trap causes issues, uninstall and use an older version.
Installation
- Uninstall and delete previous version of this mod (if installed)
- Download the appropriate zip file as shown in the mod summary in the upper right corner of the page.
- Extract the file from the downloaded zip file into the mods folder or FTP the extracted file to your mods folder.
- IMPORTANT: In many cases, the mod manager may give an error indicating that the mod cannot be installed. THIS IS NORMAL.
- You must click on the "Run Checks" button BEFORE installing the mod. This step creates the files and folders needed for the mod to work if they are not already present.
- Follow the normal automated installation for Mod Manager, as shown in the example Mod Manager - Installing Config Files to install the mod.
In the event of a problem
- Try using the Mod Manager Remove capability.
- Copy the backup of the affected files back to your TNG directory.
- Retry installing mod.
- Contact us through the TNG Community Forums.
Uninstalling the mod
If you want to completely Remove (uninstall) this mod and any tables if created, you should
- click the Uninstall button to uninstall the mod
- click the Delete button to delete the config file from the mods folder.
- delete the Bot-trap folder from the mods folder.
- manually delete the blacklist.dat file from the TNG root folder.
- manually delete the robots.txt file from the TNG root folder. (unless you want to keep it)
- manually delete the .htaccess file from the TNG root folder. (unless you want to keep it)
Upgrade
- Uninstall and eventually Delete the current Mod.
- Proceed as for an installation with the new Mod.
Optional Parameters
This mod has 4 optional parameters which can be modified using the Mod Manager Edit capability.
- Send an email alert when a new IP address is ADDED to the bot-trap: When enabled, this option causes an email to be sent to the specified email address any time a new bot is added to the IP block list. This is enabled by default, but will not work unless a valid email address is entered.
- Send an email alert when a new IP address is REMOVED to the bot-trap: When enabled, this option causes an email to be sent to the specified email address any time a blocked IP address is removed from the block list via the escape mechanism. This is enabled by default, but will not work unless a valid email address is entered.
- Email bot-trap alerts TO the following address: This is the email address where you wish to have bot-trap alerts sent.
- Email bot-trap alerts FROM the following address: This is the email address you wish to have bot-trap alerts sent from. Normally, both email addresses would be the same, but in some cases it makes sense to differentiate them.
Sites using this mod
If you download and install this mod, please add your TNG site to the table below:
URL | User | Note | Mod-Version | TNG-Version | User-language | |
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Our Family Histories | Bryan S. Larson | Mod developer | 12.0.0.5 | 12.0.3 | EN | |
WMGS Member Trees | Roger Moffat | Public Site | 13.0.0.5 | 13.1.0 | EN | |
Ryken and Rosenau Famly Tree | Paul Ryken | Public Site | 13.0.0.4 | 13.0.4 | EN | |
Our Family Links | Chuck Filteau | Public site | 10.1.0.1 | 10.1.2 | EN | |
Our Roy and Boucher Families | Ken Roy | Beta tested the mod for Bryan. Now using Steven Davis version | 14.0.4.3 |
|
EN,FR | |
Bobbyfamilytree | Bobby | 10.1.0.1 | 10.1.0 | EN | ||
Hooley Family Links | Rick Hooley | Public/Private | See here | See here | EN | |
A Bisbee Family History | Rick Bisbee | 10.1.0.1 | 10.1.0 | EN | ||
Kemp(e) Family History | Andrew Kemp | See here | See here | EN | ||
MOTYER Family Genealogy | John Mark Motyer | Public site | See here | See here | EN | |
Robison and Blythe Genealogy | Jeff Robison | Public Site | 10.1.0.1 | 10.1.2 | EN | |
Martius Family History | Hendrik Martius | Half-public site | 10.1.0.4* | 12.0.1 | DE,EN,FR,NL | |
Kleinmann Genealogy | John Kleinmann | 12.0.0.5 | 14.0 | EN | ||
R G Strong Family Genealogy | Russell G Strong | Modified the mod to validate at XHTML 1.0 Transitional | 12.0.0.5 | 14.0.4 | EN,DE,FR,NL | |
Extended Craxford Family Genealogy Magazine | Alan D Craxford | Using Russell's XHTML1.0 Transitional mod (may interfere with favicon) | 10.1.0.1/2 | 11.0.2 | EN | |
The Duttons of New England | Darrin Dutton | Pubic / Private | 14.0.4.6 | 14.0.5 | EN | |
Crawford County Genealogy Gateway | Frank Bernosky | Pubic Site | 10.1.0.1 | 11.1 | EN | |
Our Acadian Family | Randal Suire | Public/Media Private | 10.1.0.4 | 11.1.2 | EN,FR | |
McCarty-McCoy Family | Kelly Booth | Public | 10.1.0.4 | 11.0.2 | EN | |
Genealogy of the Weir and Drain Families | Beverley Stimpson | Public Site | 10.1.0.4 | 11.1.2 | EN | |
tobbes familje sidor | Torbjörn Åkerman | Public site | 10.1.0.4 | 11.1.2 | SV,EN,FI | |
The Cole / Tanner Family Tree | David Cole | Public/Private | See here | See here | EN,DE,FR,ES,NL | |
Racines Luxo-hennuyères | Michel Kirsch | Public site (registration) | 12.0.0.7 | 14.0.3 | FR,EN,DE,NL | |
Family Trees worldwide | Hans Weebers | Public, Private Site | 10.1.0.4 | 12.0.1 | NL,DE,EN,FR | |
FAMILY STORY BOURDEAUX / BORDEAUX | JPB | Public Site | See here | See here | DE,EN,FR | |
The Severijns / Timmer Familytree | Rob Severijns | Public / Private | See here | See here | NL, EN | |
Genealogy of a Dutch Community Losser | Peter Heerink | Public | 14.0.4.2 | 14.0.5 | NL,EN,DE | |
Familieboekonline | Janneke Helling | Private | 12.0.0.5 | 13.1 | NL,EN | |
Your Roots are Showing | Harold Craswell | Public / Private | See here | See here | EN | |
The Annals of a Humble Race | Gerald Apperly | Public / Private | 12.0.0.5 | 14.0.1 | EN | |
Osage County Cousins | Larry G Banks | Public/Private | 14.0.4.2 | 14.0.4 | EN | |
Solem Genealogy | Jan-Thore Solem | Private | 14.0.4.6 | 14.0.5 | EN,NO | |
GénéaKat | Katryne | Public & Private | 12.0.0.5 | 14.0.4 | FR,EN,SP | |
Carr’s Garage | Regis Carr | Public | 12.0.0.5 | 14.0.3 | EN,DE,NO | |
Jarocinski Family Database | Michał Jarociński | Public/Private | 12.0.0.5 | 14.0.3 | EN,PL | |
Stammbaum der Familie Datschetzky | Christian Datschetzky | Public | 12.0.0.5 | 14.0.3 | DE,EN | |
Jagos and Barron Family History | Emily Jagos | Public/Private | 12.0.0.5 | 14.0.4 | EN | |
The House of Kings | Søren Wendt | Public | 12.0.0.5 | 14.0.2 | EN,DE,FR,NL,IT | |
stone/mott genealogy | Albert Stone | Private | 12.0.0.5 |
|
EN | |
Old Dead Relatives | Kate Montressor | Public | 12.0.0.5 | 14.0.4 | EN | |
Racine d'Alsace | J-Louis Valory | Public (registration) | 14.0.4.2 | 14.0.5 | FR | |
Genealogy family van Seeventer and more | Sandor van Seeventer | Public | 14.0.4.2 |
|
NL,EN,DE | |
Chris Korte's New Zealand Genealogy Project | Chris Korte | Public / Private | 14.0.4.3 |
|
DA,EN,FR,DE | |
Family HIstories | Steven Davis | Public | 14.0.4.7 |
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