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Thread ID: 34561 2003-06-17 06:11:00 Spiders from HELL james (466) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
153067 2003-06-18 07:51:00 Now I'm curious and someone has to ask . . . what are the spiders you refer to ? skidder (3968)
153068 2003-06-18 08:45:00 Ever wonder how Google gets it's database of millsions of pages? Spiders (googlebot, in its case).

Spiders are automated agents that trawl through and index web pages. Every search engine uses them (they generally are a good thing), but they are also used by less reputable folks for other purposes. There's one called EmailSiphon, for example and its name tells you what it goes looking for on websites and you don't have to be a rocket scientist to work out what is done with all the email addys it harvests.

The problem with spiders is that they can swamp a server's ability to serve pages, since they can open multiple sessions on a server with super human speed - in a worst case scenario they can be defacto load testers!

Our old PressF1 was brought to its knees by spiders. The current F1 hasn't been effected as badly, but lately it's been intensively hit by web spiders forcing us to take this preventative measure.
Biggles (121)
153069 2003-06-18 21:37:00 Thank you Bruce Buckman et al. I like it when you keep us informed like this. Very helpful and informative of you all. m:Dc mark c (247)
153070 2003-06-18 22:38:00 Im sure they've nicknamed it something like 'Pidgeon Technology' from google... they swamp your server with a flock of birds ;-) Chilling_Silently (228)
153071 2003-06-19 22:53:00 Thanx Bruce skidder (3968)
153072 2003-06-25 00:33:00 Well thats great that its up and running again! The pages still load a bit slow, any idea why?

Also can we drop/unstick this topic from the main page? Most people have their settings set to 'display first 10 topics' and most likely don't visit the second page when they are in a hurry.

This means that only 9 help threads are showing on the main page?? So every time someone replys, 2 threads get dropped off the main page, insead of the normal 1 thread. >? >?
PoWa (203)
153073 2003-06-25 00:52:00 EDIT>

'display first 15 topics'

This means that only 14 help threads are showing on the main page.
PoWa (203)
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