Am I Being Cloned?

[geoffp]

I have had someone from this IP 81.101.132.7 logged into my website for 21 hours now refreshing every 10 minutes, do you think this is a clone job, as I have never had anyone stay on as long as that before, being a senile old git (71 years old) you do tend to worry a bit.

[robynfali]

Could it be someone using this?


https://cumulus.hosiene.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=7089

[geoffp]

Hi Rob

It is someone from the Ipswich area and are on Virgin Media

[optrex]

I have had someone from this IP 81.101.132.7 logged into my website for 21 hours now refreshing every 10 minutes, do you think this is a clone job, what can I do to get rid of him apart from shutting down my site?

what part of your website are they viewing? You have a feed to mobile applications, so I can't understand why you'd encourage people to use your data in one hand, then want to block them in the other. If you are going to offer these services, you need to understand the implications.

[geoffp]

After making my first post they have seemed to clear off and are not visiting now.

@optrex, I just thought that it was strange that every ten minutes of the 24 hours they have visited my website, don't think this person sleeps. I would not mind anyone using my data so long as they have the decency to ask if they can use it.

Any way like I said the situation is not happening any more

[optrex]

I would not mind anyone using my data so long as they have the decency to ask if they can use it.

Why would they ask when you advertise it as a service they can use?

[geoffp]

I am not getting into this, I have seen these very same words before on here, Grant does not think that DECENCY comes into these situations, subject closed

[serowe]

I am not getting into this, I have seen these very same words before on here, Grant does not think that DECENCY comes into these situations, subject closed

Let's see if I have this correct.

You have something on your web site that allows ANYONE to connect and grab data.

Right so far?

You notice that someone has been connected for nn hours ('excessive' in your mind).

Right so far again?

And when someone suggests that because you allow this to happen, don't like it and want to block them, you complain and announce 'subject closed'?

Did you ever even consider that the connection is actually a physical person making a connection but a computer. Especially as the reason they are refhreshing every 10 minutes is because that is exactly what you have in the code of your main page:

Code: Select all

<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="600" />

Sheesh - someone connects to your page, they leave their browser connected to view continual updates and you complain about it! Maybe your suggestion of shutting the site down is the only way you can stop them then seeing as YOU are the one pushing the data to them every 10 minutes.

Oh - no apology necessary - I'm sure you can see where the conclusion you have reached is incorrect....

[GraemeT]

Geoff,
I think your main concern should be server up/download quotas.

If that's the case, have you considered using ajax to update only the data on your page, instead of automatically updating the whole page? Then, if someone leaves the page up in a browser, the only hit is the cumulus.xml file, and you can limit the number of consecutive updates so the page must be manually reloaded after a given time/number of updates.

You'd probably find that all that's happened is someone opened your webpage in a browser window/tab and it got pushed to the background and stayed up when they walked away from the pc.

[serowe]

Geoff,
I think your main concern should be server up/download quotas.

If that's the case, have you considered using ajax to update only the data on your page, instead of automatically updating the whole page? Then, if someone leaves the page up in a browser, the only hit is the cumulus.xml file, and you can limit the number of consecutive updates so the page must be manually reloaded after a given time/number of updates.

You'd probably find that all that's happened is someone opened your webpage in a browser window/tab and it got pushed to the background and stayed up when they walked away from the pc.

I would eriously ask, though - why even contemplate putting a limit in place? If your code allows for an automatic refresh every 1, 5, 10 or however many minutes, I am aware of many of my users who will open the weather page when they get to work and leave it open all day long to receive a constantly updatikng page. there is nothing sinister in this and, if everyone is honest about it - this is exactly what theuir eb page is there for.

If this ISN'T what you want to happen - the answer is really quite simple - remove the page!