XF 1.1 How to verify hidden visitor? Is it a spam?

[Kiwi]

Hi,

Currently I am working on my new site. It's a closed site-you have to login to see things. Since last night, I found one hidden visitor(shown as Guest in Current Visitors list) has kept visiting my site and viewing every single thread repeatedly. I wonder if it might be spam as I have used Kaspersky to scan my pc and found nothing.

Has someone ever had similar problem like I have? What should I do to find this hidden visitor and get rid of it? Please help.

Thanks in Advance.

 

[Paul B]

Check the IP address.

It is more than likely a robot/crawler.

Spam is unwanted content so unless they are posting, it can't be classed as spam.

 

[Kiwi]

It sounds like a bot/crawler. It's kind of come and go. About 10 minutes ago, it appeared again. I searched my host lastest visitors list, can't find the IP except mine. So what else can I do?

 

[Jake Bunce]

You can protect your forum with a .htaccess login. That will prevent all guest traffic.

Do you have any advertisements implemented on your forum? Sometimes ad services will visit your forum after getting your link from the ads you serve. The same thing can happen with other services like Facebook (liking content). Anything on your forum that connects to external services can expose your link and generate return traffic from those services.

 

[whynot]

It's a closed site-you have to login to see things. Since last night, I found one hidden visitor(shown as Guest in Current Visitors list) has kept visiting my site and viewing every single thread repeatedly. I wonder if it might be spam as I have used Kaspersky to scan my pc and found nothing.

Something is wrong there.
As a visitor I cannot see anything in your forum so I cannot go one by one and view the threads.
I can try, provided I have the links to them but that's it.
The software does not let me see them.

 

[Paul B]

I searched my host lastest visitors list, can't find the IP except mine. So what else can I do?

Open the Current Visitors page: http://xenforo.com/community/online/

If you have the relevant permissions there will be an IP link at the right of each entry.
Click that then click the IP address which appears in the overlay.

 

[erich37]

Something is wrong there.
As a visitor I cannot see anything in your forum so I cannot go one by one and view the threads.
I can try, provided I have the links to them but that's it.
The software does not let me see them.

I have a closed community as well and see this (as described by OP) happen quite often.
It is either a crawler or a user which registered but not yet confirmed his E-mail (unconfirmed user).

I am not sure now, but I believe that unconfirmed users are still able to view threads... ?
I guess I remember this is some kind of option-setting ?

 

[whynot]

I have a closed community as well and see this (as described by OP) happen quite often.
It is either a crawler or a user which registered but not yet confirmed his E-mail (unconfirmed user).

I am not sure now, but I believe that unconfirmed users are still able to view threads... ?
I guess I remember this is some kind of option-setting ?

Provided there isn't a bug in the software, a crawler has the same permission as a visitor: cannot see hidden content.
Is it possible to give permission let's say to AdSense to see hidden content from visitors?

 

[Kiwi]

Open the Current Visitors page: http://xenforo.com/community/online/

If you have the relevant permissions there will be an IP link at the right of each entry.
Click that then click the IP address which appears in the overlay.

Thanks so much Brogan. I tried this method and it worked on finding the IPs when Guests appeared again. Found three bot addresses, one is from googlebot.