Drop The Non-USA Traffic! Do It NOW!

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Jun 14

Drop The Non-USA Traffic! Do It NOW!

If you are not a systems admin, chances are you think you live a mostly secure life, right? Sure there are those trying to scam you online, people trying to steal your identity offline as well as on, and those pesky burglars that just won't go away and get real jobs.

System admins on the other hand know the world is one goddamn hostile place with constant attacks coming from all over the world 24/7. I'm surprised they don't all have chemical abuse problems dealing with all of it.

The problem is that servers on the Internet can be attacked pretty much without anything happening to the attacker. Sure you hear about a spammer arrest here and a hacker caught there, but below the water line is an iceberg of fraud, scams, and all levels of hacker, cracker, computer whacker activity going on.

Well, I'm here to tell you that you don't have to take all they are dishing out. If you have a dedicated or VPS server, you should be able to install a firewall and block out a large percentage of the world that wants to hack your server, use you to send spam, or just cause general problems and mayhem. Even if you just have shared hosting you can use this idea.

What you can do is block large ranges of IP numbers that are not located in the US. If you really don't need non-US traffic, then you lose nothing and gain a lot of security. Shared hosting can use the "Deny IP" option in their hosting control panel, and those with server admin access can use a firewall and block this evil traffic to all of the sites they host.

I have a list of IPs that I have created over the past few years that blocks traffic from Europe, Russia, China, Nigeria, South America, Asia, and other places that are somewhat or very unfriendly. If there is any interest I can post the list for those that are interested.

I have been very careful to NOT block any US sites with this list, but there are some exceptions and I can list those separately. What I have found is that there is also a LOT of bad traffic coming from servers within the US as well. Some are just citizen misfits, but much of it is from "proxy servers". So I also have included many IP ranges from hosting companies that have shown to have abusive traffic. Most sites will not have any reason to allow traffic from other servers except in some cases, so the risk of blocking friendlies is very low.

If this idea appeals to you but you have the technical ability of a luddite gnat, talk to your hosting probider, show them this article, and see if they can help you. Ask them if they would consider offering a hosting account that is pre-blocked for most non-USA traffic.

11 comments

§ Molly said on : 06/25/11 @ 15:01
I hate what you posted! Here we are in the year 2011 and you want to isolate the US from our global neighbors. That is so counter productive and may lead to more wars and unrest. A little email spam or admin-level account hacking isn't going to kill you is it? So why not let them do that they want? If they are cracking your server they are not going out with suicide bombs are they? So stop interfearing with a natural process, you are just going to make it worse.

[Sure thing, I didn't look at it that way. I'll tell you what, when you remove the locks from your doors and windows, then I will unblock spammers, scammers, phishing, and hackers from our sites. Deal???]
§ USA proxy list to block from your servers said on : 07/01/11 @ 09:14
A little controversial your post... but anyway, what if these people us a USA proxy list like the one in my firm?

[Controversial? Maybe, but we put locks on doors to keep out burglers and bad guys. Too bad if it also means my nice neighbor is also locked out...! :-)

Lists like yours are GREAT and you will notice that I am not removing the link to your site. Webbmasters and admins can use your proxy lists to further block unwanted traffic. Please keep up the good work...!!!]
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