TRAFFIC COP (Bad guys hate the cop!)

[Peter]

Traffic Cop version 4.08 is out and includes some improvements. Please update your existing installation.

Please take a look at these screenshots of the latest version!

[wclang]

I love this tool. Its probably the best plugin that I have purchased.  Thanks and keep up the support

[Peter]

The latest version 4.27 of TRAFFIC COP is out. Please update!

Improved function sweepArray() in page "configuration".
Expanded the possible HTTP response deny actions to HTTP status 204, 403, 404, 405, 410, 417, 418, 423, 500, 501, 502 and 503.

Deny Rules file contains:

    * 20 User-Agent regular expressions
    * 28 countries
    * 13 host name regular expressions
    * 12 referrer regular expressions
    * 31,778,448 IP addresses

Besides a redirection to another website, TRAFFIC COP can deny requests with following HTTP responses (status):

204 ..... No Content
403 ..... Forbidden (recommended; default)
404 ..... Not Found
405 ..... Method Not Allowed
410 ..... Gone
417 ..... Expectation Failed
418 ..... I'm a teapot
423 ..... Locked
500 ..... Internal Server Error
501 ..... Not Implemented
502 ..... Bad Gateway
503 ..... Service Unavailable

For more information on HTTP status codes, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_HTTP_status_codes .

Which status code shall you choose?

That's a good question! Status 403 is most likely the best and safe choice, as most users and robots will understand the word "forbidden". However, a malicious robot (operated by unscrupulous hacker) doesn't really care much about a status code. They only want see status "200 OK" and read what's on the requested page. So if this assumption is correct, you could choose any of the available codes, including the funny status 418.

[Peter]

Here is another way to take advantage of Traffic Cop's traffic management capabilities.....

You can use Traffic Cop to put your site into "Maintenance Mode" very simply by doing this --

1.) On Traffic Cop's page "Deny Rules" in Section 1.1 define this deny rule (just add it to whatever you have there):

Code:

[email protected]

This means that all users trying to visit your site will get status 503 page (temporarily unavailable). Search engine robots like this, because they know that they can come back soon when your maintenance work is done.

2.) Define Whitelist Rule in Section 2.2 by listing your IP address or IP address range. You can instead list your host name etc. This way only you (admin) can access the site.


Once you finish your maintenance work, you can disable Traffic Management on the page "Settings" or just change your deny rules to whatever they were before (and remove the whitelist rule).

[steve]

I just downloaded the latest version of TrafficCop (4.34) and uploaded it to the latest version of jamit. (3.6.. I clicked enable and then configure and I see this: "Unable to fetch date of database installation (IP2nation)."

What do I do?

[Peter]

I just downloaded the latest version of TrafficCop (4.34) and uploaded it to the latest version of jamit. (3.6.. I clicked enable and then configure and I see this: "Unable to fetch date of database installation (IP2nation)."

What do I do?

Steve,

My guess is that the import (installation) of the ip2nation database was for some reason interrupted. (This is very unusual. It never happened to anyone.)

Try deleting the ip2nation database (clicking the link on Traffic Cop's control panel), then refreshing the page (using the refresh link) and again installing the ip2nation database (clicking the link to install ip2nation database).

[steve]

It worked. Thanks

Steve

[Peter]

Lee writes:

I have a new problem with Traffic Cop.  Apparently, one of the rules is preventing me from visiting my own site.  I am still able to log into the Admin Panel, however I can not SAVE any rule changes.  Thus, I can't test to see which rule is blocking me.  When I make a rule change and hit "SAVE", I get a white screen -- when I re-load, the rules are unchanged.  

One suggestion for future release is to allow one to edit/configure rules while the plugin is disabled.   As it is, this is not possible.

I can't see which rule is blocking me.  I am using Comcast and my IP address changes periodically.  It's currently 24.7.124.73.  My rule set is below.  Any ideas about how to handle this?

Thnx,  
Lee
----------------------------
Hi Lee,

I have replied to your enquiry, but your mail server won't accept my emails. My IP must be on your blacklist? I sent you replies bu they always bounce back. This is why I resort to post the reply here on the Forum.

Lee,
I am outside, so I will try to quickly answer this.
A lockout can happen, but I don't think this is your case.
I think this is error 500.
Please go to your server's log, namely the error log and try to find what is happening. The error log entries usually tell exactly what's wrong, like syntax or missing function or a variable thar doesn't exist.

Peter

[Peter]

It has come to my attention that Traffic Cop may be causing some undesirable interaction with the Paypal IPN on Job Board.

I will immediately investigate this and do my best in providing a fix as soon as possible. However, I need to stress the following:

Traffic Cop does not detect bots. It must some rule that is defined in the EXAMPLE_DENY_RULES.txt file.

This file has a disclaimer that "it is likely to contain errors" and that "I assume no liability".

Putting together the Deny Rules is enormous task by itself and no one is paying me for providing accurate Deny Rules. I supply them as a freebie and only as "example".

As I said, I will start working on fixing the example on Monday. Please stay tuned.

If anyone has some additional information that may help me in fixing the Deny Rule, I will appreciate it.

[Peter]

Please download and install the latest version 4.40 of Traffic Cop from Market website.

This version contains the following changes:

• Fixed bugs in whitelisting of IP addresses, hosts and user-agents.
• REMOVED FUNCTIONS*: 'basic user-agent security' and 'basic referrer security'.
• Deny Rules regular expressions for User Agents have been updated.

*) I am moving these 2 functions into separate plugins because it makes much more sense. NEW plugin called UA Police Lite will is available on Market. Another plugin called UA Police Pro will follow soon.

[wclang]

Peter,

I updated to the newest Traffic Cop and I am now receiving this error message on my front page:

Code:

Warning: mysql_fetch_array(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /homer/mysite/public_html/include/plugins/TrafficCop/TrafficCop.php on line 533

I deleted the ip nation database thinking that was the problem, but that didn't help... I then tried to go back to the old version but it gave me all sorts of error messages, so I uninstalled that and tried your new version again but I get the same message.... Any ideas?

Thanks

-wclang

[Peter]

Wclang,

Weird. The error message says that there is an error on line 53, however, there is NO code on line 53 or nearby.

I wonder if the upload of the file TrafficCop got corrupted.

I experience no such problem.

Please re-upload the file.

[wclang]

Peter,

I tried it again and had the same problem. I decided to delete the Traffic Cop folder and I deleted the ipnation database; I reinstalled everything and had the same problem again. I figured I would try the Flush DNS Cache and Flush Deny Log database, and what do you know everything started working correctly.  That was very odd?!?!?  Anyway, it works now

Thanks again,

-wclang

[Peter]

Traffic Cop is now at version 4.41a. Please download and update!

Make SURE to download the file named TrafficCop_4.41a.zip and NOT the file 4.41.zip as the latter has a small bug.

In version 4.41a, added function to suggest usage of plugin 'UA Police'. Improved regular expression validator. Added option to specify plugin priority. (2011-03-13)

Deny Rules updated and contain:

    * 19 User-Agent regular expressions
    * 29 countries
    * 13 host name regular expressions
    * 13 referrer regular expressions
    * 32,369,232 IP addresses

[wclang]

Peter,

I installed your newest version of Traffic Cop 4.41 and after the ip nation database is installed I refreshed the page and this is the error I recieved:

Code:

Fatal error: Call to undefined method TrafficCop::createTable_session_guests() in /home88/yepper/public_html/include/plugins/TrafficCop/TrafficCop.php on line 2594

Also, I can't deactivate the plugin because the error code keeps popping up. I tried deleting the folder but that threwup more errors so I had to remove it from the config.php file. I tried to install the old version I was using and it won't install because this newer version is still registered.

Thoughts?

Thanks,

-wclang