On Fri, 2014-10-03 at 10:03 -0700, Paul Heinlein wrote: > On Fri, 3 Oct 2014, Always Learning wrote: > > > All my web sites are configured as virtual hosts. The 'empty' > > default web site (one on every server) redirects all requests to > > 127.0.0.1. Sometimes I change this a Chinese consumer site. Why > > give the hackers and pests an opportunity to annoy you - send them > > away before their requests can be done to your web site. > > I've always assumed (without any data whatsoever on which to base that > assumption) that scanbots won't follow redirects to different > addresses. Do you have any information to the contrary? Alas, it is not the inevitable crawlers from recognised major search engines, computer start-up companies, curious people but also the determined hackers attempting to probe and break-in. If a crawler wants a web site, then the crawler should follow the domain name and not an IP address. Conversely hackers chose IP addresses primarily and domain names secondarily. I'm merely redirecting IP curious to 127.0.0.1 Hope that helps. Regards, Paul. England, EU. Learning until I die or experience dementia.