For a couple of weeks now our forum has been seeing the same IP range (France) trying access in large numbers every day. The access try probably comes from a bot as it stops with guest access and viewing the first page, never trying to register.
An htaccess file entry placed on the server which should result in an access error message to the other party has no effect, athough in other cases they ceased coming.
My question is, is it normal that the SMF 'Who's online' still shows the IPs of the bot(s) despite the htaccess file preventing access? Is there any way they could get around it if the whole range is blocked?
That would imply your forum isn't respecting htaccess files, because if it worked, the IP wouldn't still show up on the online list because they wouldn't be online.
Thanks for confirming my suspicion. I will ask the new hosting company then. It used to work on the old one with the same settings...
Thanks again.