who are these guests and where is all this outbound data going ?

[aegersz]

sorry if this is in the wrong place ... i would like your help again please ...

I have implemented "logwatch" and only recently became aware that most of my limited bandwidth is going here:

Code Select Expand

--------------------- httpd Begin ------------------------

1938.45 MB transferred in 101038 responses  (1xx 0, 2xx 98244, 3xx 1964, 4xx 750,
5xx 80)
     36933 Images (1021.58 MB),
        11 Documents (1.80 MB),
         8 Sound files (0.01 MB),
     63992 Content pages (915.00 MB),
        24 Redirects (0.01 MB),
        70 Other (0.05 MB) 

I have no idea where all that data is going - should i worry ?

is this normal ?

I also have many weird guests with similar IP addresses and have no idea what they are up to (here is a small snapshot from right now):

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Guest (40.77.167.72) 12:11:29 AM Viewing the topic the hospital did this to me unfortunately: an extravasation (graphic).
Guest (51.255.65.32) 11:44:26 PM Viewing the topic ADDICTION ! (resources).
Guest (51.255.65.45) 11:44:35 PM Viewing the board Related Media.
Guest (51.255.65.71) 12:10:33 AM Viewing the topic More fun with methadone.
Guest (51.255.65.81) 12:10:42 AM Viewing the topic Cigarette filter cotton VS q-tip cotton.
Guest (51.255.71.101) 11:58:00 PM Viewing the topic Create A Unique, Personalized AVATAR---4 U !!! (Animated GIFs:: Our Specialty).
Guest (51.255.71.112) 11:32:10 PM Viewing the topic Are we really all addicts? One therapist thinks so.
Guest (51.255.71.116) 11:39:08 PM Viewing the topic Ice addict reveals struggle: Not all addicts are 'down-and-outs with no teeth'.
Guest (51.255.71.130) 11:35:05 PM Viewing the topic Ativan (Lorazepam).
Guest (72.200.138.137) 11:56:10 PM Viewing the topic Setting up stem/crack pipe with choreboy (been getting terrible hits).
Guest (73.135.98.27) 12:09:26 AM Viewing the topic Storing liquid methadone.
Guest (73.148.15.55) 11:56:16 PM Viewing the results of a search.
Guest (73.213.228.44) 12:12:17 AM Viewing the topic East Coast Dope Reviews & Copping Advisories.
Guest (76.186.85.159) 11:38:36 PM Viewing the topic Benzodiazepine Equivalence Table with common RC's.
Guest (99.203.15.144) 11:44:32 PM Viewing the topic Walmart for SYRINGES .

is this normal and what are they up to ?

[Arantor]

The 51.255.65 range (and the 51.255.71 range) is handled by ahrefs.com, a type of search engine.

[aegersz]

ok, thanks. that's weird, some obscure search engine that i have never heard of is interested in my site.

i can live with that.

any thoughts about why so much data is being read/downloaded/archived etc ?

i am paranoid because of the very nature of my site so i owe it to my members, and myself, to figure out what's going on.

it might be quite normal and it may happen to every forum but i have nothing to compare it to or anybody else to ask.

[Jailer]

Disable guest access if it concerns you that much. Do note that if you disable guest access search engines will not be able to index your forum if that sort of thing matters to you.

[aegersz]

thanks but i would like to keep guest access for now, anyway.

i'm just puzzled as why most of my forum data gets "loaded" somewhere, every day ?

do you monitor such things ?

[Arantor]

These bots visit your site. They load pages, the pages consume data - like the actual HTML...

I don't monitor such things but on my VPS, my possible outbound traffic is measured in TBs... I don't need to care any time soon.

[aegersz]

Ok, that's all i wanted to hear.

I won't worry about it any further ... unless the DEA hunt me down 

Thanks - will mark as solved then.

(what a relief !)