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IP Deny Manager

The IP Deny Manger is a great little program that's included into cPanel. It can cause big problems for those users that get their IP block, because just as the name implies, it will block an IP address completely from access a site. So please be aware and absolutely positive on who will be getting blocked before adding them.

The IP block tool can be used for any IP address and even domain names. It's a great way to combat existing lechers linking to a sites files or images. The system is designed to automatically detect the IP address of a domain name, so simply entering the domain name in the IP field will block that site from using anything within the one blocking it. This will instantly stop users from downloading anything from the site linking to the other site blocking it.

How to Find Lechers

Lechers can become a big problem for many sites and can eat up valuable resources and money. There are a few ways to find them and stop them in their tracks, one being the great hotlink protection tool that comes with cPanel.

More information about this tool can be found here: Hotlink Protection

Another good way to combat lechers is to study the log files for the site in question. These can return a great deal of information pertaining to a site and the traffic to a site. Awstats has a great referral feature built in, that is great for this sort of stuff.

More information on Awstats can be found here: Awstats Explained

Awstats can be found in the Web/FTP Stats section of cPanel. Once there Awstats is normally one of the first links located on the page. If Awstats isn't present, contact your provider about this. Normally they can turn this feature on within minutes.

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Once Awstats loads, locate the “Referring Sites” link located under the “Referrers” category. This will bring up the “Links from external pages” section of Awstats. This is a very useful section as it will show what external sites are linking to the site in question. Any links from external pages will be located here from the month.

 

Simply locate sites that would link to files or images on your account and click on the referral link. This will bring up the page containing the link to the site in question, from where a user would be able to tell if the site is linking directly to a file or image, or just to the site in general. If a general link is present and no files are being directly linked to, then the site can be pushed aside and the next site on the list can be checked.

Another useful section is the “Pages-URL” section of Awstats. If files or images are being directly linked to and are producing a lot of traffic, they will show up in this section. This is located under the “Navigation” menu it's called “Viewed”. In this section users will be able to gain a lot of useful information on which files are being linked to the most and how much they are being accessed. There is an “Entry” and “Exit” section within this section that displays that amount of direct hits or entries to the file and the exit amount which is how many left from that file or page.

These two sections in Awstats are very useful and can help tremendously in figuring out which sites are leching files or images from your account. Once the sites have been determined and a list made, we can move forward and block them.

Adding an IP or Site to the Block List

Now that we've determined which IP addresses and sites we'd like to block from having access to our site, we'll then move forward and add them to the list. This is very simple and doesn't require much effort at all.

To add an IP address simply type in the IP address that is being blocked and click on Add. Domain names work in the same manner. Just enter the domain name in the box that needs to be blocked and the system will determine the IP address automatically and add it to the block list.

Once we've added an IP address or domain name, a confirmation will be displayed if it was added successfully and the IP address will be visible under the “Current IP address being blocked” section of this page.

Removing Blocked IP Address

Removing blocked IP addresses are also very simple to do. Simple select the IP address to be removed from the drop down box, and click on the Remove button. After that a confirmation will be displayed saying that it was removed successfully. After this the IP address will be removed automatically and the user or domain name can access the site once again.

Important: Remember to be careful what IP addresses are added to this list. If you add your own IP address you will block yourself and will not be able to access your site or control panel. Your provider would need to remove your IP address manually for you to gain access once again. So please be careful when using this tool and be sure to double check the IP address or domain name being blocked.