Results 1 to 6 of 6

Thread: Porn sites appearing in my stats referrers

  1. #1
    QHF's Avatar
    QHF
    QHF is offline Nearly a Master Glow Jedi
    Join Date
    Jun 2007
    Location
    Wisconsin
    Posts
    131

    Question Porn sites appearing in my stats referrers

    I have a question about something I found when checking AWSTATS from cPanel. Near the bottom is a section called Referrers with two headings:
    1. Referring Search Engines and
    2. Referring Sites
    A porn site is listed under the Referring Sites heading and I'm not sure exactly what this means. I haven't received or seen any porn sites coming into our domain, so, can you tell me if this is something I should be concerned about?

    QHF
    Last edited by Matt; 01-10-2008 at 06:37 PM.

  2. #2
    jmarcv's Avatar
    jmarcv is offline Cranky Coder
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Posts
    354

    Default

    It usually means they are linking to you (doubtful) or just hotlinking graphics (graphic thieves)
    Not a biggie. Just normal operating procedure of the web.

  3. #3
    Matt's Avatar
    Matt is offline GlowHost Administrator
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Behind your monitor
    Posts
    6,221

    Default

    Its one way some sites try to get you to visit their site. they artifically inflate your stats by calling a file on your site a few times and on low traffic sites usually 20-30 hits would make this referrer appear high or at the top on your referrer list, making them more visible. The spammers know that 99% of the sites out there have little or no traffic, and hit the site a few times to make sure they are high on the referrer list.

    They assume you will click through to their site to see who is referring you.

    Just another type of spam. You can block that site in .htaccess if it bugs you.
    Send your friends and site visitors to GlowHost and get $125 plus bonus!
    GlowHost Affiliate Program | Read our Blog | Follow us on X |

  4. #4
    QHF's Avatar
    QHF
    QHF is offline Nearly a Master Glow Jedi
    Join Date
    Jun 2007
    Location
    Wisconsin
    Posts
    131

    Default

    Thanks everyone for the information.

    qhf

  5. #5
    Matt's Avatar
    Matt is offline GlowHost Administrator
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Behind your monitor
    Posts
    6,221

    Default How to get rid of them

    FYI here is how to do it from my rarely ever updated blog.

    glog » Blog Archive » surf.php in your webstats? Get rid of referrer spam for good.

    This article was made for some other type of referrer spam than porno, but this will do the exact same thing you are trying to do.
    Last edited by Matt; 01-10-2008 at 06:49 PM.
    Send your friends and site visitors to GlowHost and get $125 plus bonus!
    GlowHost Affiliate Program | Read our Blog | Follow us on X |

  6. #6
    bdominick's Avatar
    bdominick is offline I am a Glowru!
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Posts
    76

    Default

    I've dealt with this and other kinds of "referrer spam" quite a bit. Matt is 90% right. But I don't think the offending sites are trying so much to get webmasters to visit their sites themselves, since that's a pretty retail approach to garnering attention. Rather, they're trying to trigger server-side scripts that some sites (especially other porn sites) have that automatically create and display links to sites that send high referrals. That way search engines and your visitors will see the link, not just you. Either way, the stuff is really annoying (and depressing... just when you thought your site was becoming popular!)
    Brian Dominick
    | WebRoot Solutions
    | Server Administrator, Software Developer
    http://mywebroot.com

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14