Strange user error... user displays as Google Bot

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Gleasonator
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Strange user error... user displays as Google Bot

Post by Gleasonator »

One of my users is nearly always online. I'd never thought much of it, but I recently mentioned it to her and she said she hadn't been online for months. I just checked the who is online list and she displays as being a Google Bot... Running a whois shows her as coming from Google Inc., and seems to display information that corresponds to that of a Google Bot.

Any idea what could be going on? This user is only under the "registered users" usergroup.

Thanks.
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battye
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Re: Strange user error... user displays as Google Bot

Post by battye »

Is it her username that is always displayed as being online?
And then you check the who is online list and her username is not there, but the Googlebot's is?
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Gleasonator
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Re: Strange user error... user displays as Google Bot

Post by Gleasonator »

No, it's her username. But in the who is online field, this displays under her name:

Code: Select all

Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html)
And here's the whois information:

Code: Select all

OrgName:    Google Inc. 
OrgID:      GOGL
Address:    1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
City:       Mountain View
StateProv:  CA
PostalCode: 94043
Country:    US

NetRange:   66.249.64.0 - 66.249.95.255 
CIDR:       66.249.64.0/19 
NetName:    GOOGLE
NetHandle:  NET-66-249-64-0-1
Parent:     NET-66-0-0-0-0
NetType:    Direct Allocation
NameServer: NS1.GOOGLE.COM
NameServer: NS2.GOOGLE.COM
NameServer: NS3.GOOGLE.COM
NameServer: NS4.GOOGLE.COM
Comment:    
RegDate:    2004-03-05
Updated:    2007-04-10

OrgTechHandle: ZG39-ARIN
OrgTechName:   Google Inc. 
OrgTechPhone:  +1-650-318-0200
OrgTechEmail:  [email protected]

# ARIN WHOIS database, last updated 2009-06-23 19:10
# Enter ? for additional hints on searching ARIN's WHOIS database.
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COD3M4ST3R-X
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Re: Strange user error... user displays as Google Bot

Post by COD3M4ST3R-X »

She probably has UserAgent Switcher plugin for ff installed and has it set to Google Bot thats it.nothing to worry about
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M Macaroni
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Re: Strange user error... user displays as Google Bot

Post by M Macaroni »

Sorry to dig up this old thread. Had the same thing happen but to an abadoned admin account.

We had changed the account to a normal registered user but the forum got wiped by accident and after setting back most of the data the account was an admin again.
Next day the admin who hadn't been around for 8 months logged back in without posting and was there on and off all day and night. But she showed as googlebot. With IP and all.
I ran the IP here and it said googlebot
http://remote.12dt.com/lookup.php

I searched this forum, found this thread. Added the plug in mentioned to my own firefox and showed up as googlebot too BUT with my own IP. I logged in under another admin account in firefox, looked at who is online in IE under my own account and still my own IP shows for both.

I'm worried because most of the time this account has had admin powers.
M Macaroni
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Re: Strange user error... user displays as Google Bot

Post by M Macaroni »

Anyone know anything?

I've been searching abit more and found a site where it explains how to really visit a site logged in as googlebot, with IP and all. I tried it but forgot the step with the IP and to my surprise our admin now had my IP address and everything I did as googlebot showed up as her actions. Then corrected the problem and visited our forum with a google IP and behold the admin account now had that IP.

I then banned her username for a week because I have no clue what this. And when I tried to visit the forum again as googlebot I got told that I was banned by username, even though I wasn't logged in. logging in under a different name didn't clear that up. The forum for some reason thinks that I am the admin account even when using another account. To be clear, just when logging in as googlebot.
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onehundredandtwo
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Re: Strange user error... user displays as Google Bot

Post by onehundredandtwo »

You cannot change your IP Address, honestly, people will change their User-Agent all of the time, it doesn't do anything.

All they will see is the same as Guest access (depending on permissions) but with grey usernames and no other rights whatsoever.
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M Macaroni
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Re: Strange user error... user displays as Google Bot

Post by M Macaroni »

You can acces the site using a proxy server. In this case google was "used" as proxy server.

I could see hidden parts of my forum when I logged out and browsed as googlebot this was. And a google IP was shown.

In the end I changed the google[bot] name in the admin panel and now the admin account is no longer constantly there. We have googlebot back under that IP. I also changed the Bots permission so they can't see hidden forums anymore.
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Re: Strange user error... user displays as Google Bot

Post by k7a »

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Re: Strange user error... user displays as Google Bot

Post by stevemaury »

So if you have your own topic why are you posting in this one? - closing.
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