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IP: Re: Eyeballs or Spiders?
From: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
Date: Fri, 01 Nov 1996 19:17:29 -0500
Date: 01 Nov 1996 18:08:21 EST From: <capek () watson ibm com> (Peter G. Capek) cc: <farber () central cis upenn edu> Subject: IP: Eyeballs or Spiders? Just saw your note about spiders via IP. Let me suggest another possible choice which may be appropriate in some situations: Slow them down. This is a technique we've used, effectively we believe, to thwart password and username guessers. Have the server keep a crude history, by IP address (or perhaps remote domain name) of the number of requests over some period, and use that to adjust the responsiveness of the server to that client. With appropriate choice of decay times and coefficients, one can slow an abuser down almost arbitrarily while not impeding the customers one desires. In addition to avoiding the abuse of information that the server is providing, this may be an effective way of providing more equitable sharing of a heavily loaded server. I believe the technique has application as a "governor" in other areas of networking and computers. Peter Capek
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