Hi there,
we struggle with a lot of spammers in our entries, while using PIWIK 2.14.2.
As stated in this blogpost Stopping Referrer Spam - Analytics Platform - Matomo nothing else must be done to get rid of the spammers, but it doesn’t work.
Can anybody help us with this problem - is there need for activating a plugin or smth. else?
Thx for your help.
Ben
I’ve said so all along: The best way to stop spammers is to resort to using the .htaccess file . This way, the spammers don’t even get in the front door. Piwik’s method simply removes them from the statistics, but they still have free rein on your applications being reported on by Piwik.
The .htaccess file is a simple text file that you put into your web root. Multiple .htaccess files placed in the directory tree have a cumulative effect in the directory branch where they’re found.
Here’s a snippet from my .htaccess file:
RewriteEngine on
# block visitors referred from semalt{whatever}
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} semalt [NC,OR]
# block visitors referred from savetubevideo.com
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} savetubevideo\.com [NC,OR]
# block visitors referred from kambasoft.com
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} kambasoft\.com [NC,OR]
# block visitors referred from makem oneyonline.com
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} makem oneyonline\.com [NC,OR]
# block visitors referred from {whatever}-seo.com
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} -seo\.com [NC,OR]
# block facebook
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} facebook [NC,OR]
# block visitors referred from {whatever}-seo-{whatever}
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} -seo- [NC,OR]
# block visitors referred from {whatever}-for-{whatever} (like buttons-for-your-website)
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} -for- [NC,OR]
# block AdvBot
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} advbot [NC,OR]
# block empty UA
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^$
RewriteRule .* - [F]
# block visitors from China
deny from 111.
deny from 123.
deny from 202.
deny from 219.
deny from 220.
deny from 221.
# block a specific user from the UK
deny from 90.207.160.66
# block certain users from Ukraine
deny from 46.4.
deny from 46.118.
deny from 46.119.
# block anybody from Amazon EC2 and such
deny from amazonaws.com
Note: Because of a very stupid posting rule on this forum, you need to remove the space from m oney above. This forum does not allow posts that have this word without the space.
Hi there,
Feel free to try again upgrading to latest 2.15.0 beta version which includes many fixes and improvements, see: I would like to test early beta and RC releases, how do I enable automatic updates to use these development versions? - Analytics Platform - Matomo
If you still have a problem, please create an issue on our tracker GitHub - matomo-org/piwik: Liberating Web Analytics. Star us on Github? +1. Matomo is the leading open alternative to Google Analytics that gives you full control over your data. Matomo lets you easily collect data from websites, apps & the IoT and visualise this data and extract insights. Privacy is built-in. We love Pull Requests!