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We are having issues with users using proxy servers and causing trouble on our website. Is there an updated SQL list of proxy servers, indexed by IP, available anywhere so that we can query it and prevent access to those using proxy servers?

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Ah yes; somebody using a proxy server must be evil... – Marc Gravell♦ Jul 18 '09 at 21:41
Any computer can be setup as a proxy server. I don't see the point/possibility here. – Sinan Taifour Jul 18 '09 at 21:46
What kind of problems have you been having, and why do you believe proxy servers are the cause of it? Please edit your question with the information. – John Saunders Jul 18 '09 at 21:48
Also, what's this have to do with SQL? – John Saunders Jul 18 '09 at 21:53
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migrated from stackoverflow.com Dec 16 '09 at 23:27

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2 Answers

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You could look for the X-Forwarded-For HTTP header but of course you can't rely on it and treating proxy users differently from your other visitors seems like a bad idea.

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Don't forget that many people, who work in big companies, are behind a proxy server (at work, I am, and I don't have a choice ^^ ) -- it doesn't make them/me evil ;-)

If you really want to filter out people using proxy, and want a list of "known" proxies, there are some lists here (not all lists seem really up to date, but there are some lists ; maybe it can help)

(But insist : filtering out people behind a proxy is probably not "the right solution")

Actually, what kind of trouble are you talking about ? Maybe there is another solution to your problem ?

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I'm happy to look for better solutions. Here is a brief description of the trouble we are having: We have a lot of people posting spam in our forums or acting inappropriately in our online chat. We ban by IP, but then the user just uses a proxy server (smarter users change their IP in other ways), clears their cookies, and creates a new account, continuing to spam or act inappropriately. I was only looking for public proxy servers used for anonymizing, not private/work proxy servers. I know blocking public proxy servers is no where near a complete solution, and probably not a good one – Yak Jul 19 '09 at 17:51
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