bandwidth sucking spider& bots

[basskiller]

I'm curious if I have my htaccess file in the root folder (.com) set up to ban certain ips (from baidu, soso among others , Would I need to also add the "order allow,deny"
ip address bans to the htaccess file located in the forums folder? I have no clue if they are coming through my home page or if that root htaccess file will take over even if they find their way to my site through a forum link?

order allow,deny
deny from 38.101.148.126
deny from 72.30.142.219
deny from 74.112.131.
deny from 77.75.77.11
deny from 83.143.133.5
deny from 88.131.106.
deny from 89.151.116.53
deny from 85.242.42.186
deny from 94.23.42.135
deny from 94.222.130.192
deny from 94.228.34.
deny from 123.125.68.69
deny from 123.125.68.85
deny from 123.125.68.89
deny from 125.39.78.171
deny from 125.39.78.172
deny from 142.166.3.122
deny from 149.154.158.162
deny from 173.192.238.35
deny from 173.192.238.44
deny from 173.192.238.48
deny from 173.192.238.51
deny from 173.192.238.57
deny from 173.192.238.58
deny from 173.236.21.106
deny from 174.36.228.156
deny from 174.36.228.157
deny from 174.36.241.149
deny from 174.36.241.151
deny from 174.136.26.114
deny from 175.110.77.95
deny from 180.76.6.
deny from 180.76.5.
deny from 182.40.68.215
deny from 182.40.76.72
deny from 199.21.99.109
deny from 199.59.149.166
deny from 207.34.25.76
deny from 207.179.179.226
deny from 208.115.113.87
deny from 208.115.111.71
deny from 208.123.82.21
deny from 212.50.147.101
deny from 220.181.94.236
deny from 220.181.108.
allow from all

[Trevor Hannant]

You would be better to block them at a server level. Having a longer list of banned IP addresses in vBulletin itself will slow things down on your site.

[basskiller]

You would be better to block them at a server level. Having a longer list of banned IP addresses in vBulletin itself will slow things down on your site.

They are no longer in the admincp banning options if that is what you mean.. these are two htaccess files .

My question was if it the one in the forums root folder is needed if i already have on in the site's root folder

This is an ongoing project it seems and I don't have access to add them to the server.. Until I get the entire list, which could take weeks..I can not ask the hosting company to add banned ip's daily

[Simon Lloyd]

Have a read of this thread

https://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php/387062-Baidu-spiders