Excessive 404 errors 1

[Halliarse]

Good Morning

I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this post, if it isn't apologies, however I have been advised that it is!

Up until last week I had 2 seperate domains which had exactly the same website. We decided that this would ultimately be viewed by Google as duplicate content so decided that we would redirect one to the other. At the same time we have have also redesigned our site completely using WebPlus x7, the previous sites being .html maintained via VS2012.

Since redirecting one site to the other, I seem to have been inundated with 404 errors. Last month we only received a total of 33, reviewing the stats yesterday for November, we had 533, all shown via AWStats!

From what I can see, the majority of these look like they are WordPress related, based on the path advised, some of which are shown below.

/imgs/wpscripts/wpscripts/wpimages/wp5d475971_06.png
/imgs/wpscripts/wpscripts/wpimages/wp6359da9f_06.png
/imgs/wpscripts/wpscripts/wpimages/wp637649c9_06.png
/imgs/wpscripts/wpscripts/wpimages/wp860a9109_06.png
/imgs/wpscripts/wpscripts/wpimages/wpb9f2c54a_06.png
/imgs/wpscripts/wpscripts/wpimages/wpdcb2fb60_05_06.jpg
/imgs/wpscripts/wpscripts/wpimages/wpfb89adad.png
/imgs/wpscripts/wpscripts/wpscripts/cloud-computing.html
/imgs/wpscripts/wpscripts/wpscripts/consultancy-services.html
/imgs/wpscripts/wpscripts/wpscripts/contactus.html
/prev/wpimages/wp032a04f9_06.png
/prev/wpimages/wp05e359ff_06.png
/prev/wpimages/wp0db69d1d_06.png
/prev/wpimages/wp1308a51d_06.png
/prev/wpimages/wp1ba51753_06.png
/prev/wpimages/wp5d475971_06.png
/prev/wpimages/wp6359da9f_06.png
/prev/wpimages/wp637649c9_06.png
/prev/wpimages/wp860a9109_06.png
/prev/wpimages/wpdcb2fb60_05_06.jpg
/prev/wpimages/wpdcde3922_06.png
/prev/wpimages/wpfb89adad.png
/prev/wpscripts/contactus.html
/prev/wpscripts/index.html
/prev/wpscripts/jquery.js
/prev/wpscripts/jsMenu.js
/scf/captcha/captcha/wpimages/wp05e359ff_06.png
/scf/captcha/captcha/wpimages/wp0db69d1d_06.png
/scf/captcha/captcha/wpimages/wp1308a51d_06.png
/scf/captcha/captcha/wpimages/wp440802bd_06.png
/scf/captcha/captcha/wpimages/wp5d475971_06.png
/scf/captcha/captcha/wpimages/wp6359da9f_06.png
/scf/captcha/captcha/wpimages/wp860a9109_06.png
/scf/captcha/captcha/wpimages/wpdcb2fb60_05_06.jpg

If I haven't provided enough information then please let me know, otherwise if someone can offer me advise or a solution to stop these errors I would be very grateful.

Kind regards

Steve

 

[ChrisHirst]

The way to 'stop' the 404 responses would be to have those URLs on the server.

However:

Is WordPress installed or ever has been installed on the hostname that the URIs are being requested on?
if yes: Does or did your site have CAPTCHA installed for anything (commenting etc.)

Are the requests coming from the same IP or range of IPs?
What is the User Agent string for the requests?


Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Time flies like an arrow, however, fruit flies like a banana.
Webmaster Forum

 

[Halliarse]

Hi Chris

Our sites have never been WordPress based so I would say no it has never been installed, however out contact page does now have a CAPTCHA installed whereas it didn't previously.

Can yo uplease advise where I can get the information you require for your last 2 questions?

Many thanks

Steve

 

[ChrisHirst]

The site access logs which is where AWStats gets the information from.

Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Time flies like an arrow, however, fruit flies like a banana.
Webmaster Forum

 

[Halliarse]

Hi Chris

The main culprit appears to be 194.66.232.88 with over 600 accesses on the 2nd November. I've taken a look at WhoIs, but I'm not really sure what that is telling me!

Any advise on how to proceed would be appreciated.

Cheers

Steve

 

[ChrisHirst]

Well a whois lookup is saying that the IP is in a block that is assigned to The British Library by "JAnet" (

https://www.ja.net/)

So I would start with contacting them (irt@csirt.ja.net) with access dates and times. something persistently trying to access images from a CAPTCHA system 'smells like' a bot running on a 'zombied' machine.


Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Time flies like an arrow, however, fruit flies like a banana.
Webmaster Forum

 

[jtallsmith]

194.66.232.88 is the British library. Their bot will hit every page on your website in one go.
They add your website to their deposit.

Their bot has a user agent of:
bl.uk_lddc_bot/3.3.0-SNAPSHOT-2014-10-07T09:33:31Z (+

http://www.bl.uk/aboutus/legaldeposit/websites/websites/faqswebmaster/in

For more information see:

http://www.bl.uk/aboutus/legaldeposit/websites/faq/ukmaterial/