BannedRobots BlogTechnical articles on request fingerprinting, bot detection and edge security.https://www.bannedrobots.com/AI Crawlers Explained: GPTBot, ClaudeBot and How to Control Themhttps://www.bannedrobots.com/blog/ai-crawlers-gptbot-claudebot/https://www.bannedrobots.com/blog/ai-crawlers-gptbot-claudebot/Which AI crawlers visit your site, what each one does with your content, and how to allow, block or limit them with robots.txt, verification and edge rules.Wed, 23 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTbot-detectionai crawlersgptbotclaudebotrobots.txtllmWhat Bot Traffic Really Costs Your Origin (and How to Estimate It)https://www.bannedrobots.com/blog/true-cost-of-bot-traffic/https://www.bannedrobots.com/blog/true-cost-of-bot-traffic/Bots cost more than bandwidth: compute, database load, cache misses and skewed analytics. A simple model to estimate what bot traffic costs your origin.Thu, 10 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTedge-securitybot trafficinfrastructure costegresscachingfinopsCloudflare Bot Fight Mode vs Super Bot Fight Mode vs Bot Managementhttps://www.bannedrobots.com/blog/cloudflare-bot-fight-mode-vs-bot-management/https://www.bannedrobots.com/blog/cloudflare-bot-fight-mode-vs-bot-management/What each Cloudflare bot product does, which plan includes it, and where the gaps are, so you can choose the right protection for your plan and your traffic.Thu, 27 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTedge-securitycloudflarebot fight modesuper bot fight modebot managementwafMulti-Signal Request Fingerprints: Combining TLS, HTTP and Networkhttps://www.bannedrobots.com/blog/multi-signal-request-fingerprints/https://www.bannedrobots.com/blog/multi-signal-request-fingerprints/How to design a composite request fingerprint from TLS, HTTP and network signals: picking fields, hashing them safely, and keeping implementations in sync.Wed, 19 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTfingerprintingfingerprintingsha-256canonicalizationhttp headersasnFail-Open vs Fail-Closed: Security Checks That Won't Break Your Sitehttps://www.bannedrobots.com/blog/fail-open-vs-fail-closed/https://www.bannedrobots.com/blog/fail-open-vs-fail-closed/When a security check errors, should the request go through or be blocked? A framework for choosing fail-open or fail-closed, with patterns that make either safe.Mon, 03 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTedge-securityreliabilityfail-openfail-closedmiddlewaresreIs Your Site Being Scraped? Signs to Look For and What to Dohttps://www.bannedrobots.com/blog/signs-your-site-is-being-scraped/https://www.bannedrobots.com/blog/signs-your-site-is-being-scraped/The symptoms of scraping and automated abuse in your analytics, logs and bills, how to confirm what's going on, and the practical steps to take next.Tue, 21 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTbot-detectionweb scrapingbot detectionanalyticscontent protectionSpoofed Googlebot: How to Verify Search Engine Crawlershttps://www.bannedrobots.com/blog/verify-googlebot-spoofed-crawlers/https://www.bannedrobots.com/blog/verify-googlebot-spoofed-crawlers/Many requests claiming to be Googlebot aren't. Verify crawlers with reverse and forward DNS or published IP ranges, and learn why user-agent checks aren't enough.Thu, 09 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTbot-detectiongooglebotcrawler verificationreverse dnsseoverified botsTLS Fingerprinting Explained: JA3, JA4 and the ClientHellohttps://www.bannedrobots.com/blog/tls-fingerprinting-ja3-ja4/https://www.bannedrobots.com/blog/tls-fingerprinting-ja3-ja4/How the TLS ClientHello reveals which software made a request, how JA3 and JA4 turn it into a fingerprint, and what Chrome's extension shuffling changed.Tue, 30 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTfingerprintingtls fingerprintingja3ja4clienthellocloudflare workersWhy IP Blocking Fails Against Modern Bots (and What to Use Instead)https://www.bannedrobots.com/blog/why-ip-blocking-fails/https://www.bannedrobots.com/blog/why-ip-blocking-fails/IP bans hit real users behind CGNAT and proxies while scrapers rotate addresses for pennies. Why IP-based bot blocking fails, and what to key on instead.Wed, 17 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTfingerprintingip blockingcgnatresidential proxiesbot mitigation