Sure hope this is a good place to ask this. I have an IP that has taken up residency on my website. It will show up in the log several times a day and sit there for hours. I see it also in the logs for my message board. The IP (207.46.98.137 - 138) list to Microsoft. I am thinking they are bots.

In and of itself, it is no big deal. But out of a sense of morbid curiosity, what in the heck are they doing and why would they seem to have moved in on my website? Don;t they have any place else to go?

I feel like my house has been invaded by an unwanted distant cousin who is eating all my food and sitting on the couch watching the TV all the time.

Any thoughts?

definitely msnbot IPs

It's normal behaviour for the bot to hammer a site for a few days them move on.

Really? I guess I would think that they would be a lot quicker than this. They must have a lot of them going becuase this one seems to live at my site. As big as the net is, you would think that they would be faster. But this bot seems to live here. For hours and hours. I don't have that much stuff. Oh well, I guess it is no big deal then. It is not causing any harm and I appreciate MSN searches. They are a fair share of my site referals.

Now comes the next question, is there a way to assure it gets what it wants? Or better yet, that it gets what I want it to get for site info?

Thanks.

The bot is quick, a visit is often less than a second, however depending on what stats package you are using will depend on how long the visit appears to be.
Forum/Message boards also will hold the visitors for 10 to 20 mins after they have gone.

Ok, I understand that. Thank you for helping me understand.

hihihi

that ip is msnbot . the same ip is coming to one of my web sites