Online Visitors

[Pyrotechnic]

Im currently on the Cloud Plan (40) and for the past 12 months my usage has been pretty good. I usually have up to 20 members online at peak times and the odd guests and this keeps me well within my average 2 day rolling number of 40 online users. However since upgrading to 4.3, I am seeing my normal members online plus 30 - 40 guests, many with the same IP address'. This in turn is obviously going to increase my user plan and perhaps take it to the next level.

Has anyone else noticed this and is there anything that can be done?

[JasXPear]

Just noticed this on mine and just had my pricing band increased because of it...

[Pyrotechnic]

I submitted a ticket and was advised it would adjust accordingly, which to be fair it did over a couple of days back to normal. Might be worth checking out. 

[Pyrotechnic]

This has reappeared and and I have over 100 guests online which is taking me well over my 40 user plan. There is probably only 3 guests online but they are all using the same IP address. Any help or advice appreciated. 

[Pete T]

9 minutes ago, Pyrotechnic said:

This has reappeared and and I have over 100 guests online which is taking me well over my 40 user plan. There is probably only 3 guests online but they are all using the same IP address. Any help or advice appreciated. 

a visitor can't be counted as member as not sign up so i would not worry about it unless do count as member then would get IP look this as you can't do much from your end as only have Admin CP accress.

[Pyrotechnic]

Invision states the following.

What's an online visitor?

Our Cloud plans are based on the number of active, simultaneous online users your community can support. A visitor is 'online' when they are currently browsing your community, and for 15 minutes after. This includes both members & guests.

[GlenP]

1 hour ago, Pyrotechnic said:

There is probably only 3 guests online but they are all using the same IP address

Block the IP.

Go into ACP and search for 'ban' and add the IP address there.

[Pyrotechnic]

Will that stop the guest from browsing or is that block purely for blocking registrations ? I thought it was to prevent registrations from an IP, email address or domain ?

[Allen Bradford]

I had a strange and extreme Online Users spike a month or so back. I'm a Cloud Hosting user so the system/software automatically increased my Plan to the next level...which put me over what I can realistically afford. I wrote a somewhat panicky ticket to Support and although they couldn't explain the anamoloy of Online Users, they put me back to my original Cloud Hosting Plan after everything went back to normal, and before the next billing period. I also have an issue with Guests being considered Online Users and part of the max limit of Users over a period of time. I have almost an equal amount of Guests as I do Members Online at any given time. Granted, some Guest are humans lurking or Members not signed in, but the majority are bots or something from what I understand. Those shouldnt be included in any Cloud Hosting costs/plan. IMHO.

[bfarber]

2 hours ago, Brad Eden said:

I had a strange and extreme Online Users spike a month or so back. I'm a Cloud Hosting user so the system/software automatically increased my Plan to the next level...which put me over what I can realistically afford. I wrote a somewhat panicky ticket to Support and although they couldn't explain the anamoloy of Online Users, they put me back to my original Cloud Hosting Plan after everything went back to normal, and before the next billing period. I also have an issue with Guests being considered Online Users and part of the max limit of Users over a period of time. I have almost an equal amount of Guests as I do Members Online at any given time. Granted, some Guest are humans lurking or Members not signed in, but the majority are bots or something from what I understand. Those shouldnt be included in any Cloud Hosting costs/plan. IMHO.

While I can sympathize with your viewpoint (and the reasoning behind it), keep in mind that "bots" consume the same server resources that a "human" does.

That said, our algorithms do not directly correlate to your online user list.

[Allen Bradford]

11 hours ago, bfarber said:

While I can sympathize with your viewpoint (and the reasoning behind it), keep in mind that "bots" consume the same server resources that a "human" does.

That said, our algorithms do not directly correlate to your online user list.

Understood. Well sorta. I don't understand what you mean by algorithms not directly correlating to online user lists. Could you explain that to an ISP user that isn't nearly as digital savvy as the majority of Members here?

Is there any way to cut down on all the Online User "Guest" Bots if they do impact Cloud Hosting Plans?

[Mack_au]

Invision should introduce a setting that limits guest IP's (or any IP tbh) to a maximum of 3 or 4 "guest" users at one time.

[Pyrotechnic]

Sounds very similar to myself then. I have had 10 people online and 70 guests which are using no more than 3 IP Address's. I have very limited views to guests so know they can't be looking at a great deal, but it still looks like I am using a lot of visitors. Luckily, so far the spike hasn't lasted long and I've kept to my affordable limit. 

If anyone can suggest a way of blocking the bots from my hosting, it would be welcome. I want to concentrate on real visitors so bots have no value to me.

[Pyrotechnic]

Here is the difference from Normal > Spike > Normal.

[O9C4]

Right now, i have another interesting example affecting USERS ONLINE stats. There is only one Guest with same IP address searching throught the community different topics and profiles in different time. The Online Users system displays it like 22 USERS ONLINE in total. It's not same time 22 USERS different ONLINE and hope it is configured with IPS Online Users algorithm.

[Pyrotechnic]

Yes, thats exactly what is happening to me. Its calmed down this last day or two but Im sure it will do it again.  ?

[JasXPear]

I've had several problems with this over the last couple of weeks. 

On the plus side - each time i've logged  tickets and support have downgraded me to the correct package with no problem.

The issue I have is that i've just realised that last month i was billed for 65 user package instead of the 40 user package & now have to have the invoice reviewed by management who have refused a refund.

So far this month i've had my package increase from the Plus40 package to the 65 package to the 100 package and then the 200 package!! Unfortunately i was on a camping holiday with no internet access and only found the upgrade warning emails a few days later.

Logging a ticket moved me back down to the correct group with no problem but it is VERY frustrating to be told that there is no way Invision can check the logs to block these invasive bots retrospectively. Instead i apparently have to wait until i get an email warning me that my package has been upgraded, log a ticket with Invision immediately so they can check connections at that point in time and then block them!? Great if you're able to monitor your email 24/7 and log a ticket immediately but for me thats just impossible.

 

[O9C4]

@bfarber, it is not honest deal to count the same Guest as N USERS ONLINE. I have every day the same issue for several times and my Active user count growing up, but I do not benefit from this and in risk with increasing Two-day Rolling Average. That way my Plan can become more and as i have no money to support 40 and more, so my community will go off the game. That business model is not good not for clients and not for the IPS.

Look the images attached - its every day the same issue.