Can I force logout for all guests?

[I_cant_Swim_]

Hello, I've written before about some guest accounts all parked (for weeks) throughout our forum, all from a related IP source. So far, no harm has been done. Still, I am wondering if logging out all guests for a few minutes might be enough to dislodge them. Would this be possible without messing up site indexing etc? How should I best go about it?

I was thinking that, if this works, I'd like to have it ready in case we get more of such traffic in the future.

Thanks!

[teraßyte]

Guests aren't "logged in" so you can't log them out. If you don't want them around, the only option is to ban their IP (range?) at the server level.

However, as you mentioned, it's possible those "guests" are actually bots crawling your site to index it. Unless you have some reason to be wary of those guests, I'd just ignore them.

[I_cant_Swim_]

Thanks, I was more along the lines of preventing forum viewing "guests can see forum" options etc. Yeah, it isn't a logout, I'm new at this and trying to learn, despite my age. I also agree there is no pressing need now, I was just wondering if I ran into problems later, (that I thought were caused by these guests) that blocking them for a few mins from seeing the forums where they've parked themselves might dislodge them. Then I wouldn't need to bother support with the issue. Also I must admit I'm a bit annoyed that they just sit there for days on end (it's a tiny forum!) and I cannot tell what they're up to.

[teraßyte]

You could remove the guests' permission to see those specific forums, but it would impact the ability of search engines to index your content, too.

 

You might be able to tell what they're doing if you look at the access logs of your server. If you're unsure where they are, try asking your hosting. Every page opened/viewed is recorded in those logs (as log as the server has the option enabled). You might be able to see what exactly they're doing that way.

[I_cant_Swim_]

 

4 minutes ago, teraßyte said:

You might be able to tell what they're doing if you look at the access logs of your server.

ahhh! That's interesting (I mean, providing the logs are enabled and that I understand squat of what they tell me, lol).  A Neat idea. Thank you, you have been very helpful!

[teraßyte]

If you are on Windows, once you find the access logs, you can try using this application to parse/view them in a more readable format: https://www.apacheviewer.com/

The free version should be more than enough for what you need. You can filter by those guests' IPs, etc.

Edited February 20 by teraßyte

[I_cant_Swim_]

thank you again @teraßyte. Beats making a csv file and trying to sort it all out in MS Excel.

Edited February 20 by I_cant_Swim_

[I_cant_Swim_]

@teraßyte Alas, 'twas not to be. In response to my query for the location of access logs, Inv. support told me I cannot get them, as for cloud-based sites the access logs are centralized server end items for the whole cloud-based platform.

[Marc Stridgen]

I have to be honest, I feel you are really over thinking this. If you are running a site, this will happen at times. Bots mainly, but others will simply actually be guests on the site. Unless there is a specific reason to believe they are causing you an issue, you really should be ignoring them. 

[I_cant_Swim_]

Fair enough. I'm a volunteer, first-time admin of a hobby forum that matters to me, so trying to be in the best possible position to protect my community if the need arises. Never done any IT stuff before, and there is a lot to learn. And unfortunately for my community, I'm all we have...

 

 

[Miss_B]

10 hours ago, I_cant_Swim_ said:

Also I must admit I'm a bit annoyed that they just sit there for days on end (it's a tiny forum!) and I cannot tell what they're up to.

I've developed a mod that will log and records all guests visits and the admin can look at the app's settinsg what guests viewed, when they viewed it and the ip addresses used by guests. You can pm me if you are interested in having the app.