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Cloaker / Bot Filter Add-on Module for THRIVE - Now Available (3)

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The Cloaker / Bot Filter Add-on Module for THRIVE Now Available

We have just launched our brand new, off the factory line, add-on module for THRIVE to all our users called the Cloaker/Bot Filter module. For the first time, your tracking and cloaking needs can be under one roof!



Tutorial Walk-Through

We produced a full walk-through tutorial for our users, but I’ve also decided to post it here because it is able to show exactly what this module can do at this point. Keep in mind, we just launched this, and it’s only the beginning!



Advanced Capabilities

We are just getting started with this module, but in my opinion, it is already quite robust.

• Automatically detect bot traffic and filter it out in separate reporting
  
• Create custom filters for cloaking based on the following criteria:
  – Browser
  – Country
  – Device Type
  – Device Brand
  – Device Model
  – ISP/Carrier
  – IP Address List
  – Known Bots
  – Operating System
  – Referrer String
  – URL Parameter
  – User Agent String
  
• Send cloaked traffic to a “safe page” of your choosing
  
• Separate bot and cloaked traffic reporting so the data does not contaminate your real traffic data

For the future, we will be working on ways to detect VPN/proxies and spy tools.

Please note: We are not in the business of cloaking specific traffic sources as THRIVE must stay 100% compliant. This is a do-it-yourself cloaker that basically allows you to customize your own cloaker. We may partner with a 3rd party in the future for this.

Free Beta Period

This add-on module is going to be free for everyone until at least May 14th, 2015, so that everyone can test this out for free. We may extend this if we feel it's necessary.

If you're on your self-hosted free trial, this is free for your entire trial period.

If you're a Managed Service client, all add-ons are included already, so this is free permanently.

To get access, you just need to enable the add-on module in your Thrive billing page.

Please note, if you keep it enabled, you will be charged once the free beta period is over. You can disable it at any time.

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Whitelisting via the Cloaker Module

Previously, you were able to only blacklist. For example, you were able to blacklist visitors who were on Firefox browsers. Now, you can whitelist. For example, you can now only allow visitors who are on Firefox browsers. The filter you create would filter out anything that doesn't satisfy the rule.

To turn on whitelist for a rule you're creating, simply flip this switch:

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We've added a new filter for this add-on module called "Known Bot Hosts/ISPs". The previous filter we introduced, called "Known Bots", looks at the user agent of the incoming traffic to determine whether it's a bot.

The new "Known Bot Hosts/ISPs" filter deciphers the IP address and determines if the ISP appears to be bot traffic. This adds an additional lookup to the filtering, but for many users it's worth it to automatically block all bot traffic from Google, Amazon, Microsoft, etc.

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