Thanks, bb1webs!
Sorry to have not covered the real person angle. Down below a ways is a visitor clicking from one of the threads on theis board. All of that junk below is to load just one page.
The first GET request is for the source (index.htm), the second is for a stylesheet, the rest images. It takes all of those requests to display one page.
Many bots don’t request all the other files because they can’t read the HTML. They aren’t programmed to. All the bot owner needs to do to get credit for the click is request the URL, not download the page.
This method works to spot some bots, but others are programmed to actually control a browser session. I don’t have any easy method of spotting those guys, sorry.
2004-09-23 19:51:07 12.32.89.121 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx 80 GET /index.htm – 200 Mozilla/4.0+(compatible;+MSIE+6.0;+Windows+NT+5.0;+.NET+CLR+1.0.3705;+.NET+CLR+1.1.4322) casinoaffiliateprograms.com/bb/showthread.php?threadid=3514&perpage=15&pagenumber=2
2004-09-23 19:51:07 12.32.89.121 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx 80 GET /casino.css – 200 Mozilla/4.0+(compatible;+MSIE+6.0;+Windows+NT+5.0;+.NET+CLR+1.0.3705;+.NET+CLR+1.1.4322) plundercove.com/
2004-09-23 19:51:08 12.32.89.121 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx 80 GET /images/casino_spacer.gif – 200 Mozilla/4.0+(compatible;+MSIE+6.0;+Windows+NT+5.0;+.NET+CLR+1.0.3705;+.NET+CLR+1.1.4322) plundercove.com/
2004-09-23 19:51:08 12.32.89.121 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx 80 GET /images/casino_logo1.gif – 200 Mozilla/4.0+(compatible;+MSIE+6.0;+Windows+NT+5.0;+.NET+CLR+1.0.3705;+.NET+CLR+1.1.4322)plundercove.com/
2004-09-23 19:51:08 12.32.89.121 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx 80 GET /images/ap-search-go-btn.gif – 200 Mozilla/4.0+(compatible;+MSIE+6.0;+Windows+NT+5.0;+.NET+CLR+1.0.3705;+.NET+CLR+1.1.4322) plundercove.com/
2004-09-23 19:51:08 12.32.89.121 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx 80 GET /images/ap-search-logo-126×32.gif – 200 Mozilla/4.0+(compatible;+MSIE+6.0;+Windows+NT+5.0;+.NET+CLR+1.0.3705;+.NET+CLR+1.1.4322) plundercove.com/
2004-09-23 19:51:09 12.32.89.121 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx 80 GET /images/heart.jpg – 200 Mozilla/4.0+(compatible;+MSIE+6.0;+Windows+NT+5.0;+.NET+CLR+1.0.3705;+.NET+CLR+1.1.4322) plundercove.com/
2004-09-23 19:51:09 12.32.89.121 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx 80 GET /images/under_the_black_flag.gif – 200 Mozilla/4.0+(compatible;+MSIE+6.0;+Windows+NT+5.0;+.NET+CLR+1.0.3705;+.NET+CLR+1.1.4322) plundercove.com/
2004-09-23 19:51:09 12.32.89.121 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx 80 GET /images/club.jpg – 200 Mozilla/4.0+(compatible;+MSIE+6.0;+Windows+NT+5.0;+.NET+CLR+1.0.3705;+.NET+CLR+1.1.4322) plundercove.com/
2004-09-23 19:51:09 12.32.89.121 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx 80 GET /images/diamond.jpg – 200 Mozilla/4.0+(compatible;+MSIE+6.0;+Windows+NT+5.0;+.NET+CLR+1.0.3705;+.NET+CLR+1.1.4322) plundercove.com/
2004-09-23 19:51:09 12.32.89.121 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx 80 GET /images/spade.jpg – 200 Mozilla/4.0+(compatible;+MSIE+6.0;+Windows+NT+5.0;+.NET+CLR+1.0.3705;+.NET+CLR+1.1.4322) plundercove.com/