Is there any way to block people using anonymizers or a switch proxy from accessing my website?
Thanks
No.
How would your web server tell the difference?
You should be able to get the IP addresses of well known anonymizers and block those IP addresses from your website.
Why is it any of your business whether or not they want to be identified while they’re looking at your website?
** gazpacho’s** right- block the IPs of known anonymizers if you want to go that route.
You can spend a few hours googling for some popular anonymizers, checking if they work, identifying their IPs, then blocking them. Fortunately, There are tens of thousands of public of http proxies that you will miss and more are born everyday. So you can’t really block anyone who’s willing to spend 10 minutes trying to defeat your website’s blacklists.
I say fortunately because in the grand scheme of things, it’s better that way. You probably know it too.
Check every IP address for an open proxy. That would get some of them. A lot of people are using p2p based proxies these days. Blocking them is going to be basically impossible.
Attempting to block proxy users would not be worth the wasted resources. The only realistic way to do it would be to write some invasive scripts that are bound to alert firewall log analyzers.
It’s useful for sites such as this one, to prevent folks from having multiple consecutive Guest accounts instead of purchasing a real account.
Uhm, because it’s Twiddle’s website? One can make their site as open or restricted as one wishes within the bounds of technology. If Twiddle wants to restrict the site from blue-eyed, first born, left handed widget inspectors and can find the technology to pull it off, that’s his (or her) prerogative.
The better question is “What business is it of yours (or mine) whether or not Twiddle wants access to the site restricted?”.
That said, let me jump in with the crowd saying I know of no easy or sure-fire way to accomplish what you’re asking.