55
Are ISPs responsible for bots having residential IPs or is this a user problem? (lemmy.world)
submitted 3 weeks ago by Maroon@lemmy.world to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
42 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I'm trying to understand the bot problem in the internet and finding more ways to defend myself. One thing that I can't seem to understand is why most bots, scrapers and crawlers seem to have residential IPs.

  • Is it that ISPs are being paid by tech-bros to assign them these IPs?
  • Is it that residential devices have been hacked /contain malware that does this?
  • Is it trivial for companies to assign themselves residential IPs?
  • Paid volunteers are doing this for AI companies?

Or is there is some other reason for this?

Obviously this is a problem because one can rotate / cycle through residential IPs and if I aggressively block each offender in my logs permanently, then the next person assigned this IP who may be a legitimate user will be unable to access my site.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] GreenCrunch@piefed.blahaj.zone 45 points 3 weeks ago

There was an article here about one of the companies doing this, basically one of the methods is having apps on people's smart TVs or phones that scrape the web in the background and upload to a control server. So it's a person's genuine device in a genuine residence in some cases.

https://thehackernews.com/2026/06/free-apps-are-quietly-turning-smart-tvs.html

[-] justme@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 points 3 weeks ago

I remember just recently a post about a "smart" washing machine creating over 3GB of Internet traffic per day.

[-] village604@adultswim.fan 6 points 3 weeks ago

Iirc that was a math error on the poster's part.

[-] irmadlad@lemmy.world 7 points 3 weeks ago

Interesting article.

The company's CEO, Or Lenchner, said a device in its network "is a device whose owner said yes, understood what they were saying yes to, and can say no again at any moment with two steps."

That's part of the problem. Most casual users of technology don't know what they are saying yes to. They just want to do face swaps on sketchy apps. Even as a 'more aware' user, I have always considered my phone and TV to be the weakest links in my network.

this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2026
55 points (92.3% liked)

Selfhosted

60723 readers
221 users here now

A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don't control.

Rules:

Detailed Rules Post

  1. Be civil.

  2. No spam.

  3. Posts are to be related to self-hosting.

  4. Don't duplicate the full text of your blog or readme if you're providing a link.

  5. Submission headline should match the article title.

  6. No trolling.

  7. Promotion posts require active participation, with an account that is at least 30 days old. F/LOSS without a paywall has exceptions, with requirements. See the rules link for details. Tags [CBH] or [AIP] are required, see the links in Rule 8 for details.

  8. AI-related discussions and AI-involved promotional posts have additional requirements for tagging, as noted in Rule 7 and the AI & Promotional Post Expanded Rules post, and find example disclosures here.

Resources:

Any issues on the community? Report it using the report flag.

Questions? DM the mods!

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
ruud@lemmy.world
Loki@lemmy.world
CannaVet@lemmy.world
devve@lemmy.world
ayyy@sh.itjust.works
curbstickle@anarchist.nexus
curbstickle_lw@lemmy.world