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

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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.

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[-] lucullus@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 3 weeks ago

Wdym wasting their time? They will search your home and confiscate all electronics, including the hardware running your TOR exit node and your phone, and your PC, and your notebook, and your gaming consoles, and of course any of such devices belonging to all other members of your household. And even if they cannot found anything that you have done wrong, you won't get your stuff back for a long time (think half a year to multiple years).

Seems more like they would be wasting your time. And your money.

this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2026

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