Published on 2025-08-07T06:18:08Z

BazQux bot

The BazQux bot is a specialized web fetcher for the BazQux Reader, an RSS feed service. Its primary purpose is to retrieve content, images, and metadata from websites that users have subscribed to via RSS. This allows the BazQux Reader to display a complete and rich reading experience. Its presence on your site indicates user interest and can help extend the reach of your content to a dedicated reader audience.

What is BazQux bot?

BazQux bot is a specialized web fetcher for the RSS reader service BazQux. It retrieves content and metadata to generate link previews and populate the reader for its users. The bot identifies itself in server logs with a user-agent string like Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; BazQux/2.4; +https://bazqux.com/fetcher; 2 subscribers), which transparently includes the service name, a documentation link, and even the number of users subscribed to the feed from that site. It operates on-demand, triggered by user actions within the BazQux application.

Why is BazQux bot crawling my site?

The BazQux bot is visiting your site because users of the BazQux Reader have subscribed to your content via your RSS feed. The crawler is fetching your articles, images, and metadata to display them to these subscribers. The frequency of its visits is directly related to how many subscribers you have on the platform and how often you publish new content. This activity is considered authorized and is a standard part of content syndication for RSS-based services.

What is the purpose of BazQux bot?

The purpose of the BazQux bot is to serve as the content retrieval engine for the BazQux Reader. It gathers the necessary data—such as titles, images, and article text—to provide a streamlined and rich reading experience for users who follow multiple sources. For website owners, this service helps distribute your content to a dedicated audience that prefers consuming it through an RSS reader. This can extend the reach of your content, although it may mean some users read it within the reader's interface rather than directly on your site.

How do I block BazQux bot?

To prevent the BazQux bot from accessing your website and its feeds, you can add a disallow rule to your robots.txt file. This will instruct the crawler not to visit your pages.

Add the following lines to your robots.txt file:

User-agent: BazQux
Disallow: /

How to verify the authenticity of the user-agent operated by BazQux?

Reverse IP lookup technique

To verify user-agent authenticity, you can use host linux command two times with the IP address of the requester.
  1. > host IPAddressOfRequest
    This command returns the reverse lookup hostname (e.g., 4.4.8.8.in-addr.arpa.). 
  2. > host ReverseDNSFromTheOutputOfFirstRequest
If the output matches the original IP address and the domain is associated with a trusted operator (e.g., BazQux), the user-agent can be considered legitimate.

IP list lookup technique

Some operators provide a public list of IP addresses used by their crawlers. This list can be cross-referenced to verify a user-agent's authenticity. However, both operators and website owners may find it challenging to maintain an up-to-date list, so use this method with caution and in conjunction with other verification techniques.