Bots spamming iTunes podcasts?

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Bots spamming iTunes podcasts?

I host a podcast on iTunes and lately i have been monitoring my bandwidth and activity logs from my file hosting site and it seems that the same file is being downloaded multiple times simultaneously. Any ideas how & why? It's becoming an issue because i keep going over my bandwidth capacity due to this.
My files are set to private so they can only be downloaded via iTunes, so this seems to be a problem that has to be resolved through Apple/iTunes and not my File Hoster.

http://itunes.apple.com/podcast/dj-mx2-enhanced-house-music/id399704173

Windows 7

Posted on Jan 25, 2011 8:44 PM

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Answer 1

Jan 25, 2011 11:33 PM in response to marccc31

I assume you are talking about the media files rather than the feed. Subscribers download directly from your server to their iTunes application - the Store is not involved. Only when people play the file from the Store page in iTunes does the Store call the file.

I would doubt there is any automated downloading going on - what would be the point? - but the only way to find out what's happening is if your server shows the IP numbers of the downloaders and you can relate these to iTunes or elsewhere. If your podcast is popular you might well get a lot of hits in the normal way.

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Answer 2

marccc31 Author

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Jan 26, 2011 4:41 AM in response to marccc31

Yes, I was talking about the audio files, not the RSS feed. And i do know the ip address' of the downloaders and there will be the same address downloading the same file 10 times simultaneously. So for a 100MB file, that downloader is now taking up 1GB of my 25GB bandwidth. Even if he/she streams the song through iTunes player and then decided to download the file afterwards, that is only a maximum of 200MB within the same time range.

I will try to post up a screenshot of my activity logs and you tell me if it seems normal.

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Answer 3

marccc31 Author

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Jan 26, 2011 5:29 AM in response to marccc31

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Answer 4

Jan 26, 2011 8:21 AM in response to marccc31

Here is the basic info on some of the IP numbers in your list. (In each case the numbers fall within the range allocated to an ISP, so the actual downloader is a customer of that ISP).

188.115.187.200 - TeNeT Networking Centre, Odessa

89.178.247.5 - CORBINA-BROADBAND Moscow

83.149.9.13 - MF-MOSCOW Customers Dynamic VPN Access

195.98.174.186 -NET-2COM Moscow

I have no idea why they are making these multiple requests, only a few seconds apart. Do you know that they are actually downloading the entire file each time? or are they simply making a request which doesn't complete and then another and so on?

In any event, as you can see the behaviour originates with the downloader and is nothing to do with iTunes.

If you want more detailed information about these numbers you can get them from online service or a program which can carry out a 'whois' using the 'whois.ripe.net' database. This will give you contact information for the ISPs, but I doubt whether you would get a sensible answer if you contact them.

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Answer 5

marccc31 Author

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Jan 26, 2011 9:15 AM in response to marccc31

Yes they are actually downloading the whole file, not just making a request. That is my issue. If they weren't downloading the file and eating up my bandwidth i wouldnt care how many times they request to download. And as far as i know, in iTunes if you try to download a file that already is in download progreess it won't begin a new download of the same file, it will just bring you to the downloads window and show you that you are already downloading that file. So this person (possibly behind different proxies) is going out of his way to somehow create multiple download instances of the same file. It just doesnt make sense to me. It would make me feel better to know that its happening to many people as well, but im not sure how many people check activity logs. I never did because it was never a problem before, but now thta my bandwidth is maxed out every day its becoming an issue to i decided to investigate.

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Answer 6

Jan 26, 2011 9:37 AM in response to marccc31

It doesn't make any sense to me either - I can see no advantage in someone doing this, there's absolutely no point even if was an attempt at some sort of scam.

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