Banning visitors from accessing Chat

You can ban visitors so that they can't access the widget and chat with agents. Visitors can be added to the banned visitor list directly from a chat, or from the Chat dashboard. You can view, search, and add users to the Banned Visitors list through the Banned settings page.

This article contains the following topics:

• Banning visitors
• Viewing and managing banned visitors
• The end user experience

Banning visitors

You can ban unlimited visitors, and up to 5,000 IP addresses. If the number of banned IP addresses exceeds 5,000, the oldest banned IP address is removed from the list and is no longer banned.

There are two ways to ban a visitor:

• Directly from a chat: With this option, the system places a cookie on the visitor's browser to identify them. This method prevents visitors from avoiding the ban with proxies or VPNs, but they might still be able to get through it on another browser.

  After selecting Ban Visitor from the chat, you also have the choice of banning the visitor's IP address at the same time, as described in the steps below.

• Adding the IP address to the Banned Visitors list: This option stops banned visitors from gaining access just through another browser, but it also doesn't prevent them from using a proxy or VPN.

Note: Banning a visitor in Chat does not suspend that user in Support. See Suspending a user for information on blocking users in Support.

To ban a visitor directly from a chat

1. From the chat window, select Ban Visitor from the Actions drop-down menu.

   

2. Optional: Enter a reason in the Reason field.
3. Optional: If you want to also ban the visitor's IP address, select the Also ban visitor's IP address check box.
4. Click Ban User.

To ban a visitor by IP address

1. From the dashboard, select Settings > Banned.
2. To add a visitor's IP to the list, click Add Visitor.

   

3. Enter an IP address and a reason.
4. Click Create Ban.

Viewing and managing banned visitors

Banned visitors are listed on the Banned settings page.

On the Banned settings page you can:

• View all banned visitors
• Search the banned visitors list
• Add visitors to the banned list by IP address (described in the previous section)
• Remove visitors from the banned list

By default, the banned visitors list displays 10,000 entries (5,000 each for visitors and IP addresses). Using the Chat API, you can extend this to display up to 5,000 banned IP addresses and unlimited banned visitors. See Bans in our developer documentation.

To access the Banned settings page and view banned visitors

• From the dashboard, select Settings > Banned.

  A list of all banned visitors is displayed. The list includes the following columns:

  • Visitor/IP address, the name of the banned user or banned IP address
  • Reason, the description given for banning the user/IP address
  • Date created, the date the user/IP address was banned

  You can display only banned IP addresses, or only banned individual visitors, by using the Filter drop-down menu at the top of the page.

To search the banned visitors list

1. Go to the Banned settings page.
2. In the Search box, enter one or more keywords to search for.
3. As you type, the list displays only banned IP addresses or visitors with the search terms in their name, IP address, or reason for banning.

To remove a visitor from the ban list

1. From the Banned settings page, select the check box next to the visitor's name or IP address.
2. Click the Delete Selected button that appears at the top of the list.
3. Click Delete on the window that appears.

The end user experience

When an individual visitor is banned in Chat, or if a visitor is from a blocked country, they do not receive a notification, but they will not be able to access chat functionality.

• If you have an embedded Chat standalone widget, the widget will not load for that visitor on your website.
• If you are using a Web or Mobile SDK, a chat connection will not be established.
• If you are using Chat in the Web Widget, the Web Widget will still appear to the visitor, but the chat option will not appear in the contact options menu.