Banning visitors

You can ban visitors so that they can't access the widget and chat with agents. There are two main ways to ban a visitor:

• Directly from a chat: With this option, the system places a cookie on the visitor's browser to identify him. 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: The Banned Visitors list will only display the first 1000 users banned. You will need to use the Chat API to view all banned users (see Bans in our developer documentation).

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. 

To remove a visitor from the ban list

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