Banning visitors from accessing Chat

You can ban visitors so that they can't access the Chat widget or 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

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 banned list and can access the Chat widget.

There are two ways to ban a visitor:

• Directly from a chat: 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.

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.